Murder-Set-Pieces (2004)

User Rating:

3.7/10   

Director:

Nick Palumbo

Writer:

Nick Palumbo (writer)

Release Date:

1 April 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

The most visceral horror film ever made

Plot:

Set against Sun City, Las Vegas, "Murder-Set-Pieces" tells the story of a fashion photographer whose vocation is murder.

Plot Keywords:

Photographer | Blood | Camera | Chainsaw | Child Murder

Cast

Sven Garrett	...	The Photographer
Tony Todd	...	Clerk
Cerina Vincent	...	Beautiful Girl
Gunnar Hansen	...	Nazi Mechanic
Edwin Neal	...	Good Samaritan
Jade Risser	...	Jade
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Valerie Baber	...	Charlotte
Natasha Bunker	...	Dancing Blonde Girl
Jennifer Cross	...	Basement Girl #4
Jerami Cruise	...	Video Victim
Jessie DeRoock	...	Young Photographer
Carmen Dunn	...	Old Lady #1
Shawna Edge	...	Bud Rider
Kylle Epperson	...	Green Ball Girl
Carrie Flaska	...	Basement Girl #2
Kendra Flynt	...	Baby Girl
Joan Gibbs	...	Old Lady #2
Casie Gillespie	...	Candy
Tanja Grupp	...	German Mother
Shawna Hale	...	Basement Girl #6
Andrea Hartman	...	Basement Girl #1
Jaremy Haye	...	Security Guard
Natalie Himmler	...	Halloween Girl #1
Liv Holley	...	Pole Girl
Christina Holsinger	...	Hooker #3
Shelby Jackson	...	Dildo Girl #2
Shawna Jacobs	...	Ice Cream Girl #1
Jamie Jent	...	High Chair Girl #2
Karri Jonas	...	Halloween Girl #5
Hannah Keough	...	Halloween Girl #3
Maria Keough	...	Little Girl on Bus
Stacy Kushniruk	...	Basement Girl #5
Shandee Lang	...	High Chair Girl #1
Danyel Makenna	...	Bus Rider
Rob Marchitti	...	Bus Rider
Jill Michelle	...	Various (voice)
Andrea Mitchell	...	Model
Crissy Moran	...	Tree Girl #1
Sarah Murray	...	Strip Girl #2
Stephanie Negrete	...	Dream Girl
Lana Stewart Nold	...	Basement Girl #7
Lauren Palac	...	Hooker #2
David Palumbo	...	Bus Rider
Jena Peacock	...	Mirror Girl
Amber Richards	...	Toilet Girl
Ashley Richards	...	Halloween Girl #2
Katie Richards	...	Megan
Janice Risser	...	Salon Patron #3
Natalie Scytow	...	Strip Girl #1
Renee Sloan	...	Hooker #1
Destiny St. Claire	...	Weight Bench Girl
Jennifer Stuber	...	Basement Girl #3
Brittni Truitt	...	Halloween Girl #4
Ashley Twigg	...	Chainsaw Girl
Jenna Velanni	...	Tree Girl #2
Fred Vogel	...	Masked Psycho
Shannon Weller	...	Ice Cream Girl #2
Cristie Whiles	...	Dildo Girl #1
Darren Williams	...	Masked Psycho #2
Sherrie Winings	...	Psychic

MPAA:

Rated R for grisly bloody violence, disturbing images, strong sexuality and nudity, and for language.

Runtime:

105 min | 91 min (director's cut) | USA:83 min (R-rated version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Norway:18 | Ireland:(Banned) | UK:(Banned) | Norway:(Banned) (re-rating) (2008) | Italy:VM18 | USA:Unrated (director's cut)

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Fright Flix Productions

Trivia:

In director Nick Palumbo's Director's Cut of "Murder-Set-Pieces", the film opens up with one-of-a-kind 35mm footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. We suddenly hear a female child singing: "Just you wait a little while, the nasty man in black will come. With his little chopper, he will chop you up"! This is exactly what the little girls were singing in German in the opening of Fritz Lang's masterpiece "M" (1931)

Quotes:

The Photographer: In my mind's eye I light fires in your cities.

Movie Connections:

Features Triumph des Willens (1935)

My honest opinion of "Murder-Set-Pieces"

Let me set the record straight, first and foremost—I am an enormous fan of the horror genre. I have never had more fun with any other type of film. There is nothing that I enjoy more than kicking back with a good scary movie.

I'll be honest. When I first heard about "M-S-P," I was a bit apprehensive about seeing it. Some of the reviews I'd read on its graphic content made me wonder if this was a film I should sit through. After all, this *was* the film titled the most "graphic and disturbing horror film ever made." I finally got my hands on an uncut copy a few months ago. I sat back with a good friend of mine and popped the disc in. As the film progressed, the two of us began to chuckle. Those small, child-like giggles soon turned into full on hysterical laughter. "M-S-P" is a film so laughably bad, the two of us couldn't believe our eyes.

What is called the most graphic and disturbing horror film ever made is nothing more than gore for the sake of gore, violence for the sake of violence, and vicious bloodshed for the sake of vicious bloodshed. That's not what the two of us found so funny. What we found so incredibly hilarious was the fact that this film was ever made in the first place. Who could've possibly been behind this pathetic drivel? Then, I stumbled upon the homepage and MySpace of writer/director Nick Palumbo. Oy vey. Where to begin? This is a man so positively hellbent on making a name for himself, it's actually downright sad and most of all, pathetic. Most of the hype around the film comes from him himself. *He* is the one calling this film shocking, disturbing, graphic, violent, terrifying. *He* is the one responsible for the public's knowledge about the film's content. *He* is the one claiming film labs refused to print it and the set was intruded upon by uniformed officers brandishing rifles and guns. He *wants* more than anything to go down in the books as the most controversial horror director in history.

If those are your aspirations, fine. If you have the talent to back it up, wonderful. Sadly, he does not. What he presents the audience with is a weak script that goes basically nowhere. There is no story arc, there is no character development, there is nothing but bloodshed. Most of the dialogue in the film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It is an incredibly poorly written script that must've been only about twenty pages long upon its completion. Mr. Palumbo does not care about story. He does not care about dialogue. He does not care about creating characters an audience can identify or even sympathize with. When a new character is presented, he or she (mostly she) is simply killed off. That's it. Time to move on to the next scene of vicious bloodshed. I felt absolutely no remorse for any of the characters getting the axe because they simply were not believable. This film contains some of the stiffest, forced performances I've ever seen, most of which came from Sven Garrett.

I read an incredibly poignant, smart, and honest review by film critic John Fallon that perceived the film as a "'Look at me, look at me! 9-11 footage! Look at me!' opus." Very true. Mr. Palumbo desperately wants you to look at him. He wants you to believe the film is all of the aforementioned adjectives. He wants you to believe he himself is sick and depraved. He is not. The film is not. It's just another pathetic film that tries way too hard and simply does not deliver.