THE WIZARD OF GORE
US, 1970, 95 minutes, Colour.
Ray Sager, Judy Cler.
Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.
THE WIZARD OF GORE
US, 2007, 94 minutes, Colour.
Kip Pardue, Bijou Phillips, Crispin Glover, Jeffrey Combs, Brad Dourif.
Directed by Jeremy Kasten.
The original Wizard of Gore was made by Herschell Gordon Lewis, a trained journalist who taught literature at a Mississippi university for twenty years before moving into the film business. His literature background seems to have had very little influence on his film career, with small budgets he made extraordinary exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, taking of interest in soft porn styles in small-budget films for drive-ins as well as developing many gore fest films. He is considered something of a cult figure by horror film buffs.
He made The Wizard of Gore in 1970, a television reporter looking at a man who conducted illusions on stage, gory illusions, and wanted to investigate his background and what was happening to the people who acted in his shows.
The film was remade in 2007. This time the central character is a journalist, played by Kip Pardue. He is investigating again a showman, Montag the Magnificent, an on-stage illusionist who has a rather grim and disgusting character who serves as an overture for the illusions. Crispin Glover is Montag, using his eerie on-screen performance (The River’s Edge, Back to the Future) to create a seemingly made mesmerist on stage. His illusions, of course, are particularly gory.
The film shows an offbeat theatre where the illusions are performed. Kip Pardue’s character is under some kind of drug treatment which creates illusions – with visits to a very eccentric doctor, played by Brad Dourif. It is a bit difficult to tell who is influencing, hypnotising, or mesmerising whom.
The journalist suffers from nightmares in which he kills the victims of the illusionist. Is this happening in real life or is he imagining it? The film builds up to a final gory confrontation between the journalist and Montag, resulting in Montag’s death – as well as of the character who introduces him. The journalist then takes over the role of Montag.
The films are cult items, interesting in terms of the development of independent cinema, the treatment of gore and violence in films from the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century.
The latter film uses a rather oblique kind of film-making, different angles, dark and colours, pace and editing to create an eerie and sometimes incomprehensible atmosphere. That said, this version of The Wizard of Gore is far more upmarket than the original.
