The Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection (The Gore Gore Girls / A Taste of Blood / She-Devils on Wheels / The Gruesome Twosome / The Wizard of Gore / Something Weird)

Average customer rating:

Marvelous!

The Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection (The Gore Gore Girls / A Taste of Blood / She-Devils on Wheels / The Gruesome Twosome / The Wizard of Gore / Something Weird)
Starring: Herschell Gordon Lewis
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00029RSWC
Release Date: 2004-07-06

Description

Six Blood-Spattered Cult Classics from the Creator of Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs !The Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, is back and ready to paint the room red with six outrageous tales of terror! A wigmaker and her psycho son make a Gruesome Twosome when they decide to use real human hair to stock their shop, fresh from bloody scalps! Enjoy A Taste of Blood as an elixir from Count Dracula turns an all-American businessman into a blood-craving creature of the night! Experience Something Weird when an electrical shock disfigures a man who makes a deadly deal with a cunning witch involving ESP, LSD, and killer bed sheets! Then an all-girl motorcycle gang of She-Devils on Wheels turns a small town into a rip-roaring bloodbath after a young girl's initiation sets off a chain of jealousy and murder! Grab a front row seat as The Wizard of Gore mutilates audience members in an act too gruesome to be real, or is it? Then get ready for lots of shakin' and screamin' as The Gore Gore Girls take the stage, where a psycho is picking off the strippers at a nightclub run by Henny Youngman! Mixing pitch-black humor and jaw-dropping blood and guts, these drive-in cult classics will leave stunned, shocked, and begging for more!

Customer Reviews:

Marvelous!.......2004-07-06

In 1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis, an independent filmmaker known for making limited release "cutie" pictures, changed forever the face of American cinema when he released "Blood Feast." This film, as low budget as you could possibly get, ushered in the era of the gore film. While it would be quite some time before Hollywood caught on to the fact that certain segments of the movie going public hungered for films containing nauseating scenes of explicit violence, H.G. Lewis took one look at the receipts for "Blood Feast" and decided he better quickly make another movie similar to this one. What followed was a series of gruesome zero budget shockers, films like "The Wizard of Gore," "A Taste of Blood," "2000 Maniacs," "Color Me Blood Red," and "The Gruesome Twosome." Lewis lensed the downright offensive "The Gore-Gore Girls" before retiring from the film business in 1972 in order to devote his time to the advertising industry. It wasn't until 2002 that the director returned to form with "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat," a movie which proved beyond a doubt that the Godfather of Gore still has what it takes to gross out an audience. It's elevates the soul to see something as audacious as a "Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection" hit stores. They even threw in a couple of Hersch's non-gore flicks for good measure.

I just can't get over a Lewis boxed set. First up is Lewis's ghastliest film, "The Gore-Gore Girls," a movie so repulsive that one must see it to believe it. What's the plot, you ask? What are you, somebody who needs a coherent plot? Well, there is a plot here if you look hard enough. Some nut's been going around dispatching the female employees at the local "men's clubs," so a newspaper hires crack detective Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress) to investigate the crimes. A ditzy local reporter, Nancy Weston, tags along and generally gets in the way whenever see can. You won't care about the plot when the gore starts rolling in. Lewis gives us a scene where a gal bobs for French fries, a hot iron applied to something other than clothing, and the grisly capper involving two types of milk. A head scene that rivals the atrocity we saw in "Toxic Avenger" makes an appearance, in case you were wondering. Whew! If you get through this movie intact, give yourself a pat on the back! Heck, if you can get through the cheesy canned jazz soundtrack, you'll be a winner in life. Look for Henny Youngman playing sleazy club owner Marzdone Mobilie, as well as Ray Sager from "The Wizard of Gore" hamming it up as a sniffling bartender.

