collider.com/pieces-slasher-movie/This 1982 Horror Movie Has More Chainsaw Kills Than Leatherface
BY
SAMUEL WILLIAMSON
There have been countless slasher movies in the wake of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but only a few of them have come close to capturing that movie's level of slasher glory, one of them being Pieces. While both films are slashers, they differ pretty greatly in terms of their actual contents. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a grisly, grainy nightmare that is less violent than it is a film that absolutely destroys its viewer with anxiety. On the other side of the coin, you have Pieces, a pretty grim film that is so campy you can't help but laugh. Oh yeah, and it also has some of the greatest chainsaw kills in horror movie history - even more than its Texan counterpart. Both movies rock, but which one truly stands tallest in the slasher movie lexicon?
What Is 'Pieces' About?
Pieces is an all-time underrated slasher film, released in 1982 and made jointly between Spanish and American filmmakers. Its plot is simple, following a chainsaw-wielding slasher who kills female college students in order to use their miscellaneous body parts to create a human jigsaw puzzle. Simple, but I didn't say it was joyful! The film features a stacked cast of B-movie and TV actors from the 60s and 70s, particularly Christopher George, Linda Day, Paul L. Smith, and Jack Taylor. It was directed by Juan Piquer Simón, a director that our society has massively overlooked in terms of the greater horror canon. He's not necessarily an innovative filmmaker, but Simón proves himself here to be one that you can count on to keep the action coming. Pieces is a total blast, one that refuses to bore you even for a second.
It would be hard to say that almost any horror movie, slasher or not, is better than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Tobe Hooper's original 1974 classic stands tall as one of the scariest, most effective films ever made. It's beautifully shot, contains countless harrowing set pieces, and is a slow burn that peaks in terror in its final frame. Not only is it a successful film in and of itself, but this tiny independent film would go on to launch an entire film franchise with eight additional films. All that to say, the first Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece of a movie, not just horror, and is just as effective today as it was when it was first released. It does have one flaw though, and that is that the movie really only has one chainsaw kill! One! What's the deal with that? Pieces, on the other hand, is chock-full of them.
'Pieces' Has More Kills Than 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Now does anyone truly have the guts to argue that a forgotten slasher from the 80s is better than one of the greatest films in the genre? No, that'd be ridiculous. That being said if you go into The Texas Chainsaw Massacre expecting a fast-paced, highly entertaining, gonzo horror movie that delivers fully on the promise of its title... well, you'll be disappointed. It's just not that kind of movie, and it doesn't have to be! That's why Pieces is here, it can be that movie.
If we're going by chainsaw action alone, Pieces is the victor. Leatherface sure knows how to swing that thing around, but he doesn't seem to know how to use it quite to the same degree as the killer in Pieces. This guy chops and screws folks with this over-glorified gardening utensil in the most gloriously ridiculous ways. Most slashers that were made around this time were cut down by the MPAA to the point where they hardly had any of their actual kills anymore. Mainstream slashers like Friday the 13th and the more violent Halloween sequels ended up anticlimactic because of this. You'd be all worked up with loads of suspense and the promise of a wild kill, only for the MPAA to make the film cut before you see anything. This is a problem that Pieces doesn't have. It was able to avoid a rating by being played at drive-ins and released with a "video nasty" label. In doing so, every bit of footage that Simón wanted to stay in was going to stay in! There's a chainsaw kill in an elevator that is so over the top and ridiculous, you have to see it to believe it.
'Pieces' Isn't Just Scary, It's Also Fun Entertainment
Not only does Pieces deliver more on the violence factor than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it's also just a more entertaining movie, front to back. This isn't saying too much, Chainsaw Massacre isn't really trying to be entertaining at all. That movie is looking more to traumatize you than it wants to give you a good time. Pieces, on the other hand, is purposefully all over the place. Most slasher movies fill their runtime between kills with long boring scenes of teenagers talking or partying. They can kind of be a slog to get through, honestly. When someone isn't getting killed in Pieces, the movie's using its runtime to show audiences a pointless skateboarding accident, a random fight with a martial arts instructor (Bruce Le, the B-rate version of Bruce Lee) that is never readdressed, hilarious scenes of so-bad-it's-good dialogue, and one of the most bombastic endings in all of horror. Don't go to Pieces just for the kills, go for the whole ride. This movie has loads to offer.
As funny and entertaining as Pieces is, it can be genuinely unnerving at times. Many of the film's scenes take place in claustrophobic environments. Between the tight hallways, elevators, and dark, campus corners, the killer always seems to zone in on his victims in hard-to-escape situations. He's a killer that takes his time to get to his victims, relishing more in the hunt than anything. This is when an effective slasher movie gets to be more scary than fun. These scenes are bound to keep new viewers nervously squirming around in their seat way more than laughing. When the film isn't trying to make you feel claustrophobic, its victims are being stalked out in the wide open. These scenes are honestly just as effective and will keep your eyes darting around the screen, wondering where in the world the killer will pop out next. Pieces' college campus isn't quite the empty Texan countryside or the Sawyer family home, but the filmmakers manage to make it a scary location when it counts.
A Slasher is Nothing Without Its Killer
A slasher movie can hardly leave much of a legacy behind without there being a memorable slasher at its core. Thankfully, Pieces has a pretty great one. No, this unnamed and mostly unseen killer doesn't have a name like Leatherface, nor is he anywhere near as iconic. He can't even be regarded as being as much of a standout as the rest of Chainsaw's Sawyer family! But he does sport a pretty cool design that's bound to stick with you. The killer rocks a long, black trench coat, and a massive black hat, and wields the longest chainsaw ever put on screen. You never really see his face, only to catch little glimpses when stepping between shadows. He's also the case of a killer with an unknown identity, so for the majority of the movie, you're left wondering which of the main characters is behind everything. He's a killer with a fun design, even if that's all there really is to him for most of the movie.
Pieces will never be a better horror movie than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it's not too far off. They're two films with very different goals, and that's what makes them a fun duo. The former aims to endlessly entertain, never letting its foot off the gas for one second. The latter is more interested in a slow-building psychological sort of terror, much less violent than those that haven't seen it might be led to believe. If you're looking for a truly terrifying horror movie, and honestly one of the greatest films of all time, then The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is your way to go. That being said, if you're looking for a slasher film that fully delivers on the promise that this subgenre provides, then Pieces is about as good as it gets.