Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
As a self-proclaimed mindless supporter of all things bloody and pointless, I couldn’t help but find myself drawn to this little documentary, as it explores the movies that basically helped shape and form my moral code. When you see the names of all your favorite slasher flicks on the cover of a DVD, you kind of have to give it a chance.
The documentary explores the origins of the slasher genre, hearkening back to films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Prom Night. There are some cursory glances at films before that, but they are never really given any weight or credit. The film then explores the slasher boom that took place in the 80’s, eventually flooding the market with substandard pieces of crap like Pieces, The Horror Show, and any other movie where a dude kills some chicks just cuz. From there, Going to Pieces follows a traditional “Kevin Williamson” approach to describe the downfall of the slasher genre… a cheap way out, that ignores the scores of quality slasher flicks that, while not attaining critical or box office success, have found their way into the hearts of horror fans everywhere.
Adam Rockoff fills his empty love letter to the slasher genre with many platitudes and several interviews from some of the genres best known actors, directors, and special effects people. Of course… Rockoff is a writer and not a documentarian and this fact becomes apparent very early on in the film as he devotes valuable discussion time to explaining the plots and intricacies of films that, let’s face it, most people that are even willing to pick up the movie have seen 10 or 20 times. In the end, Rockoff’s lack of documentary meat turns the film into a kind of primer course for those that don’t know jack shit about slasher flicks or their history.
For those of us that already know a shitload about slashers, there is nothing new here except a compilation of excerpts from well-known slasher flicks, that while being an enjoyable romp down memory lane, provide us with nothing remotely interesting or new. Rockoff misses his target audience by a mile, as he attempts to explain away the psychological motivations and criticism that has befallen this under-appreciated genre. Instead of looking at what makes the films so great, he attempts to find a reasoning for their under-performance at the box office and the slasher genres co-option by Hollywood heavyweights looking to make a quick buck.
The sad fact is that the title of the film itself is erroneous. The slasher film has never fallen and has remained an integral part of any horror fan’s viewing. While they may not pull in the box office business of shit like Meet the Spartans, there has always been and will always be an interest in killers killing random fuckers for simplistic reasons. Besides if you’re counting box office success as a sign of a genre’s particularly livelihood, you need to pull your lips off of Hollywood’s capitalist teat and redefine your terms for success.
Going to Pieces is only interesting to those that have no interest in the slasher genre or those that believe the genre to be dead. Real slasher fans will find the film light viewing, as it barely scratches the surface of the complexities within the genre. It’s a shame, because Rockoff clearly has a love for slasher movies and the interviews that he manages to pull are amazing. It’s too bad he makes his interviewees talk about specific movies and how they got made, as their ideas about the state of horror are much more interesting when they manage to bleed through Rockoff’s surface level questions.
Final Synopsis: Check this out if you’ve never seen a slasher flick, but are kind of interested in them. Otherwise, you can skip this doc.
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