Pieces (1982)
Directed by Juan Piquer Simon
I love slasher movies, man I feel like that’s all I say sometimes and that’s how I start many slasher reviews but dammit I love them! Also the more mean spirited and brutal a slasher movie is, the better. There are few more brutal and mean spirited than 1982’s Pieces. Hell as the tagline says: It’s exactly what you think it is.
Pieces centers around a college campus in Boston that is being attacked by a vicious killer who is creating a jigsaw of body parts. Yeah that’s the plot! I wont give a lot away because it is worth seeing. The movie starts with a young boy building a naked woman puzzle when his mother walks in. The mother is angered and the boy loses his mind and kills her. So we spend the bulk of the movie trying to figure out who the killer is, and honestly this is one movie that actually had me guessing for a while, they did a great job with that. The end is something to be seen, I won’t say, but it is interesting…to say the least lol.
The special effects are insane. The gore is cranked up to 11 and there are so many scenes that will make you cringe. The bathroom scene is one that has gained a little notoriety among horror fans, mostly for the insane amounts of blood and gore. Most of the kills are with a chainsaw so we get some really visceral effects through out. The blood spray, skin ripping and bone crunching that we all look for in a great slasher are nearly unparalleled in this movie. Really the only movie I can think of that has nearly the level of realistic gore as Pieces is Nightmares in a Damaged Brain, check that one out too if you love balls to the wall gore. The killer is dressed head to toe in black, much like a giallo killer, they have a big black brimmed hat and a black leather trench coat, hiding their identity.
The acting isn’t much to talk about, it is rather run of the mill for the genre, not bad enough to be funny but not good enough to wow you. The cinematography is relatively high quality for a cheap slasher and has some cool angles and visuals. It is hard to explain pieces, it is a Spanish, American, Puerto Rican movie. Some filming took place in Boston, and the majority took place in Valencia Spain, the hometown of the director. It made a little over $2M in the US box office, while UK deemed it one of the infamous Video Nasties.
If you love splatter and gore, then Pieces is up your alley. If you’re looking for great acting and suspense, then I’d look elsewhere. I really think Pieces deserves more recognition and praise. It wasn’t afraid to take a simple premise, show the gory bits and rip your face off, it really doesn’t hold back and I respect the hell out of that. I give Pieces a A-, it isn’t one I rewatch often, but it is great nonetheless.
