It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This film opens up with a mother discovering her young son with a jigsaw puzzle of a naked woman. He responds to her rage by graphically axing her to death. This pretty much sets the tone for what is to come. Graphic gore, gratuitous nudity, red herrings, horrendously bad dialogue and gaffs galore this is a bad movie. But it's also an immensely enjoyable one. I like it so much that I own it on pre cert VHS, have 3 copies on DVD and will probably also purchase on BR. I just don't tire of watching it. And it's not all bad. The gore is decent. The girls are attractive. It's also part Italian and there are effective giallo elements here. Essential viewing to slasher fans.

In the introduction to the reissue of Salem's Lot, Stephen King claims his mother had a classification system for the type of books he liked to read as a child, "trash" and "bad trash". King claims Tales From The Crypt was in the "bad trash" camp. While Pieces very well might be the epitome of "bad trash", as Mr King points out, sometimes that's exactly what hits the spot! I wont bother summarizing the plot because honestly if the producers didn't care about it why should you? The movie contains everything this type of movie calls for in spades, naked women , body parts being chainsawed off, buckets of blood, character actors slumming it. What more can you ask for! The best part is the film has absolutely no pretensions. It is a pure exploitation movie through and through. While the film clearly takes some inspiration from the Italian Giallo genre (the murders are committed by a killer in black gloves, a big fedora and a raincoat), it dispenses with pretentions so completely it makes even the sleaziest Giallo look like an art house film by comparison. Like the best bad films, this one also delivers many unintentional laughs, or maybe they are intentional, who knows, its impossible to tell.Let's be honest, if you even had to read this review beyond "naked women , body parts being chainsawed off" before slamming the "PLAY" button this movie is probably not for you!

Now this movie came out in the aftermath of the early 80's "slasher" explosion when practically every film of that genre wanted to be a Halloween or Friday The 13th imitation. Some fools might even want to compare it to Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the mere obvious fact that it features a chainsaw as a murder weapon. However, this film is actually much more reminiscent of the old gore films of Hershel Gordon Lewis, inparticularly Blood Feast, and not so much in it's depicted gore (which is much better done in this film) but rather in it's campily sick & tasteless script. What really made "Pieces" a classic was its "unintentional humor." For example, the lady police officer is attacked assaulted by a Kung Fu master, then the guy just stiffens up and drops unconscious to the ground... But when Kendall, the "hero," arrives, it's all well; it's his kung fu professor, after all. Everybody is laughing and smiling as he says..." must have been bad chop suey!" And can somebody please explain to me... What was up with the skateboarding girl? How did that fit into the movie? Did I miss something? Also worth noting is a certain percievable crude humor and sexual innuendo in the killing scenes. How the trenchcoated killer suddenly whips out his wwwwhhhhhiiiirrrring chainsaw, which resembles a huge phallus, and the female victim recoiling, grimacing and shrieking in reaction. And something to be said about the campiness of this film,.. it actually has the effect of rendering the horrifying scenes that much more shocking and powerful when they occur!.. . to almost dissarm one, and I have no doubt that was something calculated on the part of the films makers. It seems to be a kind of intentional deceptive campiness under which a very sly and elusive creative brilliance is at work and designed to put one off their guard so to speak. But there's definitely no competition for the most bizarre ending of any slasher flick.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

You will enjoy this movie, despite other review contentions. Why?This is really a classic of the early era of thriller/horror movies. The opening is great and gets right to the point. A 12 year old kid is assembling a nude puzzle. Mom steps in and destroys puzzle and says, the kid is just like his bad sex starved "Dad".Symbolically the piece that is missing from the puzzle is one of the vagina. Remember he is going though puberty, a critical time for a lad.Years later, the grown up lad tries to "reassemble" the girl with real people. A great plot idea. J. Demme would have liked to direct this one. Remember this is a slasher/horror film, do not expect Shawshank Redemption. If you want a good script watch, Who's Afraid of Virgina Wolfe. Horror scripts move the plot between chainsaw trimmings.Actually, direction, pacing, lighting are pretty good and there are some very funny moments in the film, combined with horror shots. The girl in the opening, for example, could have just slithered into the pool to escape Chainsaw Charlie. But the waterbed murder is every lad's wet dream. There she is, helpless in the waterbed with her wet panties, while Charlie Chainsaw goes to work on her. Other murders occur in ballet studios, elevators and the lawn. Most of the girls are puzzled and wondering why they are being dismembered. The ending is really good as most reviewers have suggested.Pieces is really in the D'Argeno style of film making: bizarre, horrible and yet really, really inventive and original. Get some popcorn, Pieces on the DVD player late at night and enjoy.