GOING TO PIECES is a fun reflection on the slasher genre, primarily exploring the wave of American slasher flicks that came out since the success of Carpenter's HALLOWEEN in 1978. Other influences such as Argento and Bava are only mentioned in passing, and there are some notable omissions (what about BLACK Christmas?) but for the most part this is a fun and in-depth look at a much-maligned sub-genre of film.Obviously, the documentary is awash with clips that take up about two-thirds of the running time. Most of these focus on the goriest of the kill scenes in each film, so if that's your bag then you'll enjoy yourself. However, in addition, we get interviews with tons of guys involved with the production of these movies; writers, producers, directors, occasionally stars. You'd expect to see Carpenter and Savini here, but I appreciated the less well-known faces too. GOING TO PIECES is a great watch for anyone with even a minor interest in the slasher genre.

I have the book with the same title and that was marvelous, everything was included, great, and then there was this DVD. What a great documentary. If you hate to read a book watch this DVD. It starts with Peeping Tom and Psycho, up to Halloween and Friday The 13th, the differences between the two movies, told by directors, Fangoria editor and so on. as in the book they aren't afraid to tell about the decline of the slashers and the rise of the second era starting with Scream, again they show the differences between old school and the new slashers. There are a lot stills and fragments shown from those flicks. Okay, I know , some people complain about the fact that Blood Feast and Texas Chainsaw Massacre aren't included. But nothing is perfect. But if you ever want to tell someone about slashers then this DVD is a great companion. And as extra's they included a quiz, great fun. Oh yeah, I got my version in the Last House On The Left Ultimate 3 Disc edition, you know, the white box with red letters. And it clocks in at 90 minutes, not as said here on IMDb.

This is an interesting and pretty thorough documentary on the slasher film. It's not as good as reading a book on the subject, of course (there are several now, and this documentary is based on one of the better ones), but you get lots of films clips, and some interviews, not only with the usual horror convention attendees like Tom Savini and Felissa Rose,but also with more obscure characters like the Rabbi Herbert Freed who directed the obscure slasher "Graduation Day" (before he was a rabbi, of course).What's most interesting for someone like me who is old enough to remember the first wave of slasher movies, is to recall how alarmed adults were at the time by these movies, which look like pretty harmless fun now. I especially remember the way they actually picketed "Silent Night, Deadly Night" because they were upset by the idea of an axe-murdering Santa Claus (in an ideal world these kind of idiots would be met with tear gas and police batons, just like anti-war protesters--who often have a legitimate reason for being upset--often are).It's also ironic how widely available, thanks to DVD, uncut versions of these movies are today, considering how they were hacked up by American censors back then or outright banned over in Britain. It's probably just as stupid to get worked up about movies like "Hostel" or "Captivity" like people do nowadays. Remember the famous ad-line to "Last House on the Left" (one movie this doc barely mentions, although I guess it isn't really a slasher). "It's only a movie... It's only a movie. . .

'Going to Pieces' is a good and quite complete review of the history of the slasher movie genre. It succeeds to show quite well the origins of the genre in the American horror movies, and then provides quite an extensive review of the development and pick of popularity it reached in the 80s, its decline and its renaissance in the late 90s. Bringing to screen interviews with many of the major creators of some of the more popular films, fans, as well as critics of the genre makes the viewing interesting.Yet I could not escape the feeling that the authors focused to much on making an entertaining film rather than making a more serious analysis and examining more extensively the context of the slasher movies in the evolution of cinema. The almost exclusive American focus is one flaw, only the influence of the Italian movies of the 70s is mentioned, but what about the classical German films, or what about the contemporary Far East movies? Today the genre is more popular in Japan and Korea than any other place on the planet and some major movies came out from there in the last few years. Connections with related genres like zombies movies and even horror science fiction could have been more explored as well. As it stands 'Going to Pieces' risks to become one of the objects of interest in the genre it deals with, a film targeting mainly the same captive audience who watches these movies anyway.