PIECES
(1981)Director: Jaun Piquer Simon
Diamond Entertainment
PIECES
(1981)Here's an exercise in cinema that's pure trash, but pure enjoyable trash at that. Yes it's another slasher film, but somehow, maybe since it's a Spain/Puerto Rican production, it seems a little more than just routine. Directed by the same guy who gave us MYSTERY ON MONSTER ISLAND and SLUGS, and written by the sleaze-team of Joe D'Amato and Dick Randall (FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS), PIECES is a must for Euro horror fans, even if you have a low tolerance for the slasher trend of the early 80s.
In the pre-credit opening (admittedly engrossing, and reminiscent of Argent's DEEP RED), we go back to the early 40s to see a perverted little boy putting together a very 70s looking puzzle of a nude girl. When his overbearing mother catches wind of this, she has a shit fit, but before she can trash his porn paraphernalia, the tyke hacks her to bits. He then proceeds to assemble the blood-filled puzzle just before a nosy neighbor arrives with the police to find the boy hiding in the closet, pretending to be in a state of shock.
Forty years later, we arrive at a Boston college where the co-eds smoke grass and converse about having sex on waterbeds. On this campus, there's a chainsaw killer stalking pretty girls, and the film wastes no time displaying luscious nude bodies being chopped to bits. A cop arrives on the scene (a cigar-chopping, trenchcoated Christopher George during his late 70s/early 80s low budget horror film stint) but is baffled by the vast assortment of red herrings that the film has to offer, including Spanish sleaze regular Jack Taylor, Edmund Purdom (as the English-accented dean), and big, bearded Paul Smith (who makes the most hysterical mugs for the camera), the actor best known for playing Bluto in Robert Altman's POPEYE.
PIECES includes a fun cast of mostly American and English stars, a nerdy/homely-looking "stud" student that turns out to be a hero, pretty gals prancing around naked, Christopher's then wife Susan who gets to profoundly overact (watch her reaction after a girl is slaughtered in a shower), and just enough gore to cause the MPAA to let the film be released unrated when it played American theaters. The surprise ending owes a lot to Narcisco Ibanez Serrandor's THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED, but the final shot was totally unnecessary and reflects the type of stupidity that would be a mainstay in horror films throughout the rest of the decade and the years that followed.
PIECES was released on video in the mid-80s by Vestron with a rather dark transfer. The budget label Diamond utilizes that same transfer which surprisingly doesn't look bad at all on DVD. The picture quality may only be worthy of an above average video, but its colors are good and you only loose some detail in the really dark scenes. There are some spots on the print, but they aren't distracting and only add to the fun, low-grade sleaze at hand. The picture is full frame, but the composition looks accurate. The mono sound is fine, and for under $10, you can't go wrong.
The only extras come in the form of original ad taglines ("You don't have to go to Texas for a Chainsaw Massacre") and bios of the two Georges. (George R. Reis)