Christopher George

Lynda Day George

Frank Braña

Edmund Purdom

Ian Sera

Paul L. Smith

Jack Taylor

Gérard Tichy

May Heatherly

Leticia Marfil

Hilda Fuchs

Isabel Luque

Silvia Gambino

Emilio Linder

Pilar Alcón

Huang Kin-Lung

Cristina Cottrelli

Roxana Nieto

Carmen Aguado

Paco Alvez

Juan Piquer Simón

Dick Randall

Juan Mariné

Stephen Minasian

Stelvio Cipriani

Carlo Maria Cordio

Librado Pastor

Antonio Gimeno

Basilio Cortijo

Roberto Loyola

Gumersindo Andrés

Gonzalo Gonzalo

Alicia Regueiro

Pedro Camacho

Francisco Ariza

Manuel Pinilla

Juan Jesús Escudero

José Antonio Villalba

Julio Bragado Darman

José Luis Martínez

Mercedes Marfil

Horror

Thriller

Mil gritos tiene la noche

Almena Films

Spain

***The Shadow knows… and slays with a chainsaw!***

Someone is murdering women at a Boston campus with a chainsaw and acquiring body parts for some unknown purpose. Christopher George plays the lieutenant in charge of the investigation while Lynda Day George is on hand as a tennis instructor.

“Pieces” (1982) borrows components of previous slashers, like “Psycho” (1960), “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (1974) and the first two “Friday the 13th” movies (1980-1981), but places the story at a Massachusetts university. Yet this is actually a Euro-horror flick shot in Madrid with some exteriors from Boston. Unlike “Halloween” (1978) and “Friday the 13th,” which were state-of-the art at the time and therefore have a timeless quality despite the obsolete fashions, “Pieces” is dated and feels like an early-to-mid 70’s flick. The ambient score, which is reminiscent of “The Warriors” (1979), and an outdated rock track contribute to this vibe.    

This is a Whodunit with a killer that dresses like The Shadow and prefers a chainsaw. The idea that a person can inconspicuously move about a campus in such peculiar apparel while lugging around a freakin’ chainsaw is unlikely to say the least. Another amusing quirk is when a curious Kung Fu instructor suddenly appears and just as quickly disappears.

If you can laugh with these hitches, along with the dubbing, “Pieces” is actually a serious murder mystery with a thought-out story, a decent cast, convincing gore and a good eye for women, such as the aerobics instructor and student.   

The film runs 1 hour, 25 minutes. The Spanish title is “Mil gritos tiene la noche,” which translates as “One Thousand Screams in the Night.”

GRADE: B