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Released by: Fright Flix
Released on: 11/01/2005
Director: Nick Palumbo
Cast: Sven Garrett, Valerie Baber, Jade Risser, Gunnar Hansen, Tony Todd
Year: 2004
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The Movie:
Ignore the shilling that's been bombarding the online genre community for this film. Message boards and websites such as the imdb have been bombarded with people who are obviously out to promote the film posting what is essentially spam to try and get people interested in the movie and while anyone can understand the need for promotion, in this case it got a little out of hand both here at DVD Maniacs and at other prominent genre message boards. Put all that crap out of your mind as best you can and judge this nasty little bitch of a film on its own merits, because Nick Palumbo has made a great slasher. It's not a great movie in the sense that Citizen Kane is a great movie or The 400 Blows is a great movie or, moving back to genre material, how The Exorcist is a great movie, but make no mistake, in terms of what a slasher film is and what it is supposed to deliver, Murder Set Pieces definitely delivers the good (as well as some of the flaws associated with the sub-genre).
The story follows a girl named Jade (Jade Risser) whose sister, Charlotte (Valerie Baber) is dating a big German dude known as the Photographer (Sven Garrett). He makes his living shooting women in the nude and, quite frankly, he's a creepy pig of a man. He drives around in his slick Barracuda picking up chicks and taking them back to his place where he photographs them, and then kills them in his basement. He's a serial killer, the lowest of the low, and althrough initially Jade and Charlotte are completely unaware of his little hobby, it won't be long before they find out the hard way. That's about it.
We do get some back story on the Photographer through some flashbacks that give us a basic idea of why he is the way that he is. We learn that his father was a buddy of Adolf Hitler's during the Second World War and that because of this he's obsessed with Nazism and has a tendency to blurt things out in German while he's doing what he does best. Aside from that though, there's not a lot of characterization nor is there really a need for it here. The film is, after all, titled Murder Set Pieces (though it was originally going to be Nutbag II, or at least Palumbo let the producers think that for a while), and that's exactly what it is for the most part.
In terms of those very same set pieces, Palumbo had the good sense to hire on Jeremy Cruise and Fred Vogel of Toe Tag Pictures. These two are the evil geniuses behind August Underground and August Underground: Mordum and anyone familiar enough with those two gory little movies knows that these two don't skimp out on the red stuff when it's needed, or even when it's not. The majority of the killing and maiming and dismemberment takes place in the basement below the Photographers house and the effects team has done a really good job of making this into a true house of horrors. Corpses, blood, gore and grue all coat the walls and give it a seedy and very unclean look. Women are hung upside down and forced to wear pig masks (a throwback to Nutbag) before they're sliced and diced. Some are raped (the nastiest scene being when Sven has his way with porn star Destiny St. Clair on a weight bench), some are just slaughtered but regardless, the effects are sufficiently convincing throughout the film.
Performance wise, well, that's a different story. Sven Garrett is definitely an imposing figure and he sure looks the part especially when he's all fired up and ready to kill. He's a big guy and quite intimidating in the film during these scenes, but when he's called on to handle the more dialogue driven moments, the movie does falter a bit. This isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the people he's acting opposite aren't the best thespians in movie history either. Now this is, relatively speaking, a low budget film (the two million dollars used to make the movie are huge by indie standards but a drop in the bucket by other standards) and as such, less than perfect acting is commonplace but because the production values are as slick as they are, it stands out a little bit more here. The movie is slick and well crafted, the performances, not so much. Things could be a lot worse though and there are some very cool cameo appearances in here that work really well. Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) is quite effective as the Photographer's sleazeball Nazi mentor and Tony Todd (of Candyman) is perfect as the clerk at the adult video store that the Photographer frequents (look for Fred Vogel and Jeremy Cruise in cameos during this scene too, as well as the lovely ladies of Toe Tag, Cristie Whiles and Shelby Jackson). Cerina Vincent from Cabin Fever even shows up at the end of the movie.
Murder Set Pieces isn't breaking any new ground in terms of story telling and it was obviously influenced by films like Maniac and Halloween, but it does definitely up the ante in terms of sex and violence, epitomized by the scene in which the killer breaks into a home and ponders killing an infant. He picks up the child, it shrieks in all too real fear, only to be released. We then see it waddle down the hall only to hug her mother, now dead and covered in blood in the corner of the room. It's a truly disturbing moment, one that probably never should have been filmed whether the kid's parents where in the room or not, but there's no denying its effectiveness. The decision to insert footage from the attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001 are also questionable. While it does do an effective job of showing the breakdown of society as we know it, those wounds are still a little too fresh for a lot of people. It works, but it's definitely uncomfortable viewing - though that was probably the point.
The movie was shot on location throughout Las Vegas, the original city of sin. Not only are there some instantly recognizeable Vegas landmarks throughout the movie such as the Fremont strip and some of the larger new strip casinos, but there's some seedier sight seeing in here as well. Palumbo shoots a few strip clubs, the aforementioned adult video store, and some of the uglier locations that tourists don't always see when visiting the area. The cinematography is very good and makes excellent use of these locations. A few nods to some of Dario Argento's giallos, Deep Red specifically, add some visual flare to a few scenes, as do some tributes to Halloween and Palumbo's use of color has obviously been influenced by two of the greatest director's in the genre.
