Nutbag

Dreadful home made movie filmed early morning hours and late late evenings on th streets and back alleys of Las Vegas with a hand held video camera.

The victims are hookers.

Their bodies are hot.

Acting is not.

There is no story.

Just a bad acting doofus who kills hookers and delivers lines like "these hookers sure bleed a lot" and "death will be along longer than me." I think I counted 4 or five murders in the first 15 minutes. How he disposes of all these bodies or why there isn't a manhunt underway is never discussed.

Neither is the clean up.

Or why he talks to a spider.

Nothing makes sense and what's scary is many of these folks have been in other films, so they are getting work.

The first victim, however, isn't. By far, she has the most smoking body of all the hookers and was probably a stripper in Vegas. Today you'll find her back in Texas working for a auto dealer.

I also need to mention that the camera work is disturbing on a couple levels...it appears the movie was made in HD and it gives a very homemade feel. Not good.

But more disturbing is that the film is obviously made to avoid film permits. I wonder how all the pedestrians would feel if they knew their faces were showing up in this obambination.

I made the mistake of watching this at a friend's apt. His wife saw us watching it and therefore had a huge fight with my friend. This movie is about a wierdo in Vegas who wants to kill people for no reason. He hangs out at graveyards and gets mad when he sees people having a good time. He gets so mad that he acts out his rage by pulling grass. He always talks to himself and at one point he confides all his secrets to a stupid spider. There are many rape scenes and lots of nudity. The killer walks around vegas and just get's more and more upset. A majority of this movie was just of him talking. It was all shot on a cheap video camera. Worst movie I have ever seen.

A very poor film. Shot on what appears to have been a camcorder this cheap and nasty film claims to give you an insight into the mind of a serial killer. It doesn't. It shows you a man repeating the same dialogue to himself or his pet spider almost verbatim for just over an hour interspersed with some very shoddily produced murder scenes.

The script is dreadful - repetitive, clichéd and ill-conceived. The acting is atrocious, most of the supporting cast appear to have been plucked from "adult" movies and have been cast for their willingness to briefly remove their clothes rather than to read words out loud in the English language.

The special effects are cheap and unconvincing. The music is described as "haunting." I defy anyone to sit in a room for an hour with a synthesizer and not be able to come out with a film soundtrack that is better than this.

On the director's notes of the DVD version the director claims that this film was shot over 60 something days, it looks like it was shot over 60 something hours. Avoid!

I'm a HUGE fan of slasher and disturbing movies,but this heap of crap isn't the LEAST BIT enjoyable. The acting is better at a kindergarten school play. SERIOUSLY! You can obviously tell this "movie" has a micro budget,and sometimes that is a GOOD thing for a slasher / horror film...NOT IN THIS CASE! "Murder Set Pieces" is almost "Citizen Kane" compared to this lame excuse for a "movie". I went into this flick expecting a LITTLE BIT more,but WOW...this is just a train wreck. It MAY have been a WEE bit better if the lead actor could ACT! Well...that's my rant. If you decide to watch it...more power to 'ya...but don't say I didn't warn you.

Let me preface this review by stating that I am much more forgiving than most reviewers. I have a high tolerance for trash, and I often find myself enjoying movies that have been poorly reviewed by most. That being said, I can say without reservation that this is one of the worst movies I have seen in quite awhile...

Lately I have been off on a tangent exploring the dark world of shot-on-video horror/exploitation films. In the last week I have seen quite a few ('Scrapbook', 'August Mordum's Underground', 'Murder-Set-Pieces (Director's Cut), 'Devil's Bloody Plaything'). Of all of the above mentioned movies (and others), this was by far the worst, and least entertaining of the lot...

Perhaps it was the unconvincing Mack Hail as the lead. He just didn't work for me. He appeared empty and vacant. He didn't have the fire and desire necessary to portray a believable on screen serial killer. This film seemed like a grade-Z, poorly acted remake of 'Maniac'. Mack Hail and Joe Spinell are not even in the same universe....

The killings did not really work for me either. The gore effects were decent, but there just wasn't any fire or emotion behind Mack Hail's murderings. He seemed to be going through the motions. There just wasn't very much emotion behind his physical actions...

In addition, there were some going-ons in this movie (not a film) that made absolutely no sense. For example, you see him approaching a very large African-American male and woman at the park. The camera cuts away, and then you see both of them bound and in the Nutbag's hotel room. OK, how did our serial killer manage to abduct a strong full-grown man and a woman by himself? This makes no sense at all as I do not recall Hail having any superhuman powers...

The voice-over internal dialogue provided by Hail got on my nerves early and often. It sounded as if he was reading (and not very well) from an angry 12 year old's diary. His readings contained zero emotion and not an inkling of believability. Perhaps this movie would've been better if these infernal narratives has been omitted...

All in all, there is no way I can recommend this movie. The most important criteria I consider when offering a recommendation is whether or not I was entertained. In the case of 'Nutbag' I was most definitely not entertained. It was quite possibly the most boring slasher movie I have ever witnessed. I can think of many other serial killer films (yes, actual films) that are much better. Off the top of my head,'Maniac', 'Schramm', 'Man Bites Dog', and 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'). Hell, even 'New York Ripper'was better than this tripe. Do yourself a favor and seek out another DVD to fulfill your cinematic bloodlust. If curiosity compels you to see this little mess, please rent before you buy...