The Wizard of Gore

Director - Herschell Gordon Lewis (Two Thousand Maniacs)
Starring - Ray Sager (The Gore Gore Girls), Judy Cler, and Wayne Ratay
Release Date - 1970
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The maniac magician whose tricks really work!," "An astounding walk down the bloody corridors of the occult," and "Scenes so far beyond any you've ever seen that no description is possible"
Format - BluRay (Personal Collection)(Stills from youtube clips)
Favorite Quote - "Look at me now if you dare!  Look in to my eyes"

Rating (out of 5):

     If you are a fan or horror films then you have heard the name Herschell Gordon Lewis, the godfather of gore.  I have been collecting movies for as long as I remember and around the time I went to middle school I started really getting in to horror films.  It has now been 15 years since my obsession of horror has taken over and I have never seen a HGL film.  One day, while on a movie buying binge, I decided to grab a few of his films.  The timing was just right because I was able to grab two BluRays with 5 HGL films in total on both.  The first BluRay was The Wizard of Gore and The Gore Gore Girls and the second was the blood trilogy, consisting of Color Me Blood Red, Two Thousand Maniacs, and Blood Feast.  Once I got the movies in the mail I just threw them on the shelf and never touched them again...until last night.

     The film opens with Montag the Magnificent (Sager) giving a speech to the crowd about illusions and what reality really is.  Montag pulls a female volunteer from the audience to perform a magic trick on her.  Montag brutally murders her in front of the crowd but they are unable to see the blood and gore, only the illusion of the trick he is performing.  Once Montag is done mutilating the young lady, she slowly returns to her seat seemingly unharmed.  Later on that night the young lady is found dead suffering from wounds she should have sustained during the show.  Another young lady, Sherry (Cler), is a local TV host and wants to interview him for her show.  Montag declines her offer and invites her back to his show for another special magic trick.  The following night Montag pulls another female volunteer from the audience and she suffers the same fate.  Sherry is hell-bent on convincing Montag to appear on her show and drags her boyfriend, Jack (Ratay), out to see him for a third time.  After the female volunteer is found dead, Sherry and Jack connect the dots and see a pattern.  The pair assume that a killer gets off from recreating Montag's show.  Sherry and Jack devise a plan to capture the killer, but Montag's show complicates things.  That particular night, Montag calls two different volunteers from the audience instead of the one.  The police rush frantically to follow both females before they are murdered but are unable to do so.  After this set of murders, Sherry and Jack suspect Montag is now the killer and offer him a spot to perform on her show.  Montag accepts and hypnotizes everyone watching at home.  He starts a fire in the studio and force Sherry and two cops to walk in it.  However, before they do, Jack arrives and pushes Montag in to it where he burns to death.  Later that night, Jack and Sherry are sitting in their bed room talking about everything that has happened to them when Jack laughs and removes his face revealing himself to be Montag.

     This movie is pure shit put on film, however, it does not fail to entertain.  The story is fucking amazing.  Its not Forest Gump but damn it suckers you in.  The viewer is glued to the TV to see what happens next.  Also, the ending is a complete mindfuck and I did not see that coming at all.  The ending is the kind that gives Shyamalan a stiffy.  The last few reviews I have posted all had shitty endings and this one broke that streak.  Unfortunately, this is the only saving grace for this film.  The acting is one of the worst I have ever seen.  It is on the same level as a 3rd grade Christmas play.  The special effects consist of two sheep carcasses, fake blood, and condoms, so you know they're shitty.  The gore, though shitty, is very effective in the film and definitely has the shock value.  That, indeed, does work but only for the first viewing.  This movie does not have a dull moment and does not fail to entertain, however, that only works the first time.  The replay value is not there and unless your a collector I would not buy this one and would find another means (legally) of watching it.