MURDER-SET-PIECES

Directed, Produced & Written by Nick Palumbo
Cinematography by Brendan Flynt
Fx by Toe Tag Pictures
Cast: Sven Garrett, Gunnar Hansen, Tony Todd, Ed Neal, Cerina Vincent & Jade Kisser

2004/105 mins/Color/Stereo
1.85:1/English/US/VHS

Sven Garrett plays a neo-Nazi, photographer and serial killer. He roams the street of Las Vegas searching for his next victim which most of the time happens to be prostitutes. Sound familiar, it should as MURDER-SET-PIECES is more or less a remake of the director's previous movie, NUTBAG.

Shot on 35mm, this is NUTBAG all over again but with a bigger budget. The film looks great as the cinematography from Flynt brings much needed life to a rather grim film. Even though it steals from most horror classic, the musical score is another strong point of the movie. But like NUTBAG the movie missed the point. It tries too hard to be disturbing and disgusting that it almost becomes laughable.

My biggest complain about this moviee was the same for NUTBAG, the lead actor is simply awful! Sven Garrett overact every scenes he's in, sorry but this won't make him scary... well his acting actually is. A much better lead would have make the whole movie a much better experience. Are German speaking people crazy?! Sorry but hearing someone speak in German doesn't scare me and the whole nazi thing is becoming more then old and tired. Just look at Joe Spinelli's amazing perfomance in MANIAC, a film M-S-P tries too hard to top, and you will understand how a serial killer movie can work. Same could be said for HENRY PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or the recently released THE HILLSIDE STRANGLER.

Another problem with the movie is that people have to understand that even though we love it, tits and gore don't make a film. It sure helps but if the story isn't involving or intriguing there's no point of watching the same thing for 90 plus minutes. Much like NUTBAG, there's plenty of nude scenes... surprisingly the women were much better looking in NUTBAG saved for porn star Chrissy Moran who has a small cameo in this one. About the much talked about gore scenes, sure the fx are much better then NUTBAG but lots of them still appears offscreen. The Toe Tag gang who gave us the equally highly promoted but in the end disapointing MORDUM AUGUST UNDERGROUND deliver their best fx yet. The ending with the battle between the 12 year old girl and the killer will have you laugh out loud... didn't AMERICAN PSYCHO 2 already had something similar and it ruined the film?

I was hoping that MURDER-SET-PIECES could turn out the film we've all been hearing it was but it is not. Still this is a big step up from NUTBAG and hopefully next time the casting call for the lead will take more time then choosing which chicks will show her boobs onscreen.

Sorry but this ain't better then HAUTE TENSION or SAW...