leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (06/09/85)
The Gore Trilogy of Herschel Gordon Lewis
Film comment by Mark R. Leeper
One of the advantages of videotape as a medium is that is is relatively
inexpensive to produce a commercial videotape given that you have a film you
want to put on tape. This means that obscure or relatively minor films
become available for viewing that one would have otherwise had to search for
years to find. It is difficult to believe that there is a giant market out
there for the films of Herschel Gordon Lewis, but his first three films are
available.
Who is Herschel Gordon Lewis? He is an exploitation filmmaker who
realized that he had to put something in his films you could not get in the
mainstream. He hit upon the idea of putting gore in. Since he did, gore is
moving into the mainstream, but all the FRIDAY THE 13THs and even the WILD
BUNCHes owe something to Lewis.
I should explain that I am somewhat indifferent to gory scenes in film.
I cringe at the French documentary NIGHT AND FOG because I know what I am
seeing is real. If I know what I am seeing is not real, it becomes one more
special effect. My rating of a Lewis film is not much different than my
rating would be if the same film were done without gore. When a friend
rented these films one at a time, I was interested to see them because they
were influential, not because I was interested (or disinterested) in them
because of the blood content.
The three films, which apparently played as a triple feature at drive-
ins for a long time, are BLOOD FEAST, 2000 MANIACS, and COLOR ME BLOOD RED.
BLOOD FEAST (1963) is a humorously inept piece about an Egyptian
caterer who is setting up an "Egyptian Feast" for the graduation party of a
client's daughter. Unbeknownst to the client, the feast is going to feature
body parts from a number of local women. The film was produced on a
miniscule budget by people with more money than talent. A PLAYBOY Playmate,
Ashlyn Martin, plays the graduating senior. Nobody behaves like anyone you
know. Rate it -3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
By far the best of the trilogy is 2000 MANIACS (1964). Unlike its
predecessor, it does not look like it was made in somebody's garage. The
story concerns a town, population 2000, that was massacred in the Civil War
and, like Brigadoon, comes back once a century, though in this case to
avenge itself on Yankees. The script has some (intentional) wit and at
times actually attains fun. The music is provided by the Pleasant Valley
Boys, a professional group whose most memorable contribution to the film is
the song "Eeee-HA! The South's gonna rise again!" As a film, it nearly
makes it. Rate it 0. This one has PLAYBOY Playmate Connie Mason.
In 1965, Lewis proved that the watchability of 2000 MANIACS was a
fluke. COLOR ME BLOOD RED is not as imaginative as its predecessor, and a
good deal less entertaining. It concerns an artists who discovers that the
perfect color for his paintings is human blood. Of course he goes out
looking for nubile young lovelies to supply the commodity. This one doesn't
have enough story to cover even its short screen time, so scenes are drawn
out much too long. No PLAYBOY Playmates grace this film and the script and
acting are a step down. Rate it a high -2.
This all adds up to saying that, in spite of being the ones that
started the splatter craze, Lewis's films are nothing to scream about.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper