Customer Reviews

Murder-Set-Pieces [Director's Cut]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Guess I was a little prejudiced against this movie - while watching I was trying to figure out all that "gratuitous violence". But all in vain - it wasn't gratuitous. "Murder-Set-Pieces" is indeed shocking, disturbing, brutal and relentless, but it's in no way an exploitation film. It seemed to me Nick Palumbo's flick was a serious and at the same time mercyless insight into a serial killer's mind. And it was rather thorough. Maybe first since William Lustig's "Maniac". Actually "Murder-Set-Pieces" can be seen as a homage to many horror classics, first of all "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" comes to mind after sequences in the killer's den with all the carcasses and other human remains. And not just "Texas Massacre", but the main impression Palumbo's film gives is of a "Maniac's" traditions continuer. They are very similar in many ways. "Murder-Set-Pieces" is utterly atmospheric and it could have been even more, had Palumbo left in all the cut footage of driving through the streets of Las Vegas. By the way city theme is extremely important here as in "Maniac". In Lustig's movie New York acted like an individual actor influencing maniac's mind, making him descend deeper into madness. Here Las Vegas is doing the same thing, we see this huge city of million lights and crowds of people as an empty place. Is it possible to feel yourself alone in the crowd? According to Nick Palumbo - yes, it is. And those Vegas suburbs look like a completely desolated and abandoned places. And it seems that people are not people at all, they are just some kind of cardboard setting. It's amazing what an atmosphere Palumbo created here so that we could think and feel the same things as his serial killer - desperation, anger, pure rage towards the whole humanity. And violence in "Murder-Set-Pieces" is not self-sufficient. It just helps to create the mood for the movie and to try to touch something that's unsane. By the way very good is the contrast between ghastly murder/torture scenes and blank, almost sterile-white and beautifully-shot sequences of photo-sessions.
Just try to imagine William Lustig's "Maniac", but more explicit, graphic and shocking. We even see children being slain here which is not a common thing in cinema as we all know. But again these scenes' purpose is not just to shock the audience but to demonstrate all the depth of a man's insanity. And to show the striking difference between glamourous and shiny exterior of the City and its rotten and dark core. Nick Palumbo manages this goal as perfect as it is just possible.
"Murder-Set-Pieces" turned out much better than I expected, being much more than your regular slasher gory flick. And I'd mark small roles by some prominent men of the genre - Tony Todd ("Candyman"), Gunnar Hansen and Edwin Neal ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre"), Fred Vogel ("August Underground").
Don't listen to anybody and don't believe any hype. Don't make up your mind regarding this film on what you heard about it. See it yourself. It's worth your viewing. And it definately is worth being in a collection of anyone who is interested in horror genre.

I am a huge horror movie fan the more disturbing the movie the better, i loved this movie it had a nice amount of gore and torture, it does hit very close to home in the fact it can pretty much happen in real life we dont know who our neighbors are or what hides behind closed doors, It was shot in Las Vegas and centers around a disturbed man who had an abused childhood as far as i can gather his mom was a prostitute who was murdered by a john, and he has issues involving women he seems like an upstanding person to everyone but he has a basement where he tortures women.I loved this movie i think anyone who is a huge horror fan needs to see this movie.

Let me take a moment to personally thank director Nick Palumbo for going where few horror directors even dream of going - he doesn't just go there, he moves right in and throws a freakin' party. I can't imagine any gorehound not being impressed by what they see here (as long as they get the uncut director's version and not the extremely neutered R rated version). Murder-Set-Pieces is, in a word, brutal. No one can ever accuse Palumbo of being a gore tease like the established horror directors in Hollywood. Copious amounts of blood, ultra-realistic scenes of torture, and several extremely violent rape scenes await you in the main character's blood-soaked killing room. And this madman doesn't discriminate by age, either - he's more than happy to hack and slash little girls to pieces when he's not sadistically destroying young women. This film may or may not live up to its tagline ("The most visceral horror film ever made"), but if it falls short, it's not for lack of trying. That's why thought police all over the world have tried to deny you the right to see this movie. It was banned in the UK (not surprising, given the UK's history of censorship), and it was banned from every film festival in North America. The film proudly bills itself as "the only film in the history of cinema that was banned from the Big 3 film labs." The final credits list Herman Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels alongside Robert Ley as executive producers. This Nick Palumbo guy just doesn't care about all of the critics lining up to condemn him and his film, and I love the guy for that. Heck, he even uses one scene in the movie to unabashedly plug his first film, Nutbag: The Story of the Vegas Ripper.

