Pieces Review

A look at the bloody 1982 slasher flick.
On
January 11, 2010
Hello Retrojunk readers. Horrorfandude is back with another review on an old horror film. In this review, I'm going to talk about an old public domain horror film. I present the old 1982 grindhouse exploitation film "Pieces."



If you're a big slasher fan, you've probably heard of this film. If not, let me tell you about it. "Pieces" was an early 80s slasher film made in Mexico. In Spain, it is known as "Mil Gritos Tiene La Noche." When it was released in America in 1983, the film was dubbed in the English language and the title was changed to "Pieces."

The Mexican poster and the American poster


Now I'll tell you the movie's premise. There are spoilers ahead, so keep that in mind.

The film starts out at a house in Boston in 1948. We see a boy putting together a jigsaw puzzle in his room. His mother walks in the room and sees what her son is doing. It turns out the boy is putting together a dirty puzzle. I won't say what the puzzle is a picture of, but you probably already know.



His mother gets angry at her son for playing with such a puzzle. She tells him to get a plastic bag so she can burn the puzzle and all the other filthy things he keeps in his room. The boy walks out of the room and then comes back ten seconds later. Look at what he comes back with!

He kills his mom, decapitates her and hides in his closet. Police come to the house and find the boy splattered in blood as well as his mother's head. The boy pretends to be scared and frightened. The police don't know that that he killed his mother and the boy ends up being sent to live with his aunt.



Sorry for spoiling the beginning of the film. But hey, I needed to mention that. It's impotant to the plot.

We cut to 40 years later at a college campus. The boy from the beginning of the movie has grown up into a psychopathic chainsaw-wielding killer. He's now killing girls on the campus and every kill he makes, he adds pieces to his old jigsaw puzzle. Meanwhile a woman investigator is on the case of the murders. Can she stop him?

The Slasher:

I'm not really going to explain the characters of this film but I will explain some stuff about the film's slasher. The killer wears a black coat, gloves and a hat. Whenever you see scenes with the killer, you usually see him as a dark shadowy figure. The film never shows the killer's face when he's about to kill someone.

I might as well talk about the movie's cheeziness.


There is a notable cheezy scene to mention. While the woman investigator is walking on the college campus at night, she is suddenly attacked by some asian kung fu dude. Another character shows up and helps her. The asian then explains why he attacked her. Appearently it was from eating bad chop suey.... Can you say totally random!?!

Another cheezy scene is one where after a murder happens, the woman investigator yells "BASTARD! BASTARD! BASTARD!" at the top of her lungs. Total overacting right there.

My Opinion:
This movie is a classic slasher horror flick. It's a movie that's bloody as well as cheezy. It packs blood and gore and chainsaw violence. For a public domain film, it's worth checking out. If you're a slasher fan or gorehound, you should pick it up. The movie is available on DVDs.

I give the movie an A+
13
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