Sunday, November 21, 2010

Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006)

This was a solid, albeit spastic, documentary on the history of slasher movies.  They have some pretty great interviews with the regulars like Tom Savini and Wes Craven, as well as some obscure people such as the now-rabbi director of Graduation Day.  However, I do wish they would have included more actors/actresses....they basically were only able to get Angela from Sleepaway Camp and Betsy Palmer from Friday the 13th.

This doc covers slasher flicks starting with Psycho and moving up through The Devil's Rejects.  It is a bit biased in the fact that it spends lots of time on some movies, and then very little on others that you would think deserved covering.  It was clear that they got certain permissions, and favored the interviewees by focusing a little more on their movies than others.

There wasn't a ton of new information here for true horror fans, although I definitely learned a few new things.  I was an infant when the Silent Night, Deadly Night protests took place, and it was pretty interesting to see all the 80s moms out picketing a killer Santa.  It was also pretty cool to see all the obscure nonsense horror movies that came out when slasher pics were at their prime in the 80s.

A word of warning to possible viewers: make sure you've seen all the "classics" before watching.  This documentary spoils a bunch of slashers including Sleepaway Camp, April Fool's Day, Prom Night, and Happy Birthday to Me.

Definitely a cool documentary to check out, but just don't expect to find a wealth of information, especially if you have seen Never Sleep Again or His Name was Jason.

2 comments:

James Gracey said...

Thanks for the tip-off regarding spoilers! I've been trying to check this out for ages, now. Had been trying to obtain a copy of the book it's based on, but as it's now out of print, the only copies floating around in cyberspace are ridiculously expensive!
Hope you're well! :)

The Scream Queen said...

@James: It's on Netflix instant right now if you have that! They also have Nightmares in Red, White and Blue, which I am looking forward to seeing.

And thanks, everything is well here :o) Been doing a lot of writing and hitting some cons. Wish I could quit my day job LoL