Main cast: Meatloaf (Dr Willard Wingite) and Franco Harris (Joe)
Director: Dick Benner
Did the guys behind this show plunder the rejected scripts of Tales from the Crypt for this episode? Where’s the Rest of Me? could easily be the spiritual prequel to Dead Wait. It’s set in some Caribbean island that is beset by civil war, and it also has zombies. Well, kind of.
Dr Willard Wingite is about to be a very wealthy man. He has discovered a serum that could (a) when used on a corpse, preserve it in good condition indefinitely, thus making it a long-term organ farm of sorts, and (b) ensure that any organ from this “farm” will not trigger rejection when transplanted into another person. He has a test subject, nicknamed Adam, for this, and he has used Adam’s eyes, vocal cords, and kneecaps on wealthy tycoon JJ Marshall, singer Regina Wells, and professional athlete Joe respectively. Now, he has gathered them here, and proposes that they invest in his plans to commercialize the serum. They agree, of course.
And in the process, accidentally spill a little too much serum on Adam, waking up him and causing him to go on a rampage to get his missing body parts back…
While there is little gore here, it is quite unnerving to see Adam perform gruesome surgeries on his still living victims. Of course, I also notice that Frank Tarsia has a killer body, and he’s only wearing hospital gown that ends just barely mid-thighs. Trust me, I’ve tried to check whether there is any wardrobe malfunction, but sadly, I think he must have taped his pee-pee or something to prevent slippage.
Meat Loaf is the MVP here as he hams and camps it up, and Black-Eyed Susan is adorable as the amoral lady who can scheme and plot like the best of them. However, this episode doesn’t give them much to do. The story is basic and simple, but it could have been effective if the script had allowed these characters to do more. Instead, they are just here to be taken out of the picture one by one.
Therefore, while this is still a hammy and watchable episode, it does feel like a Goosebumps reject trying a little bit too hard to be Tales from the Crypt.
