Pieces Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		3.5

Pieces Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 25, 2017

Pieces’ marketing campaign contained two tag lines (reproduced on Arrow's packaging for this release) which pretty much sum up the film as accurately as possible. It’s exactly what you think it is and You don’t have to go to Texas for a chainsaw massacre make it pretty clear that this 1982 effort from Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón doesn’t have any overly Arty ambitions and is instead content to ply a fairly traditional horror ambience that in some ways plays like a Latin version of an Italian giallo. The film offers a pretty standard structure, beginning with a vignette that supposedly takes place in the 1940s (where some time traveler delivered a touch tone telephone, it might be pointed out), where a little boy is caught, well, piecing together a jigsaw puzzle of a naked woman by his mother. Mom is none too pleased about this discovery, blaming the boy’s interest on his missing father, who evidently had a similar fascination with female anatomy. The mother starts routing through the boy’s room, evidently finding other objectionable material, a forage which comes to a rather spectacularly bloody end when she turns around to greet her son who is wielding an axe and puts a stop to her nagging (so to speak). That at least allows the little boy to complete his puzzle assembly, but when a visitor calls the police to investigate since no one is opening the door, the little boy, who has since sawed his mother into conveniently small chunks, has to think quickly, and he rather smartly retreats to a nearby closet, where the police find him whimpering, coming to the understandable conclusion that he’s an innocent bystander and survivor of a horrific attack. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Pieces is going to revisit this character as an adult, as a gruesome series of murders involving (yep, you guessed it) a chainsaw seem to have something to do with this supposed historic incident. Pieces functions adequately enough as a whodunit (or, perhaps more accurately, who’s doing it), but it’s pretty labored from a narrative standpoint, stitching together (no pun intended, considering one of the film’s gorier denouements) some outrageously bloody sequences with less effective expository elements.

The film then segues to “current” time (meaning circa 1982), where a college campus is suddenly beset with a madman wielding a chainsaw, something he uses to dissect an accruing collection of pretty (and often naked) coeds. Inquiring minds might begin to wonder if there’s a reason the setting is a college, and those folks will probably already be ahead of the game in terms of figuring out who the culprit turns out to be. But like any decent mystery, Pieces offers at least a couple of suspects, including anatomy teacher Professor Brown (Spanish horror stalwart Jack Taylor), who is hinted to be a closeted gay man. Also acting more than a bit suspiciously is a groundskeeper named Willard (Paul Smith), who just so happens to have a chainsaw in his collection of tools. Two cops named Lt. Bracken (Christopher George) and Sgt. Holden (Frank Braña) show up to investigate the carnage, meeting with and interviewing the college’s Dean (Edmund Purdom, an awfully long way from The Egyptian).

Ultimately also on hand is an undercover policewoman named Mary Riggs (Lynda Day George, Christopher George’s wife, here billed as Linda Day), acting as a tennis instructor but of course secretly trying to find out who the murderer is (if you can sense a damsel in distress moment coming, you understand how these films tend to work). A lothario named Kendall (Ian Sera) is also poking around, evidently to keep any potential harem alive long enough to enjoy, though it’s notable that the film never really even attempts to make him a suspect in the murders (while it's often of course the case that the culprit ends up being the one you'd least expect, few would probably allege that Pieces' screenplay is artful enough for any significant level of misdirection). While the general mystery is not all that convincing, Pieces excels at what many horror fans are going to come to this film for in the first place—namely, some astonishingly graphic gore scenes, more often than not combined with unfettered glimpses of naked females. The sexual subtext of Pieces is one of its more fascinating elements, and one that Juan Piquer Simón utilizes to invest the film with a kind of gloriously outré quality that blends rather surprisingly well with its other, more Grand Guignol, aspects.