Go out and read some of the film's more critical reviews. It's been damned as "the lowest form of cinematic life," and the New York Times' Ned Martel actually opines about the psychological damage he "knows" some of the actors must have suffered just from appearing in the movie. If you thought the psychological hullabaloo over Danielle Harris' performances in Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers (Divimax Edition) and Halloween 5 - The Revenge of Michael Myers (Divimax Edition) was bad (and it was), you haven't seen anything yet. (Young Jade Risser appears nervous early on, but she rises to the occasion in plenty of time for the film's final harrowing scenes. This girl has all the makings of a terrific scream queen once she reaches the other side of puberty.) When the daiquiri-sipping elitists get this upset over a movie, you know it has to deliver. Criticism of the acting performances is certainly valid, but I have no problem with the killer's brooding, stilted behavior. For Pete's sake, do all of the poo-pooers out there expect an ultra-sadistic butcher to appear perfectly normal?

Needless to say, Murder-Set-Pieces is an independent horror film - a rather expensive one, as indie horror films go (the budget was 2.2 million dollars). Shot on glorious 35 mm film, most of the budget was obviously spent on blood and gore. It features several actual streetwalkers, strippers, and at least one pornstar (Crissy Moran) among its cast of victims (how's that for realism?), but that cast also includes Gunnar Hansen and Edwin Neal from the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2-Disc Ultimate Edition), as well as the legendary Tony "Candyman (Special Edition)" Todd, who acts the hell out of his one memorable scene.

By the way, there is an actual story here underneath all of the blood and body parts. It basically comes down to an unfiltered and daring look into the mind of a sadistic serial killer, with plenty of cinematic tension supplied by the killer's oblivious girlfriend's sister, who seems to be the only person capable of recognizing that the weird German dude is creepy and dangerous. You can't help but worry about young Jade's possible fate, especially when you see how willing the killer is to slaughter innocent little girls.

Unlike most critics, I'm not going to psychoanalyze the killer or the movie itself. Instead, I will just say this: never before has sexual rage been unleashed this viscerally on the big (or small) screen. Murder-Set-Pieces separates the real gorehounds from the wannabes. It's so revolutionary that even some horror fans just don't get it - sadly, a few have even repeated the censorship mantra of the talking heads who make it their business to stifle creativity and to control what you are allowed to see, hear, and think. Whether you love it or hate it, don't let anyone deny you the right to judge this film for yourself.

i want to clarify from the get go that my rating of 2 (i'd actually give it 2.5) stars has nothing to do with me thinking this movie is disgusting. i'm not an over-dramatic type calling this 'torture porn' or anything of the like. i'm a horror fanatic. the entire 2nd floor of my house is dedicated to my love of the genre.... much to the dismay of my very patient wife.

one thing's for sure... there is / was a ton of hype around this film... some of it deserved... some of it not.

if you're reading this, you probably have an idea of what this movie's about, so i'm not going to waste my time going over the basics. i will, however, spend some time going over my issues with the film:

1.) the "plot" (and i use that term very loosely) is almost non-existent. there's just enough to get a vague (and when i say "vague" i mean VERY VAGUE) idea of why this guy does what he does. throughout the movie you see flashbacks to the photographer's childhood that leads you to believe he suffered some sort of abuse as a child. what kind? who knows. was he even actually abused? who knows. is he just crazy? who knows. the rest of the "plot" revolves around the photographer's girlfriend's young sister stumbling in to his "secret hobby shop." basically, there's just enough of plot here to keep this movie from becoming nothing more than five minute mini-torture music videos.

that leads me to my second issue with this film...

