An Exercise In Nonsense

Am I Missing Something?

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

Its a rarity that I give a movie a 1, a 1 is for when a movie literally has absolutely no redeeming features at all and that's hardly a frequent event. I give a movie a 1 about as often as FOX news report something without bias.What threw me was the lack of production value, the movie looks awful despite a surprisingly high budget for a movie of this type. Three people with name value (Tony Todd, Cerina Vincent and Gunnar Hansen) star but must be doing a favour for someone as I simply cannot see how they would have been roped into this mess any other way.And when I say roped into I mean literally, reinforced diamond lasso covered in superglue level of roping! The story is thin, it all looks terrible, several scenes are hard to watch and I don't mean gore or violence I mean sexual violence and graphic torture that is done in such a way that you just feel wrong watching it. Like walking in on your parents sleeping together, you've seen "That" plenty of times but under these circumstances, with these variables and your parents in the mix it's something that will stay with you forever, haunt your dreams and possibly cause an expensive few years of therapy.Bottom line here is that Murder-Set-Pieces must have been made by a sick puppy with no knowledge of film making and who must have spent the money on catering, extras or perhaps liquefied his assets at the bar but it certainly didn't go on the film.

This movie had so much potential for gore fans but the story itself was not thought out very well....the acting is bad and the editing is even WORSE.....the sequence of events is IMPOSSIBLE to figure out.....it seems as though all of the scenes were just thrown together at random....one of the worst made movies i've ever seen....one minute its day time....then its night...then day again...you never can tell which day or night you are watching.....if it wasn't for the shock value, i would not own this movie.....it would take too long to type out all the stupidity in this movie...but at least it does have "controversy" going for it..and the director's cut is rare,so......

Oh. My. God.Blood. Gore. Violence. Brutality. Sadism. Pain. Torture. Humiliation. And of course, sex.I don't even know where to begin or how to remotely address the 90 minutes I've just gone through. The two dominating scene types in this film are naked women with big breasts being brutally raped, and naked women with big breasts getting cut/beaten/choked to death. This film has more blood in it than the entire population of America. And as if that isn't enough - the sadistic psychotic misogynistic killer is also a Nazi. I'm shocked and appalled. Mission accomplished, Palumbo, you sick twisted f***.I'll attempt a little objectivity for the sake of a well written review, but forgive me if I fail, as I have no motivation what so ever to succeed.I guess that in a way you could say this was "hipster horror" showing a very very sick way of "art", De-Sade style. I guess showing us all these terrible horrible revolting scenes of blood, rape and slaughter was maybe an innovative way of depicting the sick sadistic mind of a sick sadistic man. Many many films tried to make an audience understand the sickness of the truly sadistically insane. This film aced it, and not in a good way (is there a good way for such a thing?)I've read many complaints about plot holes - I didn't actually notice them, I actually thought the story was told in a good way, in a "by the way" kind of manner through the murders and events in the killer's everyday life.As for acting - I can't really judge based on such a film, but the female characters did scream and "suffer" in a very convincing way (except for the little girl who was very unconvincing and amateur, especially in the final 10 minutes.Everything about this movie was sick and sickening. I don't know if this fact makes this film worthy of a 10 or a 1, as I'm not sure what scale to use with such a film. Settle for a 5, as I am more shaken up now then I've ever been after a Horror film. Heck, I didn't want to watch Hostel on account the "troubling" scenes, but now? It would be like Disney. All I can say is this: if you watch this film and truly have a good time - there's something horribly wrong with you.

Wow - pages and pages of reviews for an independent movie that people seem to hate so much! I tell you, the worst disservice you could do to a film you dislike is to ignore it. Submitting so many reviews are really doing a service for the film, as more and more folks will begin to wonder what the 'fuss' was all about, and see it.Goody. I liked this movie. There are very few films on my 'short list' of flicks that I'm happy to watch and re-watch, but this one has been added. I see little point in adding more and more details about the gore and plot lines since a) I promised no spoilers and b) there's a few hundred people that already did this. So I'll just mention a few things that impressed me.The directing and filmography works. For example, the rapid dichotomy from gruesome torture sequences in a dungeon of horror switching to brightly lit scenes of innocence featuring young actress Jade Risser and her school friends creates an effect - kind of like hot chocolate floats from Carvel - the contrast between the hot chocolate and cold vanilla ice cream is simply splendid! And speaking of Ms. Risser, she does a marvelous job here. From her IMDb bio, I'm guessing that she's either decided that acting will not be her chosen profession, or perhaps she wants to finish school first. But I'd seek out more films featuring her, if any are ever made.The music score is present, and works nicely - from the heavy metal played during the torture sequences to the electronic soundtrack during the credits and chase sequences. I personally care a lot about the 'complete package', and a movie without effective music is, to me, like a day without sunshine. Dario Argento's many entertaining works are also masterful blends of music and horror - and Palumbo cites Argento as an influence.This film is not 'great art', and I don't think it was intended to be. I wouldn't even try to compare it with 'Silence of the Lambs' - a film like that was about plot and acting, but my two viewings of that one I'd say, were sufficient. This one isn't about plot and acting (though has both), but is about exactly what the title promises: Murder Set Pieces. We are promised that, and we get that. And there IS a plot, and there IS dialog, and some of the dialog IS actually interesting, and the psychological snapshots of the killer's mental state are useful for understanding what's going on with him. (See, for example, Argento's 'Tenebrae'.)And we DO get characters to care about (at least one, anyway), and we DO get a somewhat satisfying ending (maybe not the ending I would have liked, but it's Palumbo's film - not mine).I've loaned my copy of this film out to friends, and just about all of them enjoy it. That's why I was a bit surprised to see how it was trashed here at the IMDb, but like I said - it is probably a testament to the effectiveness of a film to elicit the degree of response it did.I shall be viewing this film many times again (and I've already watched it though once with commentary on - something I rarely do, since I usually find voice-over commentary to be boring - but in this case, I was really interested in what Palumbo and Garrett had to say about the filming of the scenes and their take on the movie and the characters). If I'm going to give any criticism of the plot, just for balance, then I'd say that I was bothered somewhat by the lack of police presence, as certainly the police would have been very involved in investigating a series of murders of this magnitude in a major city like Las Vegas (heck - the police are more present in the flick 'Fargo', and a small town like that has about two people on the police force and there's only ONE murder under investigation).So all I can say is that I recommend that you view this film, with the understanding that you know what you'll be getting - certainly not a film for the squeamish. And as for being 'scared'? Well - sorry, maybe I'm too old, or two jaded; I can't remember the last time I found any film to be 'scary' (horror or otherwise), but I've seen to many - I know all the tricks, I can't really be impressed (very rarely, anyhow) - but I don't need to be 'scared' in order to be 'entertained', and it's really 'entertainment' that I look for when I spend my valuable time watching a movie, nowadays.ews1212