Nov 11 2008
Review: The Wizard of Gore (1970)
Long before the days of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the highly-advanced art of special makeup effects, film maker Herschell Gordon Lewis made the first gore movies. Beginning in 1963 with Blood Feast, Lewis started a trend among exploitation films that has been followed through to this day.
In 1970, Lewis’ very popular Wizard of Gore was released. It featured gore effects that pushed the limits that existed at that time and had a rebirth in popularity in the early 80s when it was released to video. Thanks to Something Weird Video, the film has been digitally re-mastered and released as a special edition sure to please gore fans.
Talk show host Sherri Carson goes to a show with her sports writer boyfriend where a magician, Montag, dismembers and kills women onstage. It appears that he hypnotizes them first, then pieces them back together again, and all is normal. Later that night, Sherri and her boyfriend come across a crime scene. The volunteer from Montag’s show is disemboweled and dead. Carson visits Montag the next day to get him on her talk show. He insists that she come to his show again in order for him to appear with her on television.
Sherri is in the audience again to see the show and witness another brutal act of butchery. The next day, Sherri learns of another murder. Again, it is the volunteer from the night before. When she and her boyfriend notice a pattern, they decide to become involved and work with detectives.
After a failed attempt at catching the murderer, Montag appears on Sherri’s show. Montag manages to hypnotize the national television audience and intends to bring the audience’s consciousness into a fire he has set in the studio. Sherri’s boyfriend, avoiding being hypnotized, pushes Montag into the fire, and everyone is safe.
Sherri s next seen enjoying wine with her boyfriend, talking about how weir the whole situation was. When she says that the whole scenario was impossible and couldn’t have happened, her boyfriend peels away his face to reveal that he is Montag, and proceeds to tear Sherri apart…..
The Wizard of Gore is a very surreal movie. In between disturbing gore scenes and characters speculating on the impossibilities of the whole situation, scenes tinted red featuring Montag robbing the graves of his victims are inserted to give the film an added touch of weirdness. The music Lewis selected for this film compounds the weird cinematic experience.
Although the poor acting and screenwriting for this film are exactly what would be expected of a low budget gore film made by Lewis, it does not subtract from the film. Lewis indicated that the film was not meant to be taken too seriously, and that he did everything in his power to make the film as strange as possible. Audiences of gore and exploitation films came to the drive-ins and grindhouses to be thrilled in a way that the major studios could not deliver. Chain-sawing bodies, brain-tugging and sword-swallowing sets this film apart from those studio releases.
Lewis’ films were “lost films” for a short period of time as Lewis had no plans to re-release his films; he retired from film making after the filming of The Gore Gore Girls in 1972. Lewis focused on other business opportunities, and lost his films on a business deal. The film distributor, Shock Films, acquired the rights some time later. Lewis returned to film-making in 2001 with the long-awaited Blood Feast 2.
The Wizard of Gore is presented 1.33:1. Prints of The Wizard of Gore that have turned up on video over the years appeared to be in good shape, considering the movie has changed hands over time. Something Weird Video’s transfer looks great for a film that is well over 30 years old. There is some light grain during darker scenes and occasional scratches, but the image is clear and colorful.
The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono is clean and clear. However, it is a little weak because it only utilizes one sound channel. Such a low level audio requires the viewer to increase the volume, slightly higher than with other discs utilizing 2.0 sound.
The extras are light, including a trailer, poster gallery and audio commentary. The theatrical trailer included on this disc is in terrible shape. The color constantly shifts, and the tailer stops short by several seconds. Unfortunately, a complete version of this trailer has not surfaced (Mad Ron’s Prevues from Hell, a VHS trailer from the 80s has this trailer, but is missing an entire segment from the middle of it).
The most intriguing extra on this release is the audio commentary with Herschell Gordon Lewis. He is an articulate person (he was an English professor before he became involved with television and film making) who is very amiable. Lewis speaks of the origins of the film, the people involved with the production and the film business in general. All of Lewis’ commentaries are full of information and anecdotes about Lewis’ career and experiences in film making. One can learn a lot about the film making process by listening to Lewis talk. However, the sound is 1.0, requiring the viewer to use the volume control. The sound quality off the commentary is lacking as well. The viewer can actually hear telephones ringing in the background. On the other hand, Lewis’ commentary and insight make up for the lack of technical quality.
Lewis was a pioneer in gore films, and has been followed by many prominent film makers such as John Waters (Pink Flamingos) and Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case). Something Weird has preserved a piece of film making history with their release of The Wizard of Gore so that audiences and film makers alike can watch and learn from one of the greatest masters of the exploitation film.