Speaking of "The Wizard of Gore," this cinematic nightmare shows up in the set as well. Montag the Magician (Ray Sager) puts on a heck of show when he hypnotizes his audience and then proceeds to massacre a volunteer from the crowd in stomach churning close up. The tricks include a sword swallowing bit, a punch press, and the old railroad spike through the head gag that's so popular at kiddie birthday parties. No one sees what Montag is up to-they're hypnotized, remember-until the victim falls to pieces after the show. A suspicious feminist talk show host eventually catches on to the wizard's foul deeds and, with the help of her boyfriend, attempts to bring the malevolent magician to justice. The conclusion of the film is memorable only because it actually makes the viewer think, a rarity in the world of Herschell Gordon Lewis films. "The Wizard of Gore" is probably my favorite Lewis gore film, so it's nice to see it again here. The acting is as wooden as it could possibly get, the effects are dirt cheap, and there are more continuity errors than you can shake a stick at, but it's all done in good fun. You'll love it. Really!

"A Taste of Blood" and "The Gruesome Twosome" represent lesser H.G. Lewis productions (!). The former is the director's take on the vampire genre, as a chipper business chap named John Stone receives two mysterious bottles of wine from a recently deceased relative. Turns out that the stuff is blood from a vampire, which means by the time Stone finishes off the bottles, he becomes a walking Dracula. His wife Helen knows something is wrong, but can do little to stop the unfolding disaster. Not much gore in this one, but it is one of Lewis's better works in terms of cinematography and even (gasp) acting. "The Gruesome Twosome" also boasts a good actress in the form of Mrs. Pringle, a chirpy dame who runs a wig shop out of her house. Local college girls go there to buy hairpieces but never leave thanks to Pringle's demented son Rodney, a goofy looking miscreant who supplies mother with the raw material to make new wigs (think about it for a second and you'll get the idea). I got a kick out of the film, especially the cheesy dance number and Pringle's pet, the ever silent Napoleon.

Description

The most barbaric humor since the guillotine! Crazy old Mrs. Pringle runs "The Little Wig Shop," where she specializes in wigs made entirely of human hair. Offering to rent rooms to local college girls, Mrs. Pringle scurries the gals into a back room where her psycho son, Rodney, provides the "wigs" for his mama by gorily scalping the women. But when a co-ed friend of amateur sleuth Kathy disappears, Kathy investigates until she too comes face to face with Rodney and his new electric carving knife... A macabre blend of humor and horror, "The Gruesome Twosome" is another berserk epic from director Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Gore Gore Girls). It also has one of the strangest openings of any horror film: two Styrofoam wig heads with cartoon faces amiably chat about the upcoming plot until one of them abruptly gets stabbed. WOW!

Customer Reviews:

You have a problem if..........2004-08-26

you think this sort of thing is "entertainment". Evil is not a joke. People are naturally designed to be revulsed by violence and gore. If you have trained yourself to overcome this human trait, you have jaded yourself into a spiritually and psychologically dangerous place.

When I was eight years old my loving parents took me and my sister to see "Samson and Delilah" at the local drive-in theater. Before the movie started, a graphic trailer for this piece of trash was projected onto the screen. Our whole family was horrified, and I was forever changed. I had never seen anything like that, and now, at age 45, I wish I still had not. I have never been able to fully expunge the disgusting images from my mind, though I have tried.

It wasn't funny or entertaining. It was horrifying to see, and perhaps more horrifying to think that anyone would want to see this for entertainment, or that anyone would make it, or that anyone would WANT to make it.

The theater operators should have been sued for foisting it upon unsuspecting customers.

Most of you reading this will instantly conclude that I am a puritanical prude or some such. I ask you to consider that perhaps it is your own perspective that is out-of-whack, and it's time to look for the pure, the true, the beautiful, the good, and the love in life. These are the creations of God; against these there is no law, and no expiration date. The truth IS just the same old story. I pray that you may find it.

nonsense+horrid acting+gore+H.G.LEWIS=blueprint classic!!!!!.......2004-06-07

sick mommy & sick son run a human wig shop & trap the local college girls in a back room of the shop to get there hair cut/or a scalp!!!!!!!!!this is not HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS'S best effort by no means!!! but it is a classic blueprint gore flick from the original master of gore himself!!! this flick is gooooofy & thats what its supposed to be so when your watching it DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!!! THIS IS A PIONEER GORE FLICK TO THE BONE!!! & if you don't have it then your gonna want to get it to help complete your H.G.LEWIS collection!!!!! so hurry up & get it before you cant find it anymore. its got a decent commentary by H.G.LEWIS & a couple of other gooooooofy (aged) extras all & all this is a blueprint classic low budget gore flick!!!! GET IT & E!!!!N!!!!J!!!!O!!!!Y!!!!