2.) nearly all (all?) of the brutal torture / rape / killing scenes are shot in a poorly done marilyn manson-esc video style, complete with generic, stereotypical, crappy heavy metal music. i honestly think if you were to take out the crappy nu-metal, these scenes would have been much more effective. sadly, the way a large portion of these kill scenes were shot remind me of the way the kill scenes in Saw are shot. it really didn't do it for me at all.

3.) don't get me wrong. there is definitely some brutal stuff in this film, but as far as being gory goes, not so much. with the exception of a scene involving a chainsaw, you're basically left with naked women covered in buckets of fake blood. *yawn*. i don't want to ruin the scene involving the chainsaw, but i have my own issues with that as well.

4.) 9/11 flashbacks. again, i'd like to clarify... i'm not a prude when it comes to, well, anything. i'm not going to get up in arms simply because 9/11 footage was used in a film. my issue with this is that it seems to be used for nothing more than shock value. it really is completely irrelevant and out of place here... and try as i might, i just can't come up with a way to tie the happenings of 9/11 with the photographer's constant childhood flashbacks.

5.) the whole "nazi" thing. again... this seems to be used for nothing more than shock value. it serves absolutely no purpose other than to add more disturbing imagery to the film. the way i look at stuff like this is by asking myself "does this help the story? detract from it? neither?" the answer here is an overwhelming "neither." making this guy a nazi sympathizer doesn't aide to the story in the slightest. to me, it's just another excuse to "shock" the audience with pictures of hilter, videos of his speeches and giant nazi flags. i'm not down with that. at least find a way to really tie it in to the story. until then, i call b.s. i hope others out there are smart enough to know when they're being force fed garbage.

the one section in this film that honestly disturbs me... and the one section i'd say is very well shot, is the section that involves his (apparent) son in the crib. my hat's off to palumbo for that. it was so disturbing, in fact, that i actually sat there after the movie was done thinking to myself "what kind of parent would allow their one year old child to be involved in a scene like that?" i'm actually surprise palumbo didn't throw some crappy heavy metal music over that section.

the final nail in this flick's coffin: the ending. yawn city. predictable. boring. anti-climactic. when the credits started rolling, i made a certain up-and-down hand gesture involving my fist being perpendicular to my crotchal region while yawning. this will remain in my dvd collection... mostly because i'm a completest and never part with anything i own in the genre, but i doubt i'll ever watch it again.

i've never seen the R version, but i can only imagine what was cut from it.

final verdict: if you have any interest in seeing this, i suggest renting it before buying it. if you're a huge horror fan, it may be worth checking out. just not so sure it'd be worth spending more than $10 on. if i would have picked this up when it was selling for $50+, i wouldn't have been a happy camper.

I bought the uncut director's cut of MURDER SET PIECES last year and wasn't disappointed. When Lions Gate announced that they were releasing the dvd, I knew it would be R rated (25 or so minutes cut!). Why are so many US film companies scared of controversy? Studio politics reign. It could of been released in R rated and unrated dvds. But like so many of their previous dvds, they chickened out. Back to the film - it was violent, gory, sexy, disturbing and some may say an exploitation movie. But writer/director Nick Palumbo has made a very good serial killer film with the psycho's obsession with Nazis, rape and murder. I laugh at the morons (the film censors) especially here in the UK, they are still out of touch with society and always will. Even THE MATRIX was cut when first released! I digress, MSP is a great example of offending most people. Good! Don't but the R rated dvd, it will be crap.