Worth noting is that the version of the film presented on this DVD is the director's cut. Palumbo states numerous times during the commentary and during the introduction to the film that he had to rush post production and editing on the film to make it to the AFM in time and that once that was done with, he was able to go back to the editing room and cut the film more specifically to his liking. In terms of what the differences are between the two version, well, without having the theatrical cut to compare it to it's hard to say completely but the three scenes that the new editing is readily apparent are where the Photographer is grooming himself in the bathroom, the scene where he's in bed with the girl towards the end of the movie (both are definitely trimmed and stronger because of it), and the last scene in the underground chamber of horrors (which is slightly longer and gorier). The theatrical cut ran one hundred and five minutes, this new cut clocks in at roughly nintey and is a leaner and better paced movie because of the editing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Murder Set Pieces is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85.1 and this transfer has been taken from the original negative to ensure the best image possible save for one small discrepency - it's not anamorphic. I'm not going to speculate why and I'm not going to harp on it, but it does need to be mentioned. Aside from that, the only other complaint stems from a bit of line shimmering throughout the movie, but this isn't too distracting. Thankfully the colors look really nice, the reds especially as they don't bleed into the other hues and look quite distinct. Black levels are strong and deep from start to finish, skin tones look great, and the level of detail in both the foreground and the background of the image is quite nice.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track on this DVD is very solid. There are plenty of instances where some truly distinct channel separation definitely enhances the mood and the kill scenes get some added atmosphere from some well placed effects and rising background music. Dialogue is clean and clear and free of any hiss or distortion. For the sake of being completely anal retentive there are a few lines that are a bit lower in the mix and one or two of the performers are a bit soft in their delivery volume wise, but other than that this is a very nice and very effective surround sound mix. An optional Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is also included.
First up in terms of supplements is the commentary track. This discussion, which runs for the entire length of the film and features director Nick Palumbo, actor Svett Garrett, and moderator Art Ettinger (editor of Ultra-Violent Magazine) is likely going to ruffle a few feathers. Palumbo dominates the track and what becomes very obvious very quickly is that he's completely proud of the film that he's made and has no problem whatsoever talking it up. Some ego definitely comes through here, and the man is completely unapologetic about anything to do with this movie, including the now infamous infant scene, which he defends by stating that it was necessary (though he does state that William Lustig called him an asshole for shooting it, amusingly enough). That being said, Palumbo and Garrett do manage to do a very good job of getting a lot of good information out as well as the obvious self promotion.
Palumbo talks about how he got the fine folks over at Toe Tag Pictures on board to do the effects work, how he lined up various Las Vegas locations to shoot on, and how many of the murders that take place in the film are based on actual cases as told to him by a friend in the LVPD.
Garrett gives us the performers point of view and covers the reasoning behind why he played certain scenes the way that he did, how it was difficult to shoot the final showdown scene where he had to coordinate a lot of the stunts working opposite an eleven year old girl, and how he tended to really get slapped and kicked a lot by many of the actresses he worked with on the shoot during rehersals.
As moderator, Art Ettinger does a good job of keeping things on topic, asking some smart questions and prompting some interesting answers, and while Palumbo manages to slag off a few of the people he worked with on the production including his original soundman (who he describes as 'shit') and Cerina Vincent's manager, it is genuinely interesting to get the backstory on this movie through this commentary track.
Up next are roughly twelve and a half minutes of deleted scenes. Presented here with time code, most of these are quick little clips or scene extensions that wouldn't really have added much to the film but there are some interesting moments in here such as some dialogue with Tony Todd in the porno shop, a scene with the Photographer and a very decayed corpse, and some brief characterization moments. It would have been nice if there had been a commentary from Palumbo over top of this, explaining why he excised this material, but there isn't - regardless, it's still nice to see this included here.
There are three separate galleries to cruise through up next. The first one, which is just the basic photo gallery, contains over one hundred images of behind the scenes action, make up effects, promotional shots, magazine covers and press materials, and more. There's a lot of cool material in here that makes it worth skimming through. The second gallery is simply a quick collection of theatrical posters used to promote the film during its theatrical run. The final gallery is less a gallery and more a collection of quotes. Entitled The Gallery Of Outrage, it's an assembly of quotes from various press sources both from print and online journalists, that give their take on the film. It's interesting to read through these quotes and see who supports the film and who doesn't, though there's definitely more support than outrage in here.
Rounding out the extra features are two trailers a piece for Murder Set Pieces and Nutbag (they each get a really explicit trailer and a more toned down trailer), as well as a length, almost five minute preview for the upcoming Sinister once again starring Jade Risser and Gunnar Hansen. There's also a quick video introduction from Palumbo that you can check out, though at just under two minutes it doesn't provide a whole lot of information that isn't already in the commentary track.
The Final Word:
While the transfer really should have been anamorphic, Murder Set Pieces gets an otherwise very fine DVD release from Fright Flix. As far as the film itself goes, it proves to be an entertaining and well made throw back to the slasher films of yesterday with plenty of gore and some seriously disturbing moments. Some of the performances are less than perfect but the pacing is great and the movie delivers exactly what you'd expect it to based solely on the title.