Just for the Hell of It

"Just for the Hell of It" isn't exactly the cinematic masterpiece Herschell Gordon Lewis will be remembered for. Lewis made himself immortal among horror/cult cinema fanatics as "The Godfather of Gore"; a nickname he earned because he was the first one to direct horror movies where blood, guts and gore literally burst from the screen. Movies like "Blood Feast", "Two-Thousand Maniacs", "The Gore Gore Girls" and "The Gruesome Twosome" truly represent HG Lewis' repertoire and lifework, whereas "Just for the Hell of it" is merely just a rapidly produced and nonchalantly elaborated story to cash in on the contemporary popular trend of juvenile delinquency thrillers. There's no actual story and particularly the first full hour of the film feels like a compilation episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos: The Bad Kids Edition". It's basically just a series of amateurishly edited together clips showing a gang of youthful thugs pulling pranks and committing petty crimes in their area. At first their pranks are quite pitiable and laughable (wetting people with a garden hose, smearing pies in a salesgirl's face…) but they gradually turn into harsh crimes and near the end of the film they even turned to gang-rape and murder. The gang members refer to themselves as "Destruction Inc" which is quite the apt name since they surely like to break all kinds of stuff, varying from people's mailboxes, living rooms, snack bars, boats and even baby-carriages. The "plot" only just starts to unfold itself after an hour into the film, when a courageous boy stands up against the vicious gang but then gets falsely accused, threatened and targeted for vengeance. Moral of the story: look the other way when violence is being committed near you! "Just for the Hell of it" is an okay film if you're into cheap and extremely low-budgeted 60's exploitation, but it definitely contains too many overlong sequences of padding and repetitiveness. It's just plain boring to watch a bunch of people demolish all the furniture in one and the same room for five whole minutes. The acting performances are below par, as to be expected from this type of poverty row film production, but it's nevertheless quite funny how these "juvenile" delinquents are depicted by actors and actresses who're all at least in their late twenties. The gangs' last crime on the beach and particularly the denouement form the undeniable highlights of "Just for the Hell of it" because these sequences are shocking and vile, and the use of make-up effects in these scenes finally state clear that you're watching a H.G Lewis' flick! The theme song is also very exhilarating and catchy, so I'll give an extra point for that as well.

A group of crazy, violent teens makes life a living hell for a town of babies, handicapped people, blind men, and single women with nary a cop in sight when anything happens, shortly after anything happens, or even after that. Herschell Gordon Lewis tries his hand at making a teen gang violence picture with some kind of social commentary. But the result is a film with a very sadistic side and loads of intentional(I think they were at least) and many unintentional laughs. Acting, a far off feeling in most Lewis films, is fairly decent here. The youthful leads convey menace enough to hope something terrible happens to them. The group plays all kinds of pranks...some harmless at first but then work their way up to murder and rape. The Lewis touch is clearly evident in the relentless, unfeeling tone of the film. It has no heart at all. Because it has some laughs and shows some situations of intended violence hitherto unseen in any of Lewis's works, I would take a moment and see the film....just for the hell of it!

H.G. Lewis' films are not for everyone. He uses amateur actors that he finds in the cities he films in and the sets are probably houses that the actor's parent's own. But his films are so out there and so bizarre that I can't see how you wouldn't get a kick out of them. "Just for the Hell of it" centers on a large group of white-bred kids who, for no reason whatsoever (hence the title) decide to engage in pranks ranging from fairly harmless (hiding a blind man's cane) to truly evil (raping a girl on a beach and putting her boyfriend in a sinking boat). If you want to know what a stereotypical late '60's drive-in film was like, this would probably be your best bet.

"Just For The Hell of It" has to be one of the greatest exploitation flicks I have ever seen. I wanted to see it ever since seeing the trailer a few years ago, which was basically just kids ripping stuff apart. How can you not love that? The film sets the tone quickly as almost immediately the gang destroys a roomful of furniture, even before a single word is muttered on screen. It actually takes seven minutes for any words to come out of anyone's mouth, as after the initial destruction we see a wild late 60's band, complete with guys who seemed like they influenced Angus Young with their head banging on stage.

From there, the movie is virtually non-stop as the gang goes literally from one thing to another, destroying stuff, bothering people, causing all sorts of hell. Some of the things they do are throwing buckets of water at people, hosing down a woman, ripping clothes off a clothes line, ripping up a magazine a woman is reading, and more. These scenes are completely hilarious.

The acts seem to get more violent as the film progresses, as those things progress into beating a blind man with his cane, beating an injured man with his crutches, beating an eatery owner and burning his hand (after destroying his place), and putting a baby in a garbage can while destroying the carriage (where did the mother go?).

The funny thing about all of this is that the gang does it all in broad daylight, in congested places where there are plenty of cars and people around, and of course no one does anything. Even when the gang starts beating on a bunch of little kids playing baseball in the park (in a hilarious scene where you can spot a kid or two laughing as they are being tossed around) one old lady who does see what happened, blames a guy trying to stop the gang for starting a fight with them, and has him arrested.

Then from there, things get much more violent and a little less funny as the gang adds murder and gang-rape to their mayhem.

Much of "Just For The Hell of It" appears to have been shot silent, with sound added later, adding to the cheesiness of the whole thing. It is funny listening to goofy 60's music as the gang commits these crimes, and they also seem to produce hammers and axes wherever they are when they start breaking stuff, despite the fact that you never actually see them carrying any weapons.

The film almost never drags, constantly going from one destructive event to another for almost the entire duration, until the last 15 minutes when things slow down a bit to build up some tension. The guys are all smart alecks and the girls are all pretty. This is a classic JD problem child flick that anyone into very cheesy low-budget stuff will get a huge kick out of. It is H.G. Lewis after all, no one does it quite like him!

A young teenage boy is blamed for a Florida neighborhood being terrorized. But the real culprits are a gang of four punks leading a group of local delinquents on a nihilistic lifestyle of destruction and mayhem.

What strikes me about the film is the parallel with "Clockwork Orange". This is obviously not intentional, but the gang accosting an old (apparently blind) man seems very much like the droogs attacking homeless men. Lewis approaches it in a far more gruesome manner, however, with some of the violence very much Ripper-esque. Alex (in "Clockwork") is somehow sympathetic, despite being a murderous rapist. But Dexter (played by Ray Sager) is just a pure sociopath.

Worthy of note is the appearance of musician Larry Williams. Williams is best known for writing and recording some rock and roll classics from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie", "Short Fat Fannie", "High School Dance" (1957), "Slow Down", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (1958), "Bad Boy" and "She Said Yeah" (1959). John Lennon was a fan, and the Beatles and several other British Invasion groups covered several of his songs.