Body Puzzle (1992)

Been a while since I watch a good giallo movie, and seen most of the well known classics, so decided to give Body Puzzle a watch as one of the lesser known films that has been sitting in my viewing queue for some time now.  I can say that I can see why this one is not all that well regarded. 

The movie's title I think sets an idea of what to expect to happen with this film.  I have to give the film credit in that unlike most Italian giallo films, this one moves at a pretty brisk pace.  Who is the killer?  The movie just lets you know right away and within the first few minutes hes already shanking people openly.  The pacing saves this one to me cause otherwise it's a pretty mediocre film all around.

I'm bored, let's kill some people

So not really any type of spoiler and it's literally the title, but there is a puzzle of body parts being collected from victims.  The gore is nothing special sadly, and the kills are nothing as outlandish as some of the crazy stuff folks have come to expect from a good giallo.  The mystery aspect seems to be missing from this movie unlike most giallo, but the movie does introduce some twists near the later half that that I doubt anyone really cares about by then.  The killer also is not subtle at all, he just goes straight at his victims and takes them out fairly quick.  Tension building, suspense, jump scares even?  Nope.  Why is the killer collecting random body parts, don't expect that mystery to last long.

How it feels when that customer walks in when you trying to close for the day

I make the movie sound awful, it really isn't but it just doesn't really do anything well.  And I could have had more more enjoyment in the movie if the people weren't so dumb.  There is a line in the film that essentially is "people do stupid things when scared", and holy crap everyone is either scared out of their wits or just a bunch of idiots.  The police in the movie are the worst at their job, and so much of the mystery could be solved by simply looking at some photos and asking basic questions.  Also throughout the movie the police are constantly trying to reach victims before they are murdered and constantly fail.  It's 1992 they might not have fancy cell phones, but people can learn to pick up a freaking phone.  For example the cops scramble to save someone at a school and someone checked into a hospital but no one can figure out to simply place a phone call to warn folks ahead of time.  Maybe its supposed to be suspenseful to watch cops driving places going "come on!" as they arrive to late each time.  The killer could have been caught in probably the first 20 minutes if some basic common sense was had.

So yea it's a rough movie but if you want a simple straight forward thriller that you don't have to think too much about, then this isn't too bad.  It moves at a decent pace, isn't overly long, and you get kills coming at you fairly quick.  It's a forgettable film, only watch it really if you have reached the bottom of the giallo barrel. 

Noise outside?  Killer on the loose?  Locked up house?  I should go outside