What would my 2nd "31 Reviews for 31 Days of Halloween" by without knocking back something as notorious and controversial as this film? Let's do it! Well, I'm not usually one that likes to follow or listen to hype. I generally take things in my own stride and if a movie or band or some form of art is up-to-par in my opinion with the rest of the hype, so be it. However, for the longest time I've been interested in checking out "Murder Set Pieces" to see if it really lives up to the shock value rumors and controversy it's accumulated. So, I finally checked it out, and here's both some facts and my opinion on this movie:

Something that should be known right away, this movie is more than just an extreme splatterfest (although it does a darn good job at doing that!). This movie is a look into the mind of a murderer, a psychological exploitation of sorts that shows what fueled them to become this way. During quite a few parts, this movie is actually rather sad, showing how tortured and harped-on the murderer was. In a way, you feel bad for him seeing what a troubled and harsh past he had. This is similar to "Maniac", an equally as heavyhearted '80s goresoaked slasher film. So right off the bat, know that this isn't the sort of gorehound film to watch for kicks and entertainment; it actually gets quite emotional for something so visceral and shocking.

Now on to the controversial matter: I don't usually like giving away spoilers to movies, but just to prove that this movie is as visceral as people say it is, I'll name off a few scenes that struck me. There's a scene where he drags a hooker kicking and screaming into a bathroom with a full bathtub, drenches her head beneath the water and slits her throat. A lot of throat-slitting deaths in films aren't super super graphic, but this one really breathed life into how vicious a throat-slitting scene could be; just see for yourself. I also don't think I have to say much about how he drives a huge chainsaw directly into a girl's skull... yep, there's buckets of red stuff there! Finally, a particularly disturbing clip is when he drops a girl's severed head from the seat of his truck to the ground and you can tell he was getting his rocks off with the girl's severed head's mouth... ew and a half right there!

Now for my favorite part of the review: The ending. I always believe that endings can be make-it-or-break-it moments for horror films. So how does this one fare? Well to be honest, it goes down the route of "We're gonna make it look like there's gonna be a sequel but we're never gonna make it!", that so many horror films have been doomed to end as. I won't give it away but let's just say that since this is a one-off film, I wish they chose to end it a little differently.

Overall, this is a must-view for fans of extreme horror. Though it isn't as sexually perverted as any of the movies in the "August Underground" trilogy, or even any of the classic foreign cannibal films from the '70s and '80s, this movie is one of the bloodiest, goriest, most violent films I've seen in some time. For fans of this brand of horror, definitely watch it! Thanks for the time, and peace.

For those of you, like me, who thought the movie adaptation of "American Psycho" was a total cop-out, this is a lot closer to what it should've looked like. If you want to get it, check out xploitedcinema. I bought mine from them. Great seller.

I am an avid horror fan. I was extremely excited to get this film from Amazon after reading about it here and elsewhere. No spoilers here, just a list of things you might want to consider before buying this film.

1. The film does have "shots" of women that have been sadistically brutalized. These "shots" are convincing and very bloody. However, the disappointment is that we rarely (perhaps once or twice we see parts of an actual crime taking place, hitting women, slashing thorats, stabbing a child). But really we see the killer lifting weights more than we see him killing. We also see him having soft-core porn sex with a two or three of his victims (and that is more graphic than any actual act of violence perpetrated against the victims). Remember, the actual "images" of violence are there, but the "acts" are largely absent.

2. We don't get much violence and on top of that the characters are unconvincing and amateurish. Sometimes amateur acting adds to a horror film's realism. It didn't work here. The protagonist delivers a completely unconvincing performance and is laughable. He's as plain as they come.

3. Also, it would have been nice to have some subtitles for the German parts. If this was intentional, I found it a pointless choice.

I saw only the Director's Cut of this movie so this review only concerns that.

The "plot" of this movie is paper thin, but that's what I expected when I picked up this film. It involves a serial killer that has nazi roots that decides that no one is good enough to keep alive. That about sums it up except that he does have a girlfriend at the beginning of the film and she has a daughter that thinks something is odd about him. The dinner scene is especially "revealing."

What I didn't expect were cameos with Gunnar Hansen from Texas Chainsaw fame and Tony Todd from Candyman. their scenes are fun (in a sick sort of way of course). By having them in this flick it shows that the director really respects the horror genre, to me that's important. I'm so tired of directors that do a horror flick then go on to direct other things just so that they can make a buck.

There is a lot of care taken in the making of this movie. The lighting, camerawork, film quality and music really sets the mood well. The lighting is reminiscent of some of Dario Argento's work in Suspiria, lots of very strong colors.

