Director – Joe Stauffer (Dream)
Starring – David Long, Kristi Ray (Celebrity Ghost Stories), and Nate Panning (Piranha 3DD)
Release Date – 2014
Rating – 4.5/5
Tagline – “Beautiful horror”
Horror has always been a genre full of trends that suddenly pop up. These trends usually last a few years and then die off when the masses start to realize they have been duped and go off for the next fad. Recently we have seen an over abundance in torture porn underground horror flicks along with countless zombie flicks riding on the coattails of AMC’s The Walking Dead. On top of all that we are now plagued with film after film stealing the plot from Paranormal Activity. We now have Paranormal Whacktivity, Haunted House and it’s sequel, Paranormal Entity, Paranormal Haunting, and so on and so on.
However, in a time of copycats and duplicates one filmmaker usually rises up and gives us something new and breathtaking. Que in director Joe Stauffer and his indie masterpiece Pieces of Talent. Fellow reviewer Denver Johnson reviewed this film and his review intrigued me but once horror friend and reviewer Jason Limberg mentioned it to me I had to fucking see it. I reached out to star David Long and he was nice enough to hook me up with a screener. Thank you for forever changing my life David!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows the beautiful Charlotte (Ray). She works as a waitress at a strip club while she tries to land roles as an actress. One night while having a smoke she catches the club’s bouncer beating the shit out of a man holding a camera. She intervenes but he is beat up pretty bad. She puts him in his car and drives him around until he regains consciousness. When he awakes he tells her he is a filmmaker himself and the two exchange numbers before he takes her home and drops her off. He then returns back to his home to work more on a film he is working on.
It turns out that David Long (playing himself) is not your typical filmmaker. In fact, he is a snuff peddler making his on snuff film. David takes a liking to Charlotte and wants to make her the center of his work in progress. Things take a gruesome turn when Charlotte discovers this very plot and is now faced with fighting for her life.**Spoiler Alert**
When I first saw the poster work (shown above) I assumed this film was a blood soaked underground film that surely had more scenes involving torture porn than I cared to see and probably crude sex acts that left me feeling disgusted rather than entertained. However, after I started watching it I quickly realized that this film was far from that. In fact, this was a beautiful stylized horror film.
The acting in this one is phenomenal. Kristi Ray is a powerful lead actress that has just as much beauty as she does talent. If I don’t see her beautiful smile grace more films in the future I will be highly pissed. David Long also has an extreme amount of talent and his presence really made the film as powerful as it is. He has crafted one of the greatest indie horror icons to come out in recent years.
The story for this one is fun and slightly original. The film has a little bit of romance which is unusual for an indie or underground film. It’s not enough to ruin it for the testosterone filled viewer but just enough to really get a feel for the characters and fall in love with them. The film is also able to throw in a lot of laughs while still keeping the horror elements. Not a lot of horror comedies are able to balance the two resulting in one genre over-powering the other. I also love how the characters were written. Charlotte is a very strong and innocent woman who keeps finding herself in sleazy and uncomfortable situations. David is a charismatic character that truly deserves more films. I could tell this character of David was written for David Long because no one else could pull him off like he did.
Finally, the film has some very impressive kills. I knew the film would be bloody but I had no idea it would have so many fun and inventive kills as it did. The film also has some decent practical effects as well. None Savini quality but “A” grade in comparison to most other indie flicks I have seen. Overall, Pieces of Talent is a fucking work of art. David Long is a character that will join the ranks of some of the greatest horror icons of all time. I can not recommend this movie enough or say enough good things about it. Fucking watch it instead of reading my incoherent ramblings!
