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Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: 10/28/2008
Director: Juan Piquer
Cast: Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Edmund Purdom, Paul Smith, Jack Taylor, Ian Sera, Frank Bana
Year: 1982
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The Movie:
Pieces… where do we start? This is one of those 'you just have to see it' horror films that has managed to find a rabid cult following despite the fact that, really, when it gets right down to it, it's a pretty terrible film. Note that I didn't say it wasn't a Helluva lot of fun or that it isn't completely entertaining, but honestly, from both artistic and technical stand points, Pieces sucks. That said, give me a six pack and a room full of like minded trash film and I'll watch it any time - it's absolutely a crowd pleaser.
The film begins in Boston in the 1940s where a teenage boy who loves jigsaw puzzles snaps and kills his repressive mother in cold blood using a nice sharp axe. Fast forward forty years and Beantown is now the site of a rash of murders conducted by a serial killer with a penchant for tender, young college co-eds. His technique has the local cops in a tizzy - he chops up his victims into tiny little pieces and tends to take souvenirs with him to use in a jigsaw puzzle, just to keep things interesting.
Enter police Lt. Bracken (Christopher George) who hopes to crack the case by making a bargain with the college dean to let an undercover policewoman (Lynda Day George) work on the campus as a tennis teacher in hopes of luring the murderer out into the open. They enlist the aid of a student named Kendall (Ian Sera) and work together in hopes of catching the killer before he strikes again, but it isn't necessarily going to be that easy and before it's all over and done with, someone may very well yell 'BASTARD' a lot, run into a random Bruce Lee clone, and get his or her genitals torn off. It's that kind of a movie.
Filled with a splendid amount of gratuitous sex and violence with little regard given to coherence or common sense, Pieces works on the same level that films like Mad Foxes and New Barbarians do - they're not really very good, but they are very good fun. Pieces in particular has some seriously nasty murder set pieces scattered throughout the film that bookend the talkier parts of the picture quite effectively. The dialogue contains all manner of odd bits and, well, pieces of nonsensical man to man discourse that really just sets the stage for the next scene of carnage. Plenty of bare flesh ensures that the picture has plenty of quirky sex appeal while the presence of the Bruce Lee/kung-fu instructor guy (one of a few of the film's more noteworthy scenes) turns the 'huh???' factor up to 11.
Juan Piquer (who also did the notorious Slugs) paces the picture well and in its uncut form it will definitely appeal to the gorehounds. Tag lines like 'It's exactly what you think it is!' and 'You Don't Have To Go To Texas For A Chainsaw Massacre' will grab your attention and once you start with it, you just know that no matter how bad things are going to get that you won't be able to turn away. These types of films come around so rarely that it's up to the cult movie connoisseur to cherish pictures like this.
And that's where this Grindhouse Releasing special edition DVD comes into play…
Video/Audio/Extras:
Long a staple of the public domain market (Diamond release a crappy looking fullframe version of it years back), Pieces looks quite nice in this 1.66.1 anamorphic progressive scan transfer. There's some grain and some minor print damage but the movie probably wouldn't look right without it and never are these distracting in the least. Color reproduction looks nice and accurate and while there are a couple of spots where you might spy some minor compression artifacts, generally the black levels are quite strong. Does Pieces look perfect? Nope, but it shouldn't. Grindhouse has, however, done a nice job cleaning up whatever source material was used for this uncut presentation and it's great to have an anamorphic widescreen version available in North America after all these years.
Pieces has a few different audio options. First up is the English soundtrack featuring a library music score from CAM but also included is the Spanish soundtrack, which features an original score from composer Librado Pastor. Both tracks are presented in Dolby Digital Mono and optional English subtitles are available should you want to watch the film with the Spanish language option enabled and not speak the language. You might note some occasional and minor hiss now and again but it's never really distracting and unless you're looking for it you probably won't even pick up on it in the first place. Dialogue stays clean and clear and the levels are well balanced throughout the presentation. The limitations of the older Mono mix are obvious, but you can't fault the release for that and honestly, wouldn't you rather have the original mix over a surround sound mix when the movie was meant to be shown in Mono in the first place?
