Slasher films have been a constant in the horror genre since the late seventies when the success of John Carpenter's Halloween inspired everyone under the sun to take a stab at it (pun intended). Although they've come in and out of style over the years, they've always been around and probably always will be even if they enjoy varying degrees of success and popularity. Jeff McQueen's documentary, Going To Pieces: The Rise And Fall Of The Slasher Film (based on the book of the same name written by Adam Rockoff), is a nice, if fairly basic, look at some of the more popular slasher movies that have come out through the ages by way of plenty of archival clips and some newly recorded interviews with various people involved in the horror industry.

A brief introduction explains how the success of Hitchcock's Psycho and Michael Powell's controversial Peeping Tom broke new ground as far as onscreen violence was concerned which in turn resulted in John Carpenter's Halloween. The rest is history. Halloween was a huge box office success and when it pulled in the big bucks it was only a matter of time before the knock offs appeared. The film's success lead to a veritable onslaught of slasher films where a faceless killer would hunt down and kill promiscuous teenagers in exceedingly gruesome and creative fashion. The eighties were the hey day of the sub-genre, with franchise films like the Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street series being the best known entries. McQueen's film follows the slasher film's rise and fall through the eighties, tying it into the political climate of the time and acknowledging some of the controversy that arouse around the gratuitous violence inherent in the films and the supposed effect that they could have on the public. As we learn about lesser-known films such as The Prowler we also hear from those involved in classics like Prom Night, Sleepaway Camp, The Burning, My Bloody Valentine and Maniac. McQueen wraps it all up by proving to us that the slasher film is alive and well today, with more modern films like Rob Zombie's House Of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects being mentioned alongside other more modern gore films like Eli Roth's Hostel and Lion's Gate's Saw films.

Many of the 'big names' in slasher film history show up on camera for interviews. John Carpenter wanders around a cemetery while he tells us about how Halloween came together and Sean S. Cunningham tells us about Friday The 13th while sitting beside a pristine and tranquil lake. Wes Craven talks about the A Nightmare On Elm Street films as well as the success of his self-referential nineties hit, Scream and the way that name stars were used to bring in the box office numbers on that project. Tom Savini talks about how his time in Vietnam helped him develop an eye for detail when doing special effects work and how the demand has, over time, required that the effects get gorier and gorier to try and outdo what came before. Herb Freed talks about Graduation Day and ardent feminist Amy Holden Jones defends her film, Slumber Party Massacre and answers charges from the media that slasher films are misogynist. Henry Manfredini explains how he came up with the famous 'ki ki ki ma ma ma' score for the Friday The 13th films and Betsy Palmer talks about her role in the first film in that series. Felissa Rose talks about how unusual it is to be best known for playing 'a chick with a dick' in Sleepaway Camp and Anthony Timpone of Fangoria magazine talks about how the films all seemed to influence one another and how they rose to prominence. Stan Winston shows up briefly and Rob Zombie throws in his two cents now and again, alongside Joe Zito, who talks a little bit about The Prowler.

The end result is a fairly comprehensive examination of how these films came to be and why. Highlights include a look at the controversy surrounding the theatrical release of Silent Night, Deadly Night as well as Siskel and Ebert's tirade against the sexist slasher movies (ironic, considering Ebert wrote three films for Russ Meyer). Plenty of great clips are used throughout to illustrate various points and to add some visual flair to what would otherwise be little more than an interesting collection of talking heads. The film, however, is far from perfect. Although they do acknowledge that Mario Bava and Dario Argento had some influence on the American slasher movie, they don't really detail this at all and considering how blatantly some of the Friday The 13th movies rip off those seen in Bava's Twitch Of The Death Nerve the film probably deserved a little more screen time than it got. Likewise, Bob Clark's Black Christmas hit theaters a full four years before Carpenter's Halloween did, and there's nary a mention of it here aside from a very brief clip that goes by almost unnoticed. While Carpenter hardly ripped Clark off, it's unlikely that the earlier film had no influence on the later and it's odd that Black Christmas, one of the most influential and earliest slasher films, isn't given much credit here. To the filmmaker's credit, the film gets its due in the extra features, but it really should have been included in the final version of the documentary.

Aside from those complaints, however, Going To Pieces is a pretty good look at what makes the slasher film work. It's essentially a love letter to this often maligned sub-genre of horror films but it's well researched and well put together so that even those who already know the history of many of these films will still enjoy themselves. The clips are well used, the interviews are well thought out and interesting and there are plenty of great stories here. Horror movie buffs and slasher film aficionados will definitely get a kick out of this documentary and those who aren't necessarily enamored with these movies might come away with a bit more of an appreciation for some of the better made entries in the cannon of stalk and slash movies.

Video:

Despite the fact that the back of the packaging for this release touts a '16x9 anamorphic fullscreen presentation' the transfer is actually 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. Quality is fine, though obviously it varies a fair bit when the various clips are spliced in. The footage that was shot specifically for this documentary, primarily the interview material, looks quite good however. Detail isn't mind blowing but it's not bad either and the black levels stay fairly strong. Color reproduction looks accurate enough and there aren't any problems with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement to whine about.