Murder-Set-Pieces

Having searched for this movie for well over 6 hours, I finally found it nestled amongst the annals of many of the world's most reviled films. Reading the description, and how the film was banned in multiple countries and was deemed an "atrocity of human decency", I knew this was exactly the type of movie I wanted to watch. Once it started, I quickly realized that it wasn't the content of the film that made it disturbing, but the fact that someone actually got it financed. The acting was embarrassingly bad, the dialog even worse, and nothing about this film left any kind of impression on me, least of all fear. It did have great special effects, and the blood was extremely realistic, but when that is the only redeemable quality of the film, you know you have hit a dead end in cinema. This movie is one of those films that deserves to be banned because of how horrible in quality it is; it was written & directed by people whose sole purpose was to shock and disturb, and still managed to f$%k that up. Do yourself the favor and watch some French Extreme horror and forget this trash was made. There are plenty of movies out there that are infinitely more deserving of your valuable time.

Its a rarity that I give a movie a 1, a 1 is for when a movie literally has absolutely no redeeming features at all and that's hardly a frequent event. I give a movie a 1 about as often as FOX news report something without bias.

What threw me was the lack of production value, the movie looks awful despite a surprisingly high budget for a movie of this type. Three people with name value (Tony Todd, Cerina Vincent and Gunnar Hansen) star but must be doing a favour for someone as I simply cannot see how they would have been roped into this mess any other way.

And when I say roped into I mean literally, reinforced diamond lasso covered in superglue level of roping! The story is thin, it all looks terrible, several scenes are hard to watch and I don't mean gore or violence I mean sexual violence and graphic torture that is done in such a way that you just feel wrong watching it. Like walking in on your parents sleeping together, you've seen "That" plenty of times but under these circumstances, with these variables and your parents in the mix it's something that will stay with you forever, haunt your dreams and possibly cause an expensive few years of therapy.

Bottom line here is that Murder-Set-Pieces must have been made by a sick puppy with no knowledge of film making and who must have spent the money on catering, extras or perhaps liquefied his assets at the bar but it certainly didn't go on the film.

Murder Set pieces is a good horror/exploitation movie (but, by no means its "the most visceral movie" or whatever...). Its a psycho movie with torture, sex (good amount), naked chicks ( a lot and very hot babes), and a good amount of blood (but not a lot of gore). Its entertaining, the soundtrack is cool, the photography is a highlight compared to other movies of its kind (MSP is shot on 35 mm film) but its not a classic. I believe its a movie horror fans can enjoy if the expectations aren't too high ( a lot of hype surrounded this movie). 6/10 (i ve seen the "Unrated" version not the "R" that its now worldwide(?) released)

You know you're in trouble when the DVD opens with the director proudly announcing that multiple production studios rejected his project and that members of both cast and crew were arrested several times because the explicit nature of the footage bordered on being illegal. There's only one thing worse than an untalented horror director, and that's an untalented horror director suffering from a gigantic ego. Even though the introduction is only a couple minutes long, you can clearly tell that Nick Palumbo worships himself and that he's a little bit too proud of his own work. Referring to "Murder-Set-Pieces" as simply a bad film would be too easy, because it actually doesn't even qualify as being a film. In order to make a film, and yes that even includes a mindless horror film, you require character drawings, continuity and something that at least remotely resembles a storyline. "M-S-P" features none of the above. Palumbo's precious life work is nothing more than an overlong compilation of vile and ultra-sadistic images that are edited together without the slightest attempt to build up a plot and/or tension. I'll be the first to admit that the violence, gore and raw sex easily rank among the most disgusting and sickest footage ever captured on film, but it's all very pointless and leading nowhere and thus it automatically loses all of its shocking impact. Ravishing young women are briefly introduced, usually whilst performing a strip-act, and only moments later they end up nailed against the walls of a torture chamber, screaming and begging for their lives in vain. The maniac responsible is a nameless German immigrant who lives in Las Vegas and severely suffers from sociopath tendencies. His granddaddy was a prominent Nazi (maybe even Hitler himself, as the script even fails to properly explain that) and apparently that's his only excuse for butchering and sexually abusing young girls. The whole thing simply doesn't make any sense. If he's a Nazi, then why doesn't he aim his anger at Jews or other religious groups? If he's simply a woman-hater, then why do the pointless childhood flashbacks exclusively revolve on him walking across a railroad? This photographer dude just is the dumbest, most random serial killer in the history of horror cinema and even though he leaves behind thousands of obvious clues at each crime scene, there doesn't seem to a single cop working in Las Vegas. There's a negligible 'sub plot' about the 10-year-old sister of one of the his victims investigating the habits of the killer herself, but the elaboration of this is totally implausible and actually just too stupid for words.

"Murder-Set-Pieces" desperately wants to be disturbing and controversial, but it never surpasses the quality level of infantile amateur rubbish due to the lack of logic and incompetent plotting. Whenever there isn't any filthy rape or torture going on, "M-S-P" is dreadfully boring and nearly impossible to sit through. Heck, even when there is filthy rape and torture going on it gets boring after a while. The make-up effects on the girl's bodies may be very graphic, but still most of the actual murders are committed off screen. That's just lame and even a bit hypocrite considering the self-assurance of the director. One thing I can't possibly deny is that Mr. Palumbo has a great taste in women and he's clearly also able to talk them into playing humiliating and degrading roles. Okay, most of them are first-time actresses and professional strippers, but still I think they imagined their film debuts to be slightly different. Lead performer Sven Garrett terribly overacts, especially when he shouts out his lines in German, and the guest appearances of veteran horror icons Gunnar Hansen and Tony Todd are hardly even worth mentioning. Hansen briefly appears as mechanic who has a Third Reich flag in his living room (wow, how courageous!) and, judging by his facial expressions, Todd didn't even seem to be very interested in playing the clerk of an adult bookstore. For the record, in the sequence at the bookstore, the German killer dude refers to Nick Palumbo's previous film "Nutbag" as a real snuff film. Yeah right, talk about gigantic egos. In short, "Murder-Set-Pieces" certainly isn't worthy of all the internet-hype and it honestly isn't half as shocking as it wants to be. This film is nothing more than the overactive imagination of a wannabe artist and real horror fans won't be the least bit impressed.

In Las Vegas, a sadistic and psychopath Nazi photographer (Sven Garrett) has sex and takes pictures of naked prostitutes first and then he kills his victims. His girlfriend Charlotte (Valerie Baber) does not suspect that he is a serial-killer, but her younger sister Jade (Jade Risser) is afraid of him.

"Murder-Set-Pieces" is an extremely violent movie with free sadism and brutality. Unfortunately there are practically only lots of gore and many naked women in erotic scenes in the plot. The bold director and writer Nick Palumbo does not spare even children from being murdered by the insane killer, but the flawed sick story does not develop the characters well and seems to have the only concern of showing graphic violence. Further, in spite of the murders, the police never chase the killer. There is only a cameo of Cerina Vincent and Tony Todd to give their names to the credit and lure the viewers. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Estripador de Las Vegas" ("Las Vegas Reaper")