A mother, her son, and his new electric knife!.......2004-02-27

For those of you unfamiliar with the work of director Herschell Gordon Lewis, I advise you to start with 2000 Maniacs (his best in my opinion) or Blood Feast. For those who have seen those classics, I would consider this a "minor" yet worthwhile work along the lines of Color Me Blood Red. You get four good gore scenes, which may not seem like a lot, but when the movie only runs about 1 hr. 15 min. that's actually pretty decent.

The plot concerns the elderly Mrs. Pringle and her drooling, mentally deranged son who run a wig shop. The wigs are made out of human hair which the son obtains by killing and scalping beautiful young women. Clearly the old-woman-helping-her-son-kill idea influenced several newer horror films, most obviously the classic Mother's Day. Mrs. Pringle also has a stuffed cat (I'm guessing a leopard) named Napoleon who she talks to repeatedly throughout the movie. Napoleon has a central role in this film; those familiar with Lewis' work will appreciate the fact that an embalmed animal can steal a scene from some of the human actors involved.

Objects also become actors in the much-discussed introduction to the movie, which features two styrofoam heads with wigs talking to one another. It's this kind of low-budget inventiveness that makes Lewis' movies entertaining. Sure it pads out the running time, but what the heck! it's creative and bizarre. I also enjoyed the movie that was playing at the drive-in: the camera never shows the couple's faces but instead shows their actions at the dinner table during their conversation. Their hands pour beer, handle food, crush potato chips, and smash fruit in a way that corresponds with what they're saying. Truly weird.

The heroine of The Gruesome Twosome is a meddling college girl who is trying to figure out the recent murders. Don't expect rocket science or great acting here. Do expect her and her college girlfriends to start dancing in unison, whether in the dorm room or at the beach. I especially liked the girl who danced on the bed while eating a KFC drumstick. Careful not to choke!

The usual nice extras are here from Something Weird Video. There's a short film about wig making, Lewis' running commentary through the feature, and Lewis' gallery of exploitation art (print ads, posters and other promotional material from his films). I really enjoyed the ads, but in some cases the small print was difficult or impossible to read. My main complaint about the DVD (and every other Something Weird release of Lewis) is the inside cover. If you've never seen the movie before, don't look at it! It gives away key gore scenes in full-color close up. Other than these minor drawbacks, I recommend Lewis' horror films to fans of gory sick humor and bizarre, low-budget film making.

Weak.......2004-02-07

In 1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis, an independent filmmaker best known for making limited release "cutie" pictures, changed forever the face of American cinema when he released "Blood Feast." That film, as low budget as you could possibly get, heralded the era of the gore film. While it would be quite some time before Hollywood caught on to the fact that certain segments of the movie going public hungered for films containing nauseating scenes of explicit violence, H.G. Lewis took one look at the receipts for "Blood Feast" and decided he better quickly make another movie similar to this one. What followed was a series of gruesome zero budget shockers, films like "The Wizard of Gore," "A Taste of Blood," "2000 Maniacs," and this exercise in bloodletting, "The Gruesome Twosome." Lewis went on to make one more gore film, the downright offensive "The Gore-Gore Girls," before retiring from the film business in order to devote his time to the advertising business. It wasn't until 2002 that the director returned to form with "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat," a movie which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Godfather of Gore still has what it takes to gross out an audience.

"The Gruesome Twosome" tells the story of Mrs. Pringle, her mentally defective son Rodney, and her stuffed cat Napoleon. Mother and son live alone in a rambling house where they run a small wig business out of a room on the ground floor. The store draws in many customers, so many that in order to restock the product Pringle happens upon a novel idea. Since a university sits right down the road, Pringle puts out a bogus advertisement about a room for rent that soon draws in plenty of potential female boarders. The girls aren't in the house for more than a few minutes before they learn the horrific truth about this elderly lady and her disturbed son. Pringle shoves the victim into a room, locks the door, and unleashes Rodney on the frightened victims. A bloody scalping, an evisceration, and a tracheotomy performed with an electric carving knife provide the grue typical of a H.G. Lewis film. The disappearances of several women worries Kathy, a university student with an overbearing attitude and a nosiness that goes beyond all rational sense. When Kathy's friend Dawn suddenly disappears after looking for lodgings, our annoying amateur sleuth starts to uncover clues that will lead to her own personal showdown with Pringle and Rodney. "The Gruesome Twosome" is definitely not the goriest Lewis motion picture, not by a long shot, but it does contain a few scenes guaranteed to turn the stomach. Unfortunately, the infrequent gore is about all this film offers the viewer.

