Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

I announce, with trembling, the remake of Hershell Gordon Lewis' "The Wizard of Gore" is a dazzling, brain jarring, reality bending and breaking masterpiece. The oft-asked, Why don't they take a crummy film and make a classic?--they have. A merging of so much complexity, directed and written and acted and lensed to highest artistry-this is a film to be noticed. It is one of those movies that says at the first minute, you are going to have a good time. Jim Thompson's killer inside me. Film noir of much assured perfection.
Fragments of pain and magic and resurrection, with a meat puppet allegory-as we use the inside of ourselves and find that ticket to the magician show is all we live for. The blood and gore used for ink is no accident and it is an assiduous audacious idea.
That one of the worst filmmakers ever could be used to bounce this bunny trail of towering, biting intelligence is cause for celebration. Crispin Glover, Kip Pardue and Bijou Phillips are honed to the nth degree in this land of going thru the lowest basement and finding the clue to the whole baffling thing is crafted right in front of your eyes, keeping you guessing, keeping you running it back and in your memory too--this is a friend of a movie. Take all the crack reviews of "Five Across the Eyes," which was a joke, and put them on this film instead. And the SuicideGirls are hot of course. Slam land and lower binges and who gets theirs first? And again.
Zach Chassler has written, and Jeremy Kasten has directed, a main wire to the most complex circuits of the brain, in a journey to a depth that is so cleverly and so deliberately muscularly ennervated, and excised something more than film, something that is in the province of what we call us.
As we come flying apart. As we come seizing the night and the lostness that is more than a theoretical concept. This movie picks up the bloody pieces and throws us back in our faces and these things become hauntings. From the oily Glover, to the burnt-out reporter, Pardue, to the girl he "met at church," Phillips, all on a canvass of blood red and dark time neon signs.
All the backgrounds, all the dialogue, all the music, the effects, the mixed up time periods, the horror fun house mirror, all the formenting and tricks that are not tricks. These are to love as only a horror film fan can.
Where we are set up for reality, in all its grotesqueness, without the veneer of fakery, which most of us see it in, this film does not pretend, does not look to make a quick buck, in low budget is a crashed world of a type of splender. It throws bear traps on us and says look again, the wizard dares you--what indeed are we afraid of?
And after the ending of everything--find yourself still horribly alive--the roles played don't care about the actors switched round--that's the great joke of the thing. Imagine getting ready. Imagine the reality of what you don't see. Who doesn't, after all?
A great movie. A classic. One not to be missed. One to be noticed. To be talked about. Written about. Congratulations to the film makers, you are geniuses, wrapping up pieces of puzzles in burlap and then tossing the burlap bag in our eyes straight to our brain, to constantly challenge us to unravel it. And is it worth it?
Most assuredly.

Director Herschell Gordon Lewis' THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970) is a cult exploitation film with a reputation that is greater than the actual quality of the film itself. Still, it has an interesting, if poorly executed, premise--a magician uses his exceptional hypnotism skills to prevent his audience from realizing that, before their very eyes, he is literally killing people during his act--that is compelling enough to hold an audience through the entire film despite the poor acting, the egregious special FX, and a plot with more holes than a brick of Swiss cheese. After viewing the film, one can't help but wonder what would happen if that premise could be used in a film that has a good writer, a skilled director, great actors, and convincing special FX. Well, one need wonder no more: Jeremy Kasten's 2007 remake is everything Lewis' original film could have been...and then some.

In the 2007 remake of THE WIZARD OF GORE, screenwriter Zach Chassler takes the premise of the original film and spins it into a contemporary urban mystery that takes place in the post-punk underground of present-day Los Angeles. In the midst of the murder mystery, Chasslers story also raises interesting questions about the nature of reality and the trustworthiness of human perception. Visually, the new film's aesthetic is based on the tattoos, piercings, and dreadlocks--not to mention the copious T&A--of the Goth pin-ups known as the Suicide Girls (a few of whom even appear in the film in minor roles), providing a dark atmosphere that matches the grim nature of the film's overall theme. And the oozy, sanguine special FX (by Autonomous F/X, Inc.) are both clever and gut-wrenchingly convincing, living up to the titular gore in ways that put to shame the butcher-shop leftovers of Lewis' original film.

The cast of the 2007 remake is an outstanding mix of hip young actors and genre veterans. As the title character (a.k.a. Montag the Magnificent), the always-entertaining Crispin Glover is both bizarre and mysterious, yet he somehow achieves this while refraining from his usual tendency to go way over the top. Glover is reunited with his fellow RIVER'S EDGE (1986) castmate Joshua Miller (genre fans will also recognize Miller from his role as the youngster vampire in 1987's NEAR DARK), who here plays a cynical young coroner introduced to Glover's magic show through the efforts of an underground journalist. Said journalist is played by Kip Pardue, whom some may recognize from a recurring role on TV's ER, and playing his girlfriend is Bijou Phillips, known to genre fans from her appearance in Eli Roth's HOSTEL: PART II (2007). Rounding out the cast are genre greats Jeffrey Combs (barely recognizable under heavy make-up) and Brad Dourif, as well as the most famous (and arguably the most beautiful) of the aforementioned Suicide Girls, Amina Munster.

The DVD release of THE WIZARD OF GORE remake offers a pristine digital transfer of the film in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (anamorphic for 16x9 TVs). Also included are an informative and entertaining feature commentary by the filmmakers, a making-of featurette, a featurette on the special FX, a mini-documentary on the Suicide Girls, and more. Gorehounds and other horror fans will definitely want this disc in their movie collections.