Pieces (1982)
"Mil gritos tiene la noche" (original title)

Young co-eds are being cut up by a chainsaw killer on a college campus. The killer is attempting to put together a human jigsaw puzzle made from body parts.

Director:

Juan Piquer Simón

Writers:

Dick Randall (screenplay), John W. Shadow (screenplay),

Stars:

Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Frank Braña

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christopher George	...	Lt. Bracken
Lynda Day George	...	Mary Riggs (as Linda Day)
Frank Braña	...	Sgt. Holden
Edmund Purdom	...	The Dean
Ian Sera	...	Kendall
Paul L. Smith	...	Willard (as Paul Smith)
Jack Taylor	...	Professor Brown
Gérard Tichy	...	Dr. Jennings
May Heatherly	...	Mrs. Reston
Hilda Fuchs	...	Grace - the Dean's Secretary
Roxana Nieto	...	Virginia Palmer, 1st victim
Cristina Cottrelli	...	Jenny, pool victim (as Cristina Cottrel)
Leticia Marfil	...	Mary, elevator victim
Silvia Gambino	...	Neighbor
Carmen Aguado	...	Carla, aerobics instructor

Storyline

While playing with a puzzle, a teenager is repressed by his mother, and he kills her and severs her body with an ax. Forty years later, in an university campus in Boston, a serial killer kills young women and severs their bodies in parts, stealing body pieces from each student. Lt. Bracken makes a deal with the dean of the campus, and infiltrates the agent Mary Riggs as if she were a tennis teacher and together with the student Kendall, they try to find the identity of the killer.

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Plot Keywords:

serial killer | co ed | university | chainsaw | mercilessness | 

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Taglines:

Pieces... It's exactly what you think it is!

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Spain USA Puerto Rico Italy

Language:

Spanish English

Release Date:

23 September 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pieces

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Almena Films, Film Ventures International (FVI), Fort Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Because producer Dick Randall was simultaneously making kung-fu films in Rome, a cameo for a Bruce Lee imitator, Bruce Le, was written into this film, even though this scene makes no sense in the context of the rest of the film.

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Goofs

Although the prologue is set in 1942, the mother tells the boy to get a plastic trash bag. The plastic garbage bag was invented in 1950.

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Quotes

Sgt. Holden: Who knows? Right now we're just buying clothes without labels and trying them on for size.

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Connections

Featured in Pieces of Juan: An Interview with Director Juan Piquer Simón (2008)

User Reviews

Stupid but surprisingly funny!

Gorehounds won't be disappointed by PIECES, a rather late entry in the late seventies-early eighties slasher cycle which knows what the target audience wants and gives it to them by the bucketload. Right from the opening sequence in which a young lad is assembling a naughty jigsaw puzzle and promptly hacks his mother to death for spoiling his fun, this film is about as subtle as a bucket of lard. Despite the crummy performances, inane dialogue and laughable attempts at making this some kind of 'whodunnit' (always a bad idea in this kind of flick), PIECES does actually manage to muster some degree of morbid atmosphere and claustrophobic discomfort, particularly during the murder scenes. Having said that, the gore itself is strictly bargain basement and reminiscent of Monty Python, but the quantity is what matters here, and there's so much syrup in PIECES, the screen virtually drips with it. For all its sicko-cranky-misogynistic traits, however, PIECES is surprisingly funny and easy to watch, especially if you like this kind of thing, and the downright bizarre 'trick' ending manages to wipe out everything that's gone before, so you'll need to watch it a couple of times at least to get a real handle on what's happening here. Best watched late at night, preferably whilst in some kind of altered state, but there are far worse horror movies to kill time with.