Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film

This is an interesting and pretty thorough documentary on the slasher film. It's not as good as reading a book on the subject, of course (there are several now, and this documentary is based on one of the better ones), but you get lots of films clips, and some interviews, not only with the usual horror convention attendees like Tom Savini and Felissa Rose,but also with more obscure characters like the Rabbi Herbert Freed who directed the obscure slasher "Graduation Day" (before he was a rabbi, of course).

What's most interesting for someone like me who is old enough to remember the first wave of slasher movies, is to recall how alarmed adults were at the time by these movies, which look like pretty harmless fun now. I especially remember the way they actually picketed "Silent Night, Deadly Night" because they were upset by the idea of an axe-murdering Santa Claus (in an ideal world these kind of idiots would be met with tear gas and police batons, just like anti-war protesters--who often have a legitimate reason for being upset--often are).

It's also ironic how widely available, thanks to DVD, uncut versions of these movies are today, considering how they were hacked up by American censors back then or outright banned over in Britain. It's probably just as stupid to get worked up about movies like "Hostel" or "Captivity" like people do nowadays. Remember the famous ad-line to "Last House on the Left" (one movie this doc barely mentions, although I guess it isn't really a slasher). "It's only a movie... It's only a movie. . .

The positive things about "Going To Pieces" are that it tries hard to include as many Slasher flicks as possible and deliver pieces of trivia for each of them. There are interviews with some influential directors of the genre (John Carpenter, Wes Craven, Sean Cunningham,...), actors, make-up guru Tom Savini and some "horror-experts".

For starters, this movie is a good introduction to the genre. Real fans will not find a lot of new information here. We all know about the influence of "Halloween", we've heard the story of how Freddy Krueger has been created, we know how Wes Craven revived the genre with "Scream". Sure, it's unfair to criticize that all this is being told again in a documentary like this. After all the story wouldn't be complete without this information, but in the end one can't learn too much from "Going To Pieces".

It would have been a real treat to learn the history of gore in movies, to learn about the influences for American slasher in detail. Instead we are only told about Italian horror in what seems like 2 minutes and then there's no further mention of it. "Halloween" is made out to be the first slasher movie, when even "Black Christmas" came before it in America. "Friday The 13th" is given more credit than it really deserves as an original movie. Make no mistake, I'm not trying to imply that those movies aren't very important to the genre, but it would have been a fresh approach to take a closer look at their origins.

Another thing to consider is that before "Going To Pieces" you should either make sure that you know all of the movies mentioned in the documentary or accept the fact that some great twist endings will be spoiled for you, some of which are the only reason to watch these flicks in the first place ("Sleepaway Camp", "Happy Birthday To Me").

In the end "Going To Pieces" will get you excited about watching old slasher flicks again (probably until you rent something like "Pieces" and realize the film is not half as exciting as it's made out to be in hindsight), but there are books out there that are a lot more informative than this documentary.

GOING TO PIECES is a fun reflection on the slasher genre, primarily exploring the wave of American slasher flicks that came out since the success of Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in 1978. Other influences such as Argento and Bava are only mentioned in passing, and there are some notable omissions (what about BLACK Christmas?) but for the most part this is a fun and in-depth look at a much-maligned sub-genre of film.

Obviously, the documentary is awash with clips that take up about two-thirds of the running time. Most of these focus on the goriest of the kill scenes in each film, so if that's your bag then you'll enjoy yourself. However, in addition, we get interviews with tons of guys involved with the production of these movies; writers, producers, directors, occasionally stars. You'd expect to see Carpenter and Savini here, but I appreciated the less well-known faces too. GOING TO PIECES is a great watch for anyone with even a minor interest in the slasher genre.

This is pretty much what you'd expect from the title: a group of actors, directors and special effects people talk about the slasher genre of the early 1980s. They cover all the big ones, some of the lesser ones, and go over the backgrounds.

How did the Italian films of Mario Bava influence the slashers? Are they anti-woman? Do they make kids do bad things? Is it a dead genre? All of this is covered and more... such as the concept of the "final girl" and other tropes so often found in horror.

I would have liked a bit more history, and maybe more credit given to Bob Clark and "Black Christmas" (which, to me, deserves more recognition than John Carpenter's "Halloween"). But I can't really complain with all these people they found to interview -- getting Carpenter, Craven, Rob Zombie and more to appear on film? Well done.

I have met the man who wrote the book this film is based on, the charming Adam Rockoff. If this film was your idea of education, get his book! Much more than you can cram into a 90-minute film.

I am a huge horror movie and slasher fan and I was shocked to see this on my Starz On Demand list. It is pretty good, but I think they try to cover a little too much ground in its short running time to really go into one subject too much. I have seen a lot of the movies that are discussed and it also introduced me to a few that I wasn't familiar with that I can now try to watch. It is good for an introductory course on slasher films and I seriously could have watched another hour's worth of material, but I understand why they had to trim to a shorter time. It does one of my least favorite things in documentaries though, when the subtitles would come up showing a person's name and what film they worked on, the font was very small and it was only on the screen for a second, so I had to keep rewinding to see the name's of people that I didn't recognize (which admittedly wasn't a lot, but still.) If you are a fan of the genre, this is a good little documentary to get you acquainted with some classic movies and maybe introduce a few new titles to track down.