And Now, Your Halloweekend Scary Movie Round Up
Pieces (1982)
Directed by Juan Piquer Simón
This Massachusetts Chainsaw Massacre is set on the campus of an unnamed college, where a killer’s chopping chunks off of coeds: a head here, a torso there. A really, really odd and deeply individual use of the basic gore-film template, the movie mostly ignores its psychosexual dimensions—and its woodier-than-wooden acting, and clumsy overdubbing—to move adeptly from murder to murder, each setpiece outdoing the last in inventiveness, artfulness and bloodsplatter. Stalking POV shots amplify the dread, but don’t get the idea that is some textbook-ready triumph of craft. It’s absolutely fucking nuts: why does a detective entrust his investigation to an eager college student? Why is a popular, recognizable tennis star also an undercover cop? And what’s up with that “kung fu professor” having what look like seizures from some “bad chop suey”? These questions (and others) linger, as does the truly WTF finale, but there’s little to “get”—just lots of unrestrained madness to relish. Henry Stewart (November 1, 5pm, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Scary Movies 9”)
