|
| Siren Visual Entertainment (Australia). All Regions, NTSC. 4:3. English DD 1.0. 100 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
 |
| Credits |
Director: Herschell
Gordon Lewis
Starring: Ray Sager,
Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay, Phil Laurenson
Screenplay: Allen Kahn
Country: USA |
While not a personal favourite of director Herschell
Gordon Lewis, The Wizard of Gore has become one of his most beloved, if that's
the right word, films. Some suppose it is because
Lewis himself is a wizard of gore, or that it's
because Wizard is one of his bloodiest offerings.
Personally, it's my favourite Lewis movie,
not for those reasons, but for the totally whacked
ending.
The Wizard of Gore focuses around
Montag the Magnificent, a magician. 'Montag'
means 'Monday' in German, but was
perhaps merely used because of the alliteration.
Anyway, Montag is played by Ray Sager, who the
makeup people are relatively consistent with trying
to make look older by dying his hair grey or putting
a bad wig on him. Montag's magic show consists
of him prattling on with the same tired speech
before going into the graphic maiming of a young
female member of the audience. The other audience
members don't see the slaughter, because
Montag has hypnotised the audience into thinking
the women are all involved in harmless illusions.
The hypnosis shots are jarring, hilarious close-ups
of Sager's eyes.
The host of a TV show called Housewives'
Coffee Break sees Montag's performance and
is so impressed that she wants to have him as
a guest. Her fiancé is less convinced by
Montag, and his scepticism eventually leads the
pair into the mystery of why Montag's volunteers
seem to turn up dead shortly after their appearance
on stage.
The 'acting' is on par with what
one expects from a Lewis movie, though Sager's
idea of a performance consists of yelling a lot.
The plot is nothing more than a vignette for Montag's
gory proceedings, but that doesn't really
matter because what else does anyone watch a Lewis
splatter flick for? The film is heavily padded,
though not as bad as some of Lewis' other
movies, but could easily have been trimmed to
80 minutes. Production values are worse than normal
for Lewis, but that just makes the movie more
hilarious. Even the gore is more remedial than
usual, like the fake heads, but rest assured,
actresses are still seen writhing around while
offal is smeared on them, and the FX are plenty
gooey. Oddly, despite their violent dispatchings,
many of the deceased continue to breathe after
leaving this world.
The film features some interesting logic, even
by Lewis standards. Montag can hypnotise huge
audiences (though he only ever seems to have about
30 people present at a show), but instead of hypnotising
them to think he's torturing women, he actually
tortures them and hypnotises people to think he
isn't. Montag saws one woman in half and
removes another's brain, but both still
seem to be able to walk away from the theatre.
How can you walk if you're sawn in half?
I used to think having a brain was a prerequisite
for walking, but then George W. seems to be able
to put one foot in front of the other, so guess
not. Another oddity, within the movie, is having
a character attack the film's plot holes.
The most bizarre element of all is the idea that
a show like Housewives' Coffee Break's
target audience would be interested in Grand Guignol.
And all this happens well before the most insane
ending ever committed to celluloid. |
| Video |
| The Wizard of Gore is presented
at 1.33:1. This 'remastered' print still
has lots of grain, lines, specks and spots, but
is cleaner than the old videos. Make sure you have
a decent DVD player before putting this one on.
Something Weird DVDs often skip in lower end players.
This happened to me with both NTSC and PAL players,
so it's not the format conversion process. |
| Audio |
| The DVD sleeve says the film is in Dolby Digital
Stereo, but my player says the audio is a single
channel. Regardless, the mix is low, which leaves
the dialogue at times indecipherable. The sound
is not always clear, but presumably that's
more about the source material, especially given
the track doesn't appear to have been remastered
at all. Unfortunately, the audio commentary has
some nasty static on it at times. |
| Extra Features |
| The Wizard of Gore comes with
the film's trailer, which features more footage
of Sager in character; art for other Lewis exploitation
fare, mostly focusing on his sex flicks; and a commentary.
The commentary features Mr. Lewis himself, and is
hosted by the man behind Something Weird Video,
Mike Vraney. Vraney is the creepiest person I've
ever met, so I found his presence more of a distraction
than anything. Lewis is an eloquent, talkative man,
so Vraney didn't even need to be there, regardless.
If he felt a host was needed, why not use his always
amusing cohort, Frank Henenlotter? Anyway, the track
provides the expected info about the production.
Lewis is very fond of pointing out his chainsaw
scene came prior to a certain movie set in Texas,
but given The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn't particularly gory, I'm not sure
what point he wants to make. I did really like the
anecdote about Monster A Go-Go. |
| The Verdict |
I am quite fond of The Wizard of Gore,
and this is a solid release of the film. This is
probably the best it's going to look for awhile.
It may not have been Lewis' first or best,
but no one can deny its inept, outré charm.
Plus, if you have it available, you can show the
ending to friends and watch their befuddled reaction.
How cool is that?
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
|
|
 |
Be the first to comment on this item!