Written by Allen Kahn
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring Ray Sager, Judy Cler and Wayne Ratay
USA, 1970
It seems like almost every year for Horrorfest there’s at least one movie that’s only worth watching so you can say you’ve seen it. This year THE WIZARD OF GORE is that movie.
Director Herschell Gordon Lewis, known for his low-budget gore fests, has a cult following, but I was never in the cult and this movie didn’t convince me. Still, any movie nerd who doesn’t want to have to surrender their Movie Nerd credentials should probably check this one out so they’re not lying when they say they’ve seen it.
THE WIZARD OF GORE is probably the most famous of Lewis’ flicks and I suppose that might be because it is the most accessible, but watching it I gotta say… it’s not very accessible. I’m no budget snob but the lack of budget is on display in every scene here, showcased mostly in bad sound. Honestly, I could forgive bad gore effects, bad acting and even bad cinematography if I could just understand what everyone’s saying.
What’s the movie about? Well, I guess there’s this magician (Ray Sager) who specializes in especially gory tricks – like, when he saws a woman in half, he really saws her in half with a chainsaw and her guts fall out right in front of the audience. Where’s the trick, you ask? Well, seemingly magically, right after this display the woman in question looks fine and gets up and walks away. The problem is, later on, the women who volunteer for these tricks turn up dead later, suffering the same wounds they suffered on stage.
The host of a local daytime talk show (Judy Cler) puts two and two together and figures the magician is somehow responsible for these deaths, setting out to figure out how and bring him down. The investigation is eventually sidelined in favor of an ending that revolves around questioning reality
The main event here is the gore stuff, I think, which is not that great, though I suppose it was probably shocking in 1970, if anyone ever even saw this.
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