I watched this movie before and after I saw the '2009 ball' drop! Because they showed a clip of this in Juno, I was curious as to what this was about. I received this as a Christmas present. Montag the Magnificent is a master of illusion that picks women out of the audience and appears to stick swords in their mouths, puts drills through them, and other disgustingly awesome stuff. After, they seem to be okay, but when they get home, they die the same way Montag impaled them. I love how this had a Grindhouse feel and the blood and gore looked extremely fake, but was pretty cool anyway! If you love cheap gore gags from the 70's you'll love THE WIZARD OF GORE!!!
p.s. Happy New Year!!!
January 1, 2009I thought this was going to be a lot better than it actually was. Maybe i'm just jaded, but i could not believe the effects for a second, and the acting was terrible. I know this is supposed to be in the category of "so bad it's good" but maybe with a commentary track by Mike Nelson (Mystery Science Theater 3000) it would be worth owning. Other than that, i found it just boring.
October 19, 2008The Movie was just as god as any B-Rated movie I could hope for why can't movie be like this now just over the limit badassness. Its all about remaking and stealing Asian horror movies or trying to add twist just be bloody and brilliant.
July 17, 2008Ahh The Wizard of Gore, they just don't make 'em like this anymore. This has got to be one of the most entertaining horror flick's of all time. It's a film from H.G. Lewis, the man that single handedly invented the gore craze with his early 60's gore epic Bloodfeast. This man was pulling off effect's in the early 60's that people can't (or won't) pull off nowaday's. He is the king of drive-in/grindhouse cinema, and one of my favorite director's of all time. Whenever I watch an H.G. Lewis movie (this in particular), I'm reminded of why I love horror so much.
Wizard of Gore is one of his later 70's flick's and my personal favorite H.G. Lewis film, also one of his last. The story is about a magician that like's to dismantle his viewing audience with extremely brutal magic trick's (or are they magic trick's at all?) after hypnitizing them to volunteer for the show. Some of his "trick's" include crushing a girl with a punch press, a nice little sword swallowing act, a spike driven through the brain, and a girl sawed in half (by chainsaw I might add), among some other gory treats.
What I really love about Wizard of Gore is how H.G. Lewis plays with the audience's mind by drawing a fine line between reality and illusion by using cut's during gore scenes from what is really happening to what the audience is actually seeing happen. Of course all of his classic trademark's are in full swing here, the trippy jazz/fusion music, the hilariously brilliant dioluge, awesome screenplay, the glorious gore effect's, and not to mention it has the coolest name and box-art for a horror movie ever. Any fan's of extreme horror/grindhouse/drive-in cinema must see this film. Highly recommended.
"Torture and terror have always fascinated mankind, perhaps whatever made your predisesors see the sadism of the inqisition and the gore of a gladiaters arena, is the same thing that makes you stare at bloody highway accident's and thrill to the terror of death".
January 25, 2008 |  | Chris Angel Should Try Some Of This Stuff |  |
Here's another pointless, yet entertaining gore for gore's sake flick from Herschell Gordon Lewis. This time there's a touch of the supernatural as in Two Thousand Maniacs. Montag The Magnificent is an extremely hammy magician who's whole act makes David Copperfield look Shakespearian. Through some kinda hynosis(which is never explained in any kind detail at all) he manages to snag a female "volunteer" from the audience. He then performs an illusion that includes some kind of dangerous stunt(sawing a woman in half, sword swallowing, etc.). The audience must be under some kind of hypnosis as well coz they see an amazing, yet seemingly harmless and bloodless stunt, while us viewers see what's really going on. What's really going on is that Montag is actually savagely slaughtering and dismembering these women...and having fun doing it! After the stunt is done, the volunteer returns to her seat, unharmed yet looking like she's in a trance. Later after the show, the hypnosis must wear off or some goofy thing coz her injuries from Montag's trick magically appear for real and she dies. Police think some whacko from the audience is following the victims out of the theater and killing them in the style of the illusion they participated in, but we know better, don't we? A tv show host and her sports writer boyfriend smell something rotten in Denmark and decide to look into this whole thing. By the time they've caught on, Montag has agreed to do an illusion live on tv in the hopes of killing all the viewers! Scary, huh? This movie is rather fun, but I do have one complaint. The scenes of Montag pontificating endlessly about "what is reality?" and mankind's innate desire to see horrific things gets tiresome. His whole act before the actual gore scenes could be trimmed down a bit. The gore in this movie is classic Lewis, yet it's the furthest he had taken it at that point. Though fake as hell, it's rather unsettling, moreso than in alot of other films. I think it's because he likes to linger on it so long. Most gory films that have someone's intestines ripped out are usually done rather fast. Even Romero's zombie films, while gruesome, tend to execute the gut munching a bit fast(though he lingers on it more than alot of other directors). Lewis keeps the camera still on those intestines and he has Montag dig his hands in there and squeeze them and play around with them like a kid with Playdough or something. It's rather sick and brutal. At one point he nails a spike through a volunteer's head and pulls out her brains. Now, we can all see very clearly that this head is a fake dummy head, but it's unnerving to watch Montag's hands smearing brains all over, sticking his fingers into the eye sockets and squeezing the eyeballs. Some desensitized gorehounds might even say, "whoa" at this one. Lewis would up the ante a bit with his next gore flick, The Gore Gore girls, which features the same kind of brutal, lingering gore scenes, but jacked up a notch. Needless to say, this film is not for everyone. The gore, the cheap production values and putrid acting will surely narrow this film's audience. Alot of people will shut this off after just a few minutes, be grossed out or say, "what the hell is it I'm watching?" Recommended for fans of Lewis(of course), exploitation, gore and camp.
September 22, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
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