by Iloz Zoc
Around two-thirds into Murder-Set-Pieces I looked at my watch. I don't do that often when watching a film. In this case, though, I looked at it twice. I really wanted to get it over with, and, unlike some reviewers less meticulous (or masochistic) than I, I always watch the whole movie just to make sure I don't miss anything that remotely resembles art, or scares, or anything that stands out as a memorable horror-moment. I was disappointed that I didn't find anything like that here.
At the end of the movie I sighed with relief and wondered what I ever did to the staff at The Haunted Report to warrant them sending me this emotionless and tensionless excursion into the mind and actions of a one-dimensional, neo-Nazi, muscle-bound serial killing photographer prowling Las Vegas for his next torture-gig photo shoot. America's Top Model has more tension. Maybe I should send the staff a fruit basket for the holidays. Then maybe they'd send me the A stuff.
While many of the reviews for Murder-Set-Pieces mercilessly castigate director Nick Palumbo as a misogynistic this or racist that, that's not quite the vibe I picked up. He's just doing what any director does — telling his unsavory story through the camera lens. I actually thought Palumbo did a solid job of direction, but just made some questionable choices with the material, like his confusing use of ill-placed, tinkling music, flashbacks and shock-montages into the fractured mind of the nutbag photographer, or the spin-art overuse of blood on everything in sight. Then there's the bordering-on-comic way he'd cut to the photographer driving in his Mustang, again and again, prowling night-time Las Vegas for more nudie-cutie opportunities, with the same overused audio of the car's engine racing and sputtering.
But the most important directorial misstep here is the lack of tension-building suspense and the pedestrian way in which each murder-set-piece is handled. At no time are any of the tortures or murders the least bit shocking, the least bit emotionally draining. We follow the photographer around, as he bounces off the padded walls of his mind, as if we're carrying his equipment bag and nothing more. And when he whips out that straight razor, there's no fearful whimper from us, no gasps. Perhaps I'd have been more drawn in with the uncut version of the film, but Anchor Bay's R-rated DVD only implies defilement and torture, and cuts away from the chainsaw-through-head type of chunky violence gore-hounds love. So gore-hounds be warned: look for the uncut version if you are so inclined. As for me, I'd rather have more meat and less sauce.
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
Be careful what you say, Palumbo may send you a nasty email like he did to me.
2 - ILoz Zoc
Chris, I thought of your review and the director/writer's response to it while writing this. My doors are locked.
3 - Chris Beaumont
Ha ha! He never did reply to my response. Maybe he'll take a hint.