The first disc contains a third audio track entitled The Vine Theater Experience. Basically this is a recorded document of the film's August 2002 theatrical screening at the Vine Theater in Hollywood, California presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. If you've seen the movie a few times, this is a fun way to revisit the picture as the audience gets increasingly into it as the picture plays out, hooting and hollering and cheering at the screen.
Rounding out the extras on the first disc is Pieces' original theatrical trailer (0:31). This is the original North American trailer from 1983 and it contains the Artists Releasing Corporation copyright on the bottom of the anamorphic frame. Also included is the Original Spanish Opening Sequence (5:41) under the alternate title of One Thousand Cries Has The Night. Watching this will lead right into the rest of the feature, so don't be confused when it just keeps going!
Disc Two contains the meatiest of the extra features beginning with the first of two interviews, Pieces Of Piquer (55:21) in which the director of Pieces and Slugs sits down in front of the camera to discuss his illustrious career. Shot on location in Spain in 2005 and directed by none other than Nacho Cerde, this is a pretty interesting look at Piquer's involvement with Spanish horror cinema with a heavy emphasis put on Pieces, a film he describes as best enjoyed in the right mood with friends. Piquer tells some interesting stories about the film and its rather unusual legacy and this is a pretty revealing interview that sheds some very welcome light on this unsung trash classic. The second interview is Paul Smith: The Reddest Herring (57:41) and it gives the actor a chance to discuss his work in cinema while wearing some freakishly inappropriate short-shorts. Shot in 2007, the gracious and amiable talks about how he got his start doing plays in university which eventually lead to him working in feature films. He never intended to be an actor but he wound up taking a part and he caught the bug. From there he talks about Bud Spencer and the pro's and con's of being able to speak Turkish! About twenty-five minutes in he starts to talk about Pieces and he tells some pretty interesting and amusing stories about his work on the picture but this is really more of a career overview than anything else - this guy has been in way more than most people probably realize and this turns out to be a genuinely enjoyable talk with someone who has certainly paid his dues.
Further, cast and crew biographies are provided (in text format) for Juan Piquer, Dick Randall (look through here to find a trailer for Primitive Love), Steve Minasian (where you'll find an audio promo spot for Pieces and a trailer for Mark Of The Devil), Christopher George (whose filmography hides a trailer for Fulci's City Of The Living Dead), Lynda Day George (the filmography hides a trailer for Day Of The Animals), Edmund Purdom (look around for a trailer for Witchcraft '70), and Paul Smith (his section holds a video piece on director Richard Donner). Also included are still galleries covering Production Stills, Pieces Publicity, Video Releases, and Juan Piquer's Still Show (which is less a traditional still gallery than a video clip of the film's director talking about some still photographs and lobby cards). In the still gallery section you can also find an Easter Egg featuring some enjoyable and unexpected nudity! If that weren't enough, check out the previews section for trailers for Cat In The Brain, The Beyond, Cannibal Ferox, Cannibal Holocaust, I Drink Your Blood, The Tough Ones, Massacre Mafia Style and it's follow up Gone With The Pope (WHERE ARE THESE???? Please!!!), Scum Of The Earth, An American Hippie In Israel (fools!) Death Game, Family Enforcer, Ice House and last but certainly not least, Mad Ron's Prevue's From Hell. DVD credits are also included on Disc Two. Animated menus are supplied for both discs in the set and the first disc contains chapter selection for the feature.
Inside the slick keepcase is an insert containing a one sheet reproduction, some European poster art, and liner notes from Chas Balun of Deep Red fame.
The Final Word:
Who'd have guessed that Pieces would ever see a lavish two-disc special edition? It's been talked about for a long time now but Grindhouse has finally delivered and fans of this odd Euro-horror cult classic should absolutely enjoy all that this set has to offer.