5-Word 365 #343 – Going To Pieces

Honestly, this is more a clip show than a documentary. But hey.

Going To Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film

Blood, blood and more blood.

Much as the title suggests, this documentary attempts to clarify for posterity the history of that red-headed stepchild of the horror genre; the slasher. From 1960’s Psycho and Peeping Tom through the heydey of the eighties to the present day (well, 2006 anyway), we get interviews with the actors, directors and special effects wizards who create these epics along with a clip or two from the flicks themselves.

And by “a clip or two”, I mean a metric shit-ton of awesome kills from the last 40-some years.

This one features all the classic movies and all the big names. If you are a fan of these blood’n’guts gorefests then this is like a greatest hits album. If you’re not, then this is an hour and a half of trying to repress your gag reflex. Personally, I’m in the former camp. This is just cool. But more than that, it is actually an intelligent albeit brief look at why these movies took off the way they did, covering the political and socio-economic mores of the times (the word Reaganomics even pops up more than once).

This is Angela. Angela’s going to camp for the summer, and Angela has a secret…

Plus, there is loads of blood. It’s awesome.