The Gore Gore Girls

Herschell Gordon Lewis' movies are an acquired taste, and 'The Gore Gore Girls' is a perfect example of this. Many people find the combination of silly humour with extreme gore shots involving the torture and murder of women difficult to get a grip on. I don't have a problem with that so much. HGL doesn't take the material seriously as a film maker, and doesn't expect the viewer to either. Many regard this as his best movie. It certainly gorier than 'Blood Feast' or '2000 Maniacs', and has slightly more sophisticated production values, but overall I found it a little repetitive and dull, and nowhere near as entertaining as those two or 'Color Me Blood Red'. The plot involves a "gentleman detective" investigating the bloody murders of go-go dancers. The detective is played by the unknown Frank Kress who is fairly amusing. Veteran Henny Youngman appears briefly as a club owner and is not amusing at all. I suggest you only watch this if you have seen and enjoyed earlier Lewis efforts, otherwise give it a miss. Apart from the infamous meat tenderizer, face-frying, and nipple scenes there's not all that much to recommend this one. Plus the DVD commentary is one of the most tedious and uninteresting I've ever heard.

Aside from the familiar cinematographic style and manditory gore, this film exceeds the sophistication of any of Herschell Gordon Lewis's previous films by leaps and bounds. The gore effects are sicker and more unnecessarily blatant than ever, and are quite convincing even by today's special effects standards (how many contemporary horror films have the villain squeezing the contents of a REAL eyeball until the juice squirts in all directions, just for show?). Many of my friends, who have seen all of the Faces of Death videos without a flinch, cannot keep from turning away from the extreme sickness of some of these sequences. The acting is at least on par with that of more acclaimed films of the time such as Shaft of French Connection; in particular, Frank Kress, though perhaps not the most photogenic actor, delivers an impressively competent and smooth performance as Abraham Gentry, the all-knowing hero. The soundtrack, written by Herschell, is effectively sleazy in an upbeat way, with the eerily out-of-tune guitar and sax reminiscent of Arch Hall Jr.'s music. And it is this juxtaposition of lighthearted music, comedy ranging from subtle to beyond-toilet-humor, and extreme gore that make Gore-Gore Girls so mind-blowing. And Henny Youngmann's appearance in the film is the best $500 HG could have spent; it takes this opus over the top. Also, as a visual arts student, I especially appreciate the entrancing aesthetic value of the title cards (I know, what does that have to do with anything? But it's my favorite part of the movie.

I have so much to say about this movie but I must start by explaining that the plot summary is completely wrong.The reporter isn't ditzy, the private eye isn't sleazy and she only asks him to solve one murder. I will submit a correct summary, maybe they will use it. Anyway, the on screen title of this movie was Blood Orgy, even though this site doesn't list any alternate title. It also says the rating is X and that too is false.So the movie....I really don't know what to think of it. There was so much dumb stuff that it's hard to know if they were purposely trying to make it dumb. It starts off with the private eye putting his cat in a cupboard and then he is never home again for the rest of the movie. Then the reporter knocks on his door and above the knocker there is a piece of paper with his name on it that is taped to the door. The tape is under the paper and you can still see it.You can tell his "home" is really a hotel room even with the constant tight shot. He goes to a strip club and is rude to the waitress. A different waitress brings his drink but she acts like the first one. Are we supposed to think it's the same person? And he doesn't pay for the drink, even though he pays lots of other people just for information. Later the same exact thing happens with the waitress again. For the first half of the movie it sounds like the microphone is too far away from the actors, while most of the second half appears to be dubbed and sounds like they had their faces pressed against the microphone. At least a third of the movie is average looking women dancing like idiots to stupid music. They have them stripping to circus music and military marches and it's just a silly waste of time. At one point the guy flags down a taxi(the only other moving car in the entire movie), he walks up to the drivers door, opens it and tells the elderly driver to take the passed out drunk girl home. And the driver does it! Did I mention that he's making bad jokes all the time? Or that he talks to the camera a few times? Or that the gore effects may be the worst ever put on film? I didn't even get to the story. Oh well. Despite all the silliness, it's not a bad movie. Give it a chance.

When the go-go dancers from a chain of strip clubs start turning up horrifically mutilated, a newspaper, hoping to land a scoop, sends pretty reporter Nancy (Amy Farrell) to hire the services of genius private eye Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress). Together, Nancy and Abraham set out to solve the case.

The last of H. G. Lewis's infamous 'classic' gore movies, The Gore Gore Girls is another low budget piece of trash featuring shoddy acting, technically poor direction, and buckets of unconvincing gore. That said, the film does have a certain period charm (check out those strippers groovy dance routines!), an 'engaging' performance from Kress as the pompous P.I., and a fun tongue-in-cheek vibe that makes the nastier moments more palatable.

Fans of movie-kitsch will no doubt revel in the trashy strip-club scenes, the swinging soundtrack, and the nasty fashions, whilst gore-hounds will go ga-ga as the killer slashes and mashes his victims' features to a messy pulp, tenderises a woman's butt, sticks another's head in boiling oil, and, best of all, irons a girl's face before snipping off her nipples with a pair of scissors. None of this looks real, but it's still shocking stuff, particularly considering the time this was made.

Unfortunately, in between the 'fun' there is some dreadfully dull padding (several desperately unfunny comedy scenes featuring inept cops and some crap about womens-libbers) and anyone expecting anything other than 80 minutes or so of pure cheesy schlock will most likely be sorely disappointed.

Herschell Gordon Lewis achieved his own entry on the list of the pulp gore exploit or whatever genre. The nudity of the strippers looks today rather comical and grotesque (than anything I would call erotic) and the gore effects are delicious bad and pure extraordinaire dilettantism (for the expert eye of today's well trained audience regarding special effects).

The Gore Gore Girls - a mix of a crime/detective story with elements of gore and some nudity, all in all only watchable if you are really into bad taste "style"and you like to breath pulp - not his best but still a funny watch.