cinema history class: pieces

Session: Welcome to My Nightmare, Week 3
Movie: Pieces (1982)
Directed by J. Piquer Simon

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Women on a college campus in Boston are being killed by a maniac with a chainsaw.  Hilarity ensues.*

Reaction:

There was a lot to like in this movie. There was suspense and action. There was a clear, well-paced plot. And, it being a slasher film, there was blood. Ooh, was there blood. And, if you're into Fulci, there was a moment worthy of the best of Fulci films -- I won't spoil it here. Of course, Fulci isn't really my thing, but I have to acknowledge how well it was done.

But here I think it's more to the point to address the things I didn't like.

For the most part, what I didn't like about Pieces had to do with visuals.

• The prologue, taking place in 1942, had several clear anachronisms. Of course, we were able to laugh this iff and it's not really a fatal flaw.
• The architecture wasn't right. This movie is supposed to take place on a college campus in Boston. But the architecture was clearly not Boston. Further, a lot of the scenes on campus did not look like a college campus. There are some scenes at an indoor pool, but it is clearly a pool in someone's home. And the shower/locker room scene near the end was clearly not in a college shower/locker room. Now, I don;t know why I'm being such a prick about architecture and the buildings. I really should be able to look beyond that. Yet, for some reason it bothered me way more than it should have.
• A lot of the people didn't look like real people. The makeup looked terrible, and the characters looked plastic. Keith explained that this was probably due to the fact that Pieces wasn't meant to be watched on Blu-ray, but that's what we were watching. The extra clarity can expose a lot that shouldn't have been exposed.

Beyond the visuals, the supernatural moment at the end made no sense and left me annoyed. If this had been a movie with supernatural elements throughout, then it would have been fine. But tossing it in for a cheap thrill at the end didn't feel right.

Ratings:

Me: 6.5
Dave: 9.5
Ethan: 6
Joe: 10
Sean: 3 out of 4