In my recent review of Arrow Video’s superb Blu-ray release of The Mutilator I mentioned the Holy Trinity of Sleazy 80’s Slasher Trash. This is basically my name for three of the sleaziest, trashiest slashers the 80’s graced us with. These three movies all hold a very special place in my heart. The first of these movies was obviously The Mutilator, the second is Pieces.

Pieces opens up in Boston in 1942 in what appears to be a very loving house. A little boy is in his bedroom, intently focused on putting together a puzzle. His mother walks in and watches over him and looks very happy. Then she catches a glimpse of the puzzle – it’s a naked woman, full frontal. Mother becomes furious! She hits the boy and knocks the puzzle to pieces. She begins shouting that the boy is filthy just like his father. She frantically searches his room looking for more perverted materials. In her anger she sends her son to get a bag because she plans to gather up his possessions and set them on fire. The boy comes back but instead of a bag he has an axe which he proceeds to hack his mother to death with. And oh what a bloody hacking it is!

Forty years later at a college campus a lunatic begins slashing up young women with a chainsaw. These are no ordinary slayings, mind you. The killer chops his victims up into various pieces and takes limbs with him. Who is this killer and what is his ultimate endgame? Luckily Lt. Bracken (Christopher George) and Sgt. Holden (Frank Brana) show up to investigate the situation.

After a meeting with the school’s dean (Edmund Purdom), Bracken and Holden are able to come up with a couple of prime suspects, headlined by the school’s gardener Willard (Paul Smith). Willard is a big bearded fellow who just looks guilty. Plus he has easy access to a chainsaw. All signs early on point to Willard.

Unfortunately more deaths occur even with Bracken and Holden on the scene. Realizing they are basically taking shots in the dark, or as Bracken puts it “We’re just out buying clothes without labels and trying them on for size,” the detectives decide to bring in re-enforcements. Their choices of re-enforcements are interesting to say the least. They call on the help Kendall (Ian Sera), a student at the school who for some reason is a very desirable hunk. At one point Kendall is having sex with this random girl and he stops because she’s making too much noise and he’s afraid people are going to think another murder is taking place. This girl begs Kendall to keep having sex with her. She promises she’ll be quiet, going so far as to suggest Kendall gags her. I told you, he’s a hunk.

Bracken is no fool. He isn’t going solely rely on the help of a college kid he just met to track down a ruthless killer. That would be foolish! He also calls on Mary Riggs (Lynda Day George), a former tennis champion who is now a cop working a desk job. Mary is tired of her desk job because it provides no action. Bracken has her go undercover as the school’s new tennis instructor. Bracken doesn’t have full confidence in Mary though, because he asks Kendall to watch over her. This all makes sense!

I’ll never be able to accurately articulate how much I love this movie. Much like I’ll never be able to fully explain it to someone that has yet to see it. Somehow director Juan Piquer Simón and his crew made a number of errors when making Pieces. Instead of suffering the fate most films riddled with mistakes fall, Pieces formed the perfect storm and resulted in cinematic glory. Honestly, this movie is a wonder to behold.

There are so many moments in Pieces that make little to no sense. The very first scene that occurs once the movie skips ahead to the 80’s probably makes the least sense of all. In what is essentially an establishing shot of the campus, or at least the campus area, we see a girl riding a skateboard. And she’s not very good at it. She’s like a Weeble Wobble, struggling heavily to keep her balance. This scene is actually very reminiscent to a skateboarding scene in T.L.P. Swicegood’s The Undertaker and His Pals, which is a pretty bad movie that you probably don’t need to see but I kind of think you should see it. This scene ends with the girl riding straight into a huge sheet of glass. This is the last of her.

I’ve already briefly touched base on a tennis champion turning undercover cop and Kendall being a sex magnet. Both those are very weird but not nearly as weird as the Bruce Le cameo. There is a scene in the film with Mary walking around the campus late at night when she is attacked by someone performing karate. Le is this person performing karate and he’s apparently had some bad sushi. Le built a career as a Bruce Lee clone starring in such films as Way of the Dragon 2 and Return of Bruce. There’s literally no reason for him to be in this movie but as the story goes the film’s producer Dick Randall was working on Kung-fu movies at the same time and wanted to work him in. And you know, for as much as it doesn’t make sense, it also strangely fits.

Another bizarre choice that I kind of love is that when dead bodies start turning up, guys in all white come out with a stretcher to collect the bodies. Now these bodies are all chopped up. So they have to grab limbs, one-by-one, and place them on the stretcher. It’s kind of amazing.

Then you have the killer, who basically looks like the Shadow. He’s remarkable for a lot of reasons. For starters he wears black gloves that don’t really seem to fit. Maybe it’s just me but they look waaaaay too big. I wonder why he couldn’t get gloves that fit? My favorite thing about him though is that his weapon of choice is a chainsaw. Not his only weapon of course, but it’s his preferred weapon. He prefers this weapon so much that at one point he plans out a kill by placing the chainsaw inside the school’s swimming room ahead of time. Then when a would-be victim goes for a swim, he’s able to enter the room and grab the chainsaw. Genius! But he doesn’t stop there, no! Later in the film he hides the chainsaw behind his back as he stalks a girl onto an elevator. He just holds it right behind his back! Brilliant!

If you haven’t seen Pieces before I think you’re actually quite lucky. Grindhouse Releasing has just released the ultimate Blu-ray of Pieces and going forward this is the only way the film should be viewed. The picture quality is stunning! S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G! Grindhouse Releasing had previously released a DVD version of the film that was excellent and this new release outplays that DVD in so many ways, starting first and foremost with the crystal clear picture quality.

Of course what sets Grindhouse Releasing apart is the ridiculous number of special features they include. This is a 3-disc set containing two Blu-rays and one CD. The CD is the film’s soundtrack, containing all 16 tracks. The packaging also includes a 6-page booklet. And if you were able to grab one of the first 3,000 copies of the film you got a replica of the puzzle from the opening scene. The puzzle is one of the coolest bonuses I’ve ever seen included on a release, comes with blood splatters and everything.

The first Blu-ray includes the film in two cuts. There’s the English cut and then the uncensored director’s cut which is in Spanish and is about 90 seconds longer. This disc also includes a commentary with actor Jack Taylor who plays Professor Brown in the film. You also get an image gallery with loads of pictures from production stills to publicity materials and a whole lot more.

The second Blu-ray is even more jam-packed. You get the feature-length documentary 42^nd Street Memories which chronicles the legacy of New York City’s famous street of sleaze. This is an awesome documentary that includes interviews with the likes of Joe Dante, Lloyd Kaufman and more. If interviews are your cup of tea, this disc also offers a brief audio interview with producer Steve Minasian and two lengthy interviews, one with Paul Smith and the second with Juan Piquer Simón. All great stuff that will keep you entertained for hours and makes you want to watch the movie all over again.

Pieces is one of the best Blu-ray releases I’ve ever seen. Currently it’s neck-and-neck with Arrow’s release of The Mutilator for best release of 2016. I know we’re barely in March, but I’m pretty certain no release will be able to top either of these two. And if there is another release that manages to top Pieces later in the year, then 2016 will end up be a very good year for horror fans everywhere.

Pieces is now available on Blu-ray from Grindhouse Releasing.