This film is made for splatter fans that don't really need a lot of suspense or plot but just want to see a good amount of torture, gratuitous violence and some bad acting, which doesn't really detract from the overall intent of this movie, which is to make you say, "I can't believe that they just showed that!"

I don't think that there is more than about 3 mins that goes by without having some type of bloodshed shown. That to me is satisfying, so the movie delivers on several points, the body count is HIGH, the film is shot very well and some of the "set pieces" will leave some people repulsed (not me, but people that aren't used to this type of film). Is it the most extreme thing that's out there? No, but this is made for splatter fans only!

I know it sounds like I should have given this film 5 stars but there was 1 element that I didn't find that I would have liked to have more of and that's intensity. The killer yelling at people in German while raping/torturing/killing them didn't really convey the intensity that I felt should have been there. Maybe I'm just jaded because I've seen so many horror movies but the way some of the scenes start we are already deep into the torture, I would have liked to see some build up to the actual scenes.

I'm not saying the movie totally lacks intensity but it could have really built up the scenes and then gone off with the excessive violence which would have had more of an impact. Overall, if your looking for splatter, you should enjoy what you find here, I did.

The DVD also contains an easter egg, when you go to the trailer section you will see the little girl's eye turn red by scrolling down the list of trailers, click on it and there is a preview of Fred Vogel's August Underground there. Fred helped with special effects on Murder Set Pieces and also has a brief cameo as well for those who know his "work."

Considered my many to be one of the most controversial & visceral films ever made, Palumbo's one-way ticket to Hell is a brutal ride indeed. Of course, there are films out there which have quite the reputation as being the most revolting horror films ever made guaranteed to satisfy even the seasoned horror fan who thinks he's seen everything & M-S-P gets my vote as the "video nasty" of our time.

I'm not referring to those who believe they're hardcore simply because they watched the Saw trilogy in the local multiplex. I'm talking about people who've seen classics like The Manson Family, Cannibal Holocaust, & Nacho Cerda's Aftermath/Genesis. If you have watched these or are somewhat familiar with the titles, you've come a long way & might be ready for Palumbo's UNRATED Murder-Set- Pieces. (I'm only referring to the Director's Cut as the Lions Gate edit was snipped to ribbons by at least 20-23 minutes.) M-S-P is one of the most brutal, nasty, & downright ghoulish horror films ever made. I say this in a cordial way.

For the guy who thought he'd seen it all, I wasn't prepared. In fact, I felt a bit soiled after watching it & left the bathroom light on in the hallway. Finally, I've seen the film that goes almost all the way & there is nothing else like it to the best of my knowledge. Yes!! You have it all here!! There are ugly throat slashings, decapitated heads, & the most nauseating rape scenes ever. If that doesn't send you over the edge, our beloved psychopath also kills a young child & there is a scene of cannibalism to boot. Finally, a film that does everything it aspired to do & then some which shocks the living hell out of everyone. Palumbo doesn't just push the horror envelope. He shoves it down your throat .

Set in the Sin City known as Las Vegas, M-S-P tells the unsavory story of a German photographer who loves to capture beautiful on film before & after he kills them. That's not to suggest he discriminates. He will also kill virtually anyone who stands in his way including porn shop cashiers, criminals, & naturally young children. It would seem that nothing can stop this madman & one should steer clear if at possible. Night after night, he prowls the streets searching for beautiful girls to have sex with & photograph before he proceeds to torture them to death. Trust me when I say that things don't always happen in this order necessarily.

While the plot line may be very paper thin, Palumbo does gives us a true visual feast with the colorful lighting & photography. Rue Morgue actually praised his masterful set pieces & even made a comparison to fright auteur Dario Argento, which is quite impressive.

I have come to the conclusion this may very well be one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer nor the darkly humorous American Psycho which are both excellent films by any standards. Murder-Set-Pieces has outdone both of them & probability suggests there will never be another film to shock me senseless like Palumbo's masterpiece. If anyone has seen this film, please feel free to leave me comments. Unpleasant dreams, my friends......