Release
It was released to select theaters with an NC-17 rating on December 24, 2004. Murder-Set-Pieces was released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment with an 'R' rating on DVD. In comparison with the theatrical cut of the film, the 'R' rated DVD version was missing approximately 22 minutes. Most of the cuts were to obtain the 'R' rating and removed several intense scenes of sexualized violence and torture, however, some scenes were also removed by the director himself which he intended to edit out of the film before going into theaters but never got the chance.
Murder-Set-Pieces was released by Universal Pictures in Spain, The Weinstein Company in Sweden, 20th Century Fox in France, and Anchor Bay Entertainment in Russia. A DVD director's uncut-version of the exploitation film was released after its theatrical run. The theatrical version runs at 105 minutes, the uncut DVD version runs at 91 minutes, whereas the 'R' rated version runs at 83 minutes.
The film received mostly negative reviews. Film Threat gave it four stars out of four, calling it "incredibly good" and "well made." Metacritic gave it a score of 13, signifying "overwhelming dislike" and Rotten Tomatoes had a critical consensus of 36%. Debra Birnbaum of the New York Post wrote it "aspires to be a highly stylized exploration of the mind of a serial killer, but it's nothing more than a gory, bloodsoaked snuff film, reveling in its own shock value." Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote that the film's "nastiness is so insistent, one-dimensional and excessive it risks self-parody." On Earth-2.net's flagship podcast, Earth-2.net: The Show (episode 407), the movie reviewers gave it a "negative googol", calling it "the worst movie ever made" and said that "to be a movie, you have to be better than this."
Read more about this topic: Murder-Set-Pieces
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.”
—Charles Wesley (1707–1788)
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“If I were to be taken hostage, I would not plead for release nor would I want my government to be blackmailed. I think certain government officials, industrialists and celebrated persons should make it clear they are prepared to be sacrificed if taken hostage. If that were done, what gain would there be for terrorists in taking hostages?”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)