Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Screenplay: Allen Kahn
Starring: Ray Sager, Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay
Running Time: 95 minutes
Genre: Horror
In the early 1960s producer and director Herschell Gordon Lewis was searching for a profitable niche in the film world. He settled on graphic gore, which wasn't really featured at all in movies of the time, and could not be shown on television. His film, Blood Feast (1963) which is widely regarded as the first "splatter" film, was a huge success, and cemented his subsequent career. The Wizard of Gore is one of his later films and is actually quite accomplished by Lewis standards, although those standards were pretty low.
The storyline revolves around Montag the Magnificent (Sager) a stage magician who, as the "highlight" of his act, would gruesomely mutilate hypnotised female "volunteers" from the audience. The women are seemingly unharmed by Montag's trick, only to die a short time later, seemingly mutilated in the exact manner of Montag's tricks. TV chat show host, Sherry (Cler), and her journalist boyfriend (Ratay) become suspicious of Montag and set out to investigate him and his act.
This film is incredibly gory, but is so ineptly made it is impossible to really be offended by it. The story has quite a good premise, but it's baldy written and is riddled with plot holes, which are brought up and then promptly dismissed in the frankly nonsensical twist ending, which seemed as if it was dashed off in someone's lunchbreak. The performances are amateurish at best, although as the hissable villain Ray Sager (obviously heavily made up to look much older than he actually was) gives a hilariously pantomime-like performance, practically leaving teeth marks in the scenery. It's badly edited with character being covered in gore and blood, and then the next second being completely spotless. Even the film's gore effects, which really are it's sole purpose for existing, are ropey, no matter how many gallons of fake blood and animal offal they throw around. If you enjoy bad cinema, then it is fun, in a so bad it's good way, if you're in the right frame of mind. The worst thing about the film is that it becomes quite dull. Probably the best way to watch this film is with a group of like-minded friends ready to rip on it.
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