My colleague Brian Orndorf was considerably more excited about Pieces than I am, and you can read Brian’s review of the Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray put out for the domestic United States market by clicking on this link: Pieces Blu-ray review. Those with region free players may want to check out Brian’s review in any case, since, while this Arrow release was evidently sourced from the same master Grindhouse prepared for theirs and which also has at least some of the same supplementary material (as well as some exclusive to this release), the Grindhouse release has its own separate exclusive bonus material that some may be interested in checking out.

Pieces Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pieces is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

Pieces is presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio with mono sound. The original camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution by Deluxe Film Labs in Bologna. All colour grading and restoration work was carried out at Fotokem in Burbank, CA. The colourist was Alastor Pan Arnold. The English soundtrack was restored by Paul N. Ottosson, while the Spanish soundtrack was restored by Eliot Kissileff. The restoration of Pieces was produced by Grindhouse Releasing.

As I've tended to do with other reviews that have either previous releases or releases from other territories, I've attempted to at least come close to reproducing some of the screenshots Brian included with his Pieces Blu-ray review of the Grindhouse Releasing version. To my eyes, the Arrow release is just very slightly darker, something that tends to make grain resolution a little more noticeable, especially against brighter backgrounds, resulting in a somewhat grittier appearance than the Grindhouse version. As Brian mentions in his review, detail is often quite excellent in close-ups, though there's still a bit of variable clarity in midrange and wide shots. The palette looks extremely healthy throughout, with some really bright and vivid reds in the gore scenes. Blacks are solid and shadow detail generally very good despite some intentionally dark moments.

Pieces Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pieces features LPCM Mono tracks in both English and Spanish, though it's manifestly obvious that no matter which version you choose, post looping was involved. That leads to some minor but still noticeable sync issues, though it sounds to my ears that most if not all of the native English language speakers provided their own voices for the English language version. Fidelity is very good on both tracks, though both are unavoidably narrow and suffer from just slight boxiness at times.

Pieces Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• It's Exactly What You Think It Is (HD; 15:03) is a winning retrospective featuring a number of good interviews, including with Joe Bob Briggs. This short but effective piece documents a number of interesting facts, including a brief overview of Spanish horror films, and the impact that Franco's death had on the horror industry in that nation, which suddenly found itself free of the censorship Franco's regime had foisted off on filmmakers.


• A Thousand Screams (HD; 28:14) is an interview with Art Director Gonzalo Gonzalo. In Spanish with English subtitles.


• Falling to Pieces (HD; 8:50) features Sergio Blasco discussing a planned but unmade sequel. In Spanish with English subtitles.


• Pieces of Piquer (upscaled HD; 55:28) is an archival interview with the director. In Spanish with English subtitles.


• Paul Smith: The Reddest Herring (upscaled HD; 57:45) is an archival interview with the actor.


• Steve Minasian Interview (2:58) is a brief audio snippet with the producer of the film.


• Galleries

  Production Stills (HD)

  Publicity Materials (HD)

  Video Releases (HD)

  Bits and Pieces (HD)

  Juan Piquer's Still Show (upscaled HD; 6:02) is a backstage video of the director discussing the film.

• Trailers

  Theatrical Trailer (HD; 00:31)

  2016 Re-release Trailer (HD; 00:40)

• Music Re-Score by Umberto (HD; 1:25:27)


• The Vine Theater Experience features a brief introduction (HD; 1:52) followed by a screening of the film (HD; 1:25:27) with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, replete with (lots of) audience noise.


• Audio Commentary with The Hysteria Continues


• Soundtrack CD

Additionally, the release offers both the Original Spanish Version (HD; 1:26:45) and US Version (HD; 1:25:27) of the film. Arrow has packaged the film in a sturdy slipcase which includes a poster (on thicker stock than usual) and a typically well appointed booklet with essays and photos.

Pieces Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the supplements included on this release states flat out how many of Juan Piquer Simón's film were (in the commentator's words) "Grade Z" efforts, and while there's certainly a low rent quality to much of Pieces, it actually boasts above average effects and some relatively decent if often hyperbolic performances. Arrow has provided fans with another release of a cult item featuring excellent technical merits and some very appealing supplements. Recommended.