Pieces - Stunden des Wahnsinns

'Pieces' is a wonderfully entertaining trashy slasher movie. Dumb, but lots of fun. It has impeccable exploitation credentials - directed by the guy who gave us 'Slugs - The Movie' and co-written by both Dick Randall (assorted kung fu and Emanuelle movies) and shlockmaster Joe D'Amato, director of the legendary 'Antropophagus'(a.k.a. 'The Grim Reaper') to name the most notorious of his 150+ movies. Plus the star is Christopher George ('The Exterminator', Fulci's 'City Of The Living Dead'). George plays a cop sent in to investigate some bloody slayings on a college campus (the movie is Spanish but tries to pretend it's American). The viewer knows the killer is obsessed with female bodies and there is a recurring motif involving jigsaws and mirrors. As in most slasher movies there are plenty of suspects to choose from, including a scary looking gardener (cult favourite Paul Smith, 'Midnight Express', 'Crimewave'), a Professor of Anatomy (Jack Taylor, who appeared in a few Jess Franco classics like 'Succubus' and 'Eugenie'), and the Dean (Edmund Purdom, 'The Fifth Cord', 'Ator'). The lovely Lynda Day (Christopher George's wife) plays an undercover tennis coach(!) and spaghetti western veteran Frank Brana is George's sidekick. If you approach 'Pieces' with the right frame of mind you'll have a hell of a good time. It's bloody, completely illogical and contains the most unexpected martial arts scene in the history of horror movies (yeah, I know...)

While playing with a puzzle, a teenager is repressed by his mother, and he kills her and severs her body with an ax. Forty years later, in an university campus in Boston, a serial killer kills young women and severs their bodies in parts, stealing body pieces from each student. Lt. Bracken (Christopher George) makes a deal with the dean of the campus, and infiltrates the agent Mary Riggs (Lynda Day George) as if she were a tennis teacher and together with the student Kendall (Ian Sera), they try to find the identity of the killer.

"Pieces" is so bad, senseless and ridiculous, that contradictory becomes very hilarious and a slash, gore and cheesy cult-movie. The first funny points are the beautiful naked "actresses", always naked to be killed - all the victims are women with delicious bodies. The dialogs, screams and situations are so absurd that become another attraction: the tennis player that is an undercover cop to survive; or the student that accesses the documents and help the police in the investigation itself; or the killer that starts killing forty years after his first death with unexplained reasons or trigger. I could list lots of unreasonable situations in the screenplay, but better off the viewer finds them (and certainly will). The bloody effects are good, but when the killer is stabbing a woman on a water bed, the terrible cut is absolutely visible. I personally liked this film a lot, but I only recommend it for fans of trash-movies. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Terror da Serra Elétrica" ("The Chainsaw Terror")

Note: On 05 July 2020, I saw this film again.

Co-eds of an Universitary College are being murdered by a masked killing executing an extreme criminal spree . Meanwhile , a lieutenant Police Inspector : Christopher George and a Sergeant : Frank Braña are investigating the twisted cases . The sum of the parts = the whole Body . Absolutely No One under 17 admitted to this Performance . When you meet him , you'll go to Pieces ! The Chainsaw Devil ! In his hands he has the power. His mind has the will, Death is his master !, Anyone can be his prey . Fear so intense , it will grab you by the balls ! If you think you are safe on the Campus , you're Dead Wrong !

This is a macabre story of revenge in which a series killer and his devasting Tool make women scream . The film has a lot of gory scenes, violence , brutality , rage , twists and turns . If you like strong thrills , cold chills , blood and guts , you must see this film , but do not come to watch it alone , just in necessary case . While this movie has been universally panned by prestigious critics , however, having a kind of quality that is really considered by Cult Movies lovers and must be endured to be totally appreciated. It is a gruesome and chilling feature that will have you on the edge your seat and you will never be able to forget it due to the bloody scenes including : slashing , beheading , slitting , dismembering and anything else . Although most of the guts and blood were actually internal organs from a nearly Slaughterhouse including cows and pigs. The main and support cast give so-so performances , filled with familiar faces as Christopher George of The Immortal series , his real wife Linda Day George , the tarnished Hollywood star Edmund Purdom , Paul L Smith of Midnight Express , Jack Taylor a Jess Frank's regular , the Spanish/American May Heatherly , Gerard Tichy , Isabel Luque , among others .

It displays an adequate cinematography by Juan Marime , shot utterly in Madrid surroundings due to its low-budget , though set in Boston. This one one among the many Cult classic Horror films that have newly been restored and digitally remastered . The film was professionally directed by Juan Piquer , being full of gaps , flaws , failures , however , resulting to be entertaining . Piquer was a craftsman , a Spanish filmmaker mainly known for directing some cult classy horror films . He was one of the greatest of the Spanish Horror boom in the 70s and 80s especially for his quartet of Terror films as Escalofrío, Slugs , Cthulhu Mansion and this big hit : Pieces . Piquer also especialized in other genres as Adventures : Fabulous Journey to the Center of Earth , Mystery on Monster Island , Sea Devils , The Gilded Beetle , Manoa The Golden City , and Science-Fiction : The Rift , Supersonic Man , Dirty War , Nexus 2431 , The New Extraterrestrials . Rating : 5.5/ 10 . Passable .

While Pieces is not without its flaws, for low budgeted horror, Pieces delivers the gory goods. Notorious, for being on the UK's video nasty list, gorehounds will not be let down by this crazy and somewhat quirky 80's slasher. A killer is on the loose at a Boston,Mass area college brutally killing and mutilating gorgeous college girls to get body parts to put together a human jigsaw puzzle. For the most part, the overdubbing and acting is atrocious(with the exception of Christopher George as a police detective, who actually is really great in this), there are slow parts and subplots that go nowhere. But, I digress Pieces delivers huge as trashy grindhouse entertainment, with tons of nudity and some spectacular state of the art gore. Gore galore, with lots of boobage and 80's bush, Pieces will please fans of sleazeoid cinema and ultra violence. Add Bluto from the Robin Williams live action Popeye movie as groundskeeper and a cameo of Bruce Le showing his kung fu, you have an odd, but effective splatter film that is very over the top and cool low budget horror flick.

How could I not love this movie? It is a rare cinematic occurrence indeed to find such delightfully sleazy ingredients as chainsaw massacres, disco aerobics, on screen vomiting, pornographic jigsaw puzzles, a girl wetting her pants, and a guy salivating over a woman's feet all in one place. Only from the combined minds of Joe D'Amato, Dick Randall, and J. Piquer Simon could such a thing spring forth – and judging from the number of reviews here, I'm not alone in my fondness for this movie.

Many of the cast members will be familiar to fans of these kinds of movies. Christopher George (having already been through Graduation Day and a trip to the Mortuary) is a strong lead as the no-nonsense detective on the case, while Jess Franco veteran Jack Taylor creeps around the increasingly decimated campus as an anatomy professor. Of course the victims are just anonymous dead meat, but then that's all they need to be.

Say what you will about the overall quality of the film, but one thing's for sure - Pieces doesn't suffer from a lack of blood and guts. The crimson stuff flows freely once the chainsaw starts up, and the movie actually lives up to the surprisingly honest tagline - `it's exactly what you think it is' - take it or leave it. And the ending - what an ending!