Horror Daily Double: Torso, Pieces

Pieces: “It’s exactly what you think it is!” This movie has probably my favorite horror tagline, second to Texas Chainsaw Massacre‘s “Who will survive and what will be left of them?” Another connection: Pieces‘ main instrument of murder is also a chainsaw — though instead of being set in the deep-fried Lone Star State, this one is set in a Boston university. At least, that’s what the movie claims, though it was clearly filmed in Spain. Dichotomies like this only contribute to Pieces‘ ramshackle charm, along with its goofy dialogue, the actors who regularly miss their marks, some ridiculously elaborate kills, and a legendary line reading by Lynda Day George. And lest we forget: a ballsy twist finale, which Eli Roth claims on the packaging as the greatest horror ending ever.

Available on Amazon Video

Pieces owes a lot to the giallo movies that came out in the decade preceding it, especial Torso, with which it shares a kindred, sleazy spirit. Both are set at universities, both are about stalking coeds, and both feature a killer who dismembers victims, cobbling them together into a Frankencorpse out of some misguided retribution for childhood trauma. Torso also has what has to be the most attractive B-movie cast in a horror movie of this era: The women are beautiful, and the men are walking jawlines. Which is great because the movie is quotidian (though a mud-drenched murder in the misty woods is a standout) until the end of the second act. A plot twist turns Torso‘s final section into a prolonged cat-and-mouse game set in an isolated vacation home, and director Sergio Martino is more than ready to maintain and amplify the tension.

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