THE WIZARD OF GORE – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

In October 2016, Arrow Video USA released an astounding, 17-disc Blu-Ray package of films by exploitation king and Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis.  The package contained 14 of Lewis’ finest—as well as some that were not so fine—exploitation gems of the 1960’s and 1970’s.  The package focused on Lewis’ gore films, for which he is mostly remembered.  However, the set also contained many of Lewis’ most beloved non-horror exploitation opuses such as Moonshine Mountain, Scum of the Earth, and She Devils on Wheels.  Loaded with hours of documentaries, commentaries, and other extra features as well as a hardbound book, this set represented the pinnacle of collector’s items for hardcore HGL fans, but at a cost that many fans could not afford.  Shortly thereafter, Arrow began releasing the films in standalone packages that were priced in such a way that everyone could afford the discs.  Sure, you don’t get all the cool packaging, the hardbound book, and some of the other special features from the limited box set, but you do get all the films and special features that were included in that original box set. And though, by the time one purchases each standalone release, you’ve paid about the same price as you would have for the box set, with the releases coming every couple of months, many fans are able to purchase the standalone discs as they are released without breaking their bank accounts.  Several of these discs have already been released, with the latest being 1970’s Wizard of Gore, paired with Lewis’ 1968 sci-fi comedy, How to Make a Doll.

The Wizard of Gore is a spin on France’s famous Grand Guignol theater, pioneer of bloody murder set pieces on stage, which ran from the 1890’s to the 1960’s in Paris.  (As an aside, Lewis also dabbled in a bit of Grand Guignol himself when he and some partners opened a theater that played his movies along with bloody one-acts between films.  It lasted only a few weeks.) Lewis regular Ray Sager stars as Montag the Magnificent, whose stage show involves the faux killing and mutilation of women on stage, with a twist—while his act is revealed to be “fake” at the end of each show, somehow the women end up dying in the most horrible of ways several hours after the show has closed.  A young reporter who has become interested in the show drags her boyfriend along and, after witnessing the horrific actual death of one of the show’s participants off stage, the two become involved in an investigation of the mysterious goings on.

The Wizard of Gore is typical Lewis fare.  It’s dirt cheap and filled with bad acting.  Sager famously stepped in to take the lead role after the original actor walked off the set during the first day of shooting.  With absolutely no plans to star in the film nor any preparation, Sager delivers a performance that is so over the top and deadly serious he becomes a caricature.  This actually works well for the film.  Whether Sager truly understood what he was doing is up for debate, but his performance ends up being exactly what the film needs for the lead role. Unfortunately, the rest of the acting is essentially atrocious.  But if you’re reading this, then you already know about the acting…and you know the acting isn’t why people still watch these old films.

Though famed for his gore films, Lewis seemed to alternate his ultra-violence with horror films that weren’t quite as bloody as his initial “masterpiece,” 1963’s Blood Feast.  Films like 2000 Maniacs! and A Taste of Blood had titles more lurid than the content of the films.  However, with a title like The Wizard of Gore and thematic elements borrowed directly from Grand Guignol, it is obvious Lewis had only one thing in mind when conceiving of this film: plenty of blood.  True to Lewis form, some of the effects are pretty terrible—Montag’s decapitation, the girl who gets an ice pick to the temple, and the girls who get to swallow swords all come to mind—but there are also a few that were fairly revolutionary for the time, including one young lady who gets a machine press through the abdomen, exposing her intestines for Montag to lovingly caress.  The Wizard of Gore is no better or worse than any other Lewis horror film, but it feels like one of his goriest films and thus, may be of interest to a certain kind of fan…you know who you are.

Paired with The Wizard of Gore is the 1968 oddity How to Make a Doll.  As so often is the case with exploitation filmmaking, How to Make a Doll was developed and designed around the title of the film.  The story is about an elderly professor and his socially awkward student assistant who are experimenting with robots.  They stumble upon a method to produce perfect female robots and, since both are so inept with women, the robots become the perfect companions for them.  However, the professor gets so overstimulated he is afraid of a heart attack, thus he allows himself to be absorbed by the computer so he can live forever.  Unfortunately, this means he can only experience lovemaking vicariously and soon controls his assistant, forcing him to make love to a different female robot each day.  It all sounds much sleazier than it actually is.  In fact, the film is nothing more than a PG rated sort-of comedy, with nothing more prurient than pretty girls in late 60’s bikinis making out with some boys.  It’s fairly boring stuff and most likely was boring even in 1968.  My guess is the viewers at the drive in got more action in their cars than from viewing the film.

That’s not to say How to Make a Doll is a complete loss.  The girls are mostly quite attractive, so there is at least some eye candy, albeit only in bikinis.  In fact, one of the funnier aspects of the film is how a machine can create a robot wearing any clothes at all.  Why is the robot not produced completely nude?  This would have been more realistic, plus it would have garnered some additional factors with which to market the film.  On the subject of the computer, when the punch card (!) is inserted with instructions for creating the robot, the initial sound effects are absolutely hilarious.  These effects consist of a human attempting to replicate the electronic pops and beeps an actual computer might have made in 1968, with the added variant of nonsense phrases and raspberries being blown.  It’s a dirt cheap way to keep from spending money purchasing library sound effects, but it wears thin after the third or fourth usage…and unfortunately continues being used from there, eventually becoming increasingly annoying.  The robot women are hilarious, with their sole directions being not to blink, to move slowly, and try to talk like a robot.  The fun really ensues when the viewer is able to see various “robots” in different robotic states, according to acting skill.

The plot is so threadbare that the entire middle of the film simply repeats itself endlessly like it’s on a loop: student assistant inserts punch card; computer beeps and whirs; a different robot exits and begins to make out with student, all while the disembodied voice of the professor gives instructions.  This was clearly one of Lewis’ gun-for-hire jobs, and it certainly shows.  However, it’s still nice to have the film for both its kitsch factor as well as because it was presumed lost for so very long.  I probably won’t watch it more than once a decade, but it’s still nice that a print was able to finally be located after a very long search.

How to Make a Doll comes with no special features but there are plenty for The Wizard of Gore, including an audio commentary with the now-deceased Lewis himself (always an absolute pleasure!), an interview with Ray Sager, a video appreciation of the film by Stephen Thrower, a short interview with Jeremy Kasten, director of the Wizard of Gore remake, and the original theatrical trailer for the film. Finally, there is a great episode of a TV show that examined cult films and cult filmmakers which interviews Lewis at length, a real find and quite enjoyable.

So, if you can’t afford the full 17-disc Feast from ol’ HGL and you love exploitation quickies from the 60’s and early 70’s, this disc will be a can’t-miss for you.  The Blu-Ray is available for purchase at Amazon or you can purchase the film directly from Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.