As far as Herschell Gordon Lewis films go, "The Gruesome Twosome" is a mediocre effort. Sure, all Lewis films rely heavily on atrocious acting, wooden pacing, and sloppy editing, but the outlandish gore sequences usually balanced out--to some extent anyway--these horrendous flaws. Regrettably, the gore scenes are rare in this picture, but that is the least of our worries here. The Kathy character poses the biggest problem; she is so annoying and so steadfast in her ridiculous quest to blame anyone for the disappearances that I quickly hoped she would come to a bad end. There is some nonsense about her boyfriend getting angry with her about her inquisitiveness, along with several useless scenes involving Kathy and her girlfriends, which totally stifle the pace of the film. Moreover, Lewis admits on the commentary that he failed to shoot enough footage to manufacture a seventy plus minute film. The sort of theaters that showed Lewis films would only present movies of a certain length, so the director had to add several scenes of filler to flesh out "The Gruesome Twosome." Check out the ludicrous opening sequence with the talking mannequin heads or the confusing potato chip/fruit sequence midway through the film to see what I am talking about.

Still, a few notable items stand out. The actress who played Mrs. Pringle did a good job with her character. She has a hilarious tendency to turn everything he says into a rhetorical question directed to her stuffed cat Napoleon. After watching a few scenes with Pringle, I began to seriously think that this person might have been the most competent actor Lewis ever hired. The chap who played Pringle's son Rodney also did an effective job as the grotesquely unhinged killer. His leers and grunts while he commits a dastardly deed are quite disturbing in their own right. Sadly, Rodney gets little screen time. I think if "The Gruesome Twosome" had spent more time developing Pringle and Rodney, it would have been a much better film. Instead, we get the two aforementioned filler scenes, a few cheesy dance sequences with Kathy and her friends, and boring shots of the beach, a car race, and a chase scene involving Kathy and the school janitor. Boring!

DVD extras include a theatrical trailer for the film, a poster gallery from Lewis's numerous films, a commentary from the man himself, and a clip about making wigs that came from one of the "Mondo Cane" films. The picture quality is sub par, with fading colors and streaks appearing with frightening regularity. This is especially disappointing when one remembers how great "2000 Maniacs" looked on DVD. While "The Gruesome Twosome" disappoints in many areas, it is still a movie with that distinct Herschell Gordon Lewis feel. Personally, I would watch "Blood Feast 2" or "The Wizard of Gore" again before diving back into this mess. "The Gruesome Twosome" is for Lewis completists only.

Gruesome, baby, gruesome!.......2003-05-31

This is not one of Hershell's best, but I'll buy anything he puts his name on, movie-wise, at least. I just love his commentary and insight into such a wonderful time, when everything was up for grabs in movie making. This movie has some good gore in it, intestines, scalpings, eyeball-gouging, etc. It's about an old woman, named Mrs. Pringle, and her son Rodney, who own a wig shop/rooms for rent. The "Rooms for Rent" premise is how they lure their victims to the shop, then Mrs. Pringle leads them to this door, has them go inside, and shuts the door and locks it. Then the maniacal Rodney takes over. The results aren't pretty, to say the very least! Let's just say that they don't SELL one wig in the movie, but they do obtain a few of them, in gruesome fashion. KFC makes it's first appearance in a film here. See it to find out what I mean! Colonel Sanders even made an appearance in one of Hersch's films, Blast-Off Girls. Hersch was kind of a shill for them in these two movies. He got free food in exchange for it. He had to cut costs wherever he could, and he did it masterfully! This DVD is a must for your Herschell Gordon Lewis collection! Get it now!!!!