I love when a very low-budget movie is set at a college or a high school. The producers might manage to secure a big building or two, often a real-life campus during the spring break or summer off-season. There’s maybe a gym or an indoor swimming pool that they can use for a few scenes. They’ve got some fancy office sets and some campus grounds. BUT they couldn’t afford or didn’t have the time to hire extras.
That means that there’s NOBODY strolling in the background. There’s nobody in the halls. The only people we see are the main characters.
So, you have this big college setting and it looks like seven students go there. Ghost Town University.
This is an even bigger problem in Pieces because most of this tiny student body is gonna get murdered. And not just murdered, but dismembered with body parts thrown around like tomatoes in a chopped salad and gallons of blood poured everywhere.
Yep, there’s a killer on the loose and he’s seemingly cutting down as many college girls as he can. His identity is kept a mystery and I won’t spoil the big surprise except to say this conclusion brings more than one shocker. You’re gonna have at least an hour’s worth of “What the hell did we just watch?” conversation after this one. There’s a lot to talk about here. For instance, the title has a double-meaning that might take you some time to catch. (Hint: That naked lady puzzle that the killer puts together throughout the entire film, even after his mother screamed at him in his childhood for even owning it in the opening scene, is very significant). It all adds up to one of the more out-to-lunch 80s slashers.
Director Juan Piquer Simon shot this in his home country of Spain, but intended to pass it off as Boston. Meanwhile, its depiction of American college students is this wild Spanish vision of open promiscuity, shapely sex-crazed girls aggressively hitting on nerds, marijuana and waterbeds as the ultimate set-up of primo sensual pleasure. Also, a kung fu master might randomly jump out from the shadows to attack you for a few seconds (just hit him in the groin and you’ll be fine).
Pieces is crazed and hilarious. I think that everyone needs to see it.