The Wizard of Gore

While its strange, mystical sense of suspense aids it, this movie is pretty mediocre in all other aspects, and yet I still find myself enjoying it. It's got terrible acting, bad picture quality and shaky, flawed transitions between scenes (and even stranger ones when it tries to demonstrate the Wizard's "power"), but it's still enjoyable. I wouldn't call this a horror movie so much as a strange combination of fantasy and gore, but it fits my Halloween bill well enough. The Wizard of Gore doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then, like Phantasm, it isn't really supposed to.

There is a 2007 remake of this around, and I might just be inclined to check it out, to see what modern film-making could do for this little gem...

Though this is one of my all time favorite movies, I would still have to give it 7 out of ten because it has too many flaws for me to rate it as a perfect film. For one, the plot does meander and great deal. Also, the characters for the most part are pointless and annoying. Still, this does not matter in the world of Herschell Gordon Lewis. This is easily one of the stupidest, most unbelievable, disturbing and hilarious movies that I have ever seen in my entire life. You'll find yourself laughing out loud as you vomit at the sight of people having swords shoved down their throats, being done in with punch presses, being chainsawed in half and every other disgusting thing you can possibly imagine. Only in the world of cinema can things this ridiculous happen. That's what I love about movies, they take you into a different world, and this movie does just that. Aside from the gore, what really makes this movie stand out is it's evil villain 'MONTAG THE MAGNIFICENT'. After watching this movie, my friend Jason and I decided to start worshipping him and revelling in his badassness. Also, what totally rules about this movie is just how terrible the acting is. Ray Sager is actually the worst actor of all time. It made me laugh the entire time I watched it, yet at the same time his presence has an unnatural creepiness to it. The ending has to be seen to be believed.

Truly a unique horror film that should be seen by fans of bad cinema or just anyone who wants to be totally grossed out and given nightmares.

(My personal rating is 10/10)

'The Wizard Of Gore' is one of H.G.Lewis' goriest movies but it is also one of his dullest. More explicit than any of the "blood trilogy" which his reputation rests on, but without a tenth of the entertainment value. In fact I'd say it's even worse than his non-gore turkey 'She-Devils On Wheels'. At least that one had one or two laughs. Ray Sager plays Montag The Magnificent and could be Lewis' most wooden leading man (which is saying a lot!). He plays a magician who causes a sensation by dismembering female volunteers on stage then apparently making them whole again and none the worse for it. However afterwards the girls turn up dead, injured as they were in his "illusions". An ambitious TV talk show host (Judy Cler) and her sceptical sportswriting boyfriend (Wayne Ratay) try and solve the mysterious deaths and determine just what, if anything, Montag has to do with it. Some people seem to inexplicably rate this snoozefest very highly, but if it was the first H.G.Lewis movie I'd ever seen it would probably be my last. The acting is terrible as expected, and the gore is ridiculously unconvincing, but this time round the plot drags, and I found the whole thing terribly unamusing. For Lewis beginners I'd recommend you avoid this one and go straight to his hillbilly horror 'Two Thousand Maniacs!'. It may not be as in-your-face as 'The Wizard Of Gore' but it is a lot more fun.

When I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of the Horror genre. Renting Horror flicks, on the weekend, from everywhere from Blockbuster to the smaller places like Video Warehouse. It wouldn't take too long to plow right through every Friday The 13th, every Elm Street, and yes, every watered-down Halloween disappointment, among countless others. Eventually, it would come to my attention that there is a whole other universe, an alternate universe, if you will, of Horror. I had discovered the wonderful world of vintage B-Horror. You know, stuff like Basket Case, Messiah Of Evil, and Burial Ground. Needless to say, it didn't take long to discover the ground-breakingly cheesy flicks of good ol' H.G. Lewis. Known mostly for his earlier stuff like Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs, Herschell Lewis would later go on to make a movie that really stood out for me. One of the goriest, and might I add one of the least well-thought-out Exploitation flicks of the 70's. This is The Wizard Of Gore.

I sure am glad I like gore, because magicians are kinda lame. And if nothing else, this 1970 gore-epic teaches us this. If you like 'em unrealistic and confusing, then I assure you, you will approve of this lame-brained story, which involves, you guessed it, a magician. Montag The Magnificent. Played by Ray Sager, a man 30 years younger than what the role calls for. No problem. Nothing a little white spray-paint and fake-looking, uneven white eyebrows can't fix. Ridiculous-looking eyebrows are the least of Montag's problems. Because this guy is rude, irritable, kinda loud, and just plain unpleasant. In other words, Montag is a real bummer. This old codger, who is clearly in a bad mood, spends the first 10 minutes of the movie explaining to everyone why his magic doesn't suck. None of that "saw a woman in half" stuff... Well, actually, that's exactly what's gonna happen. Except it's gonna be authentic, and gory as all hell. And basically, it's just gonna be real, except this chick just gets up and walks off unharmed. So, that's basically why Montag's magic doesn't suck. Montag, as a person, on the other hand does suck. because the "magic", or whatever takes hold later on in the evening, and said chick literally falls apart, in all her gory glory. No cgi here, gang. Just excessive, fake-looking gore, complemented by awkward, inept acting along with the usual stupid dialogue. It was beautiful, I tell you.

And might I add, the old, grainy VHS that I had originally seen this on was much more suitable for a movie such as this. The cleaned up pristine look of the screen totally ruins it, in my opinion. However, owning a movie you love on DVD is kind of necessary, considering all the cool little extras involved. The commentary being a good example of that. In the audio commentary, Herschell makes mention of his disdain for this film, which is funny considering he's the guy who made How To make A Doll and Blast-off Girls. And now this should be the part where I warn you of the evils of the remake, from a couple years ago. I could present my own separate rant, dedicated to my hatred for this film. Instead, I'm just gonna let you know that I only made it about a half an hour through, and let you make up your own mind. what a shame that Herschell's next film, The Gore Gore Girls would turn out to be his last for 3 decades. Herschell's long-awaited next project, Blood Feast 2 would end up 10, or hell, even 11 times gorier than anything he'd done before. As if things couldn't get any better, I would imagine a DVD release for Herschell's next film is right around the corner. So, if you happen to dig lewis, you may want to keep an eye out for The Uh-Oh Show!, starring Lloyd Kaufman, and the legendary Joel D. Wynkoop. But first things first. If you've seen Blood Feast and/or Two Thousand Maniacs, and you got the Lewis fever, The Wizard would be the next logical step. Passionately recommended to Gorehounds, young and old. 10/10

This might have been an excellent short. And it works wonderfully as a fetish movie if seeing young women getting tied up and mutilated is your cup of tea. As a feature movie it's just dire.

Unusually for a horror movie, it features a young professional woman in one of the leading roles -- and she doesn't even get raped and mutilated in the first five minutes for being a harlot! She investigates a magician who performs gory tricks in his show, with the same girls he performed his tricks on later dieing accordingly. This repeats itself no less than four times (if I counted correctly), each scene lasting maybe ten minutes and being as linear as train tracks in a desert, until her boyfriend muses: "All those girls who went on stage in the show died in the same manner later in the evening. Maybe there's a connection?". His girlfriend is so impressed by his cleverness that she proceeds to fornicate him out of gratitude -- and rightly so. It was the most intelligent moment of the entire movie.

I'm not asking for too much, am I, here? I just want to be entertained. For that, I'm willing to forfeit good taste, intelligent plot, competent acting at the door. In the Wizard Of Gore, though, Herschell Gordon Lewis reveals himself as a gore fetishist. The premise of blurring reality and imagination may be interesting, but it's never developed into a story. Fail!