10 Most Underappreciated '80s Horror Movies

3. Pieces

Pumpkinhead 1988
Almena Film

Directed by Juan Piquer Simon, Pieces is one of those slasher movies that gets overlooked by all but the biggest of horror die-hards.

Released in 1982, this feature opens as ten-year-old Timmy brutally murders his mother with an axe after she discovers him with a jigsaw puzzle of a naked lady. Ever the conniving little sh*t, Timmy then hides in a closet until the police turn up to discover this corpse, where he then resurfaces as a traumatised witness to his mum's death.

Jumping ahead 40 years, Pieces switches its focus to a Boston college campus in the middle of a murder spree. Not just that, but the victims of this sinister sort have certain body parts removed to form a twisted human jigsaw - hence the Pieces of the title.

What makes Pieces particularly impressive, is the whodunnit element running through it. While we're to believe the present-day killer is the adult Timmy, we don't actually know which character is the real Timmy. 

Also, an added bonus is the bonkers final act reveal of the mish-mash corpse collected by our villain, as that wiggly, jiggly, stitched-together body falls onto our central protagonist and, even more bizarrely, later rips his crotch to, err, pieces.

In this post: 
Pumpkinhead
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.