Customer Reviews

The Wizard of Gore

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Hi! I'm Maxx Gillman. I actually got to work on this movie. I'm friends with the director, Jeremy Kasten, and committed endless hours to help make this movie (and DVD) as good as I could. It became my (and Jeremy's) passion project.

This unrated cut basically is the "director's cut". Sure it has a bunch of blood and effects that were always meant to be in there...but there's other stuff too. A bunch of the music is different (we actually got original music from Black Heart Procession! and Danny Lohner! And Stanton LaVey! and Eric Powell of 16 Volt! You have no idea how giddy I was as these pieces started coming together). And there's little editing things too. Crispin, Brad and Jeffrey all seem a little bit more evil...or a little bit crazier...something. They're just more fun in this cut.

But enough about the movie. I'm gonna let that speak for itself. I love it.

When the DVD was getting made, I was explaining what i think makes a good DVD. And managed to be given creative control on a bunch of the content. (holy crap!)

There are 8 Deleted Scenes. Good ones. and I remembered on the DVD of Pi, Darren Aronofsky introduced the deleted scenes. I thought about how rad that was and how it was really interesting to understand why a scene didn't make the cut. So I got Jeremy to introduce all the deleted scenes and add some insight to them.

There are 3 Featurettes. I'm sick of DVD extras being like "It was so fun making [say movie name] and working with the other famous people." It's so generic and why bother. So I was really careful while making them to make sure they actually had CONTENT.
-We've got a general "making of" covering everything from casting the actors to production design and costumes (codpiece!) to the spooky haunted elevators (no...really).
-The piece about the effects talks in detail about all the practical and digital effects ranging from an animatronic puppet of Flux Suicide to chopping off Amina Munster's leg to setting fire to a mannequin head in the producer's backyard and using that for a shot. It was low budget and fun and the stuff we managed to get away was awesome.
-The SG piece gets into casting the part of Dell with a bunch of audition footage of SGs trying out for the roll. And also carefully painting all of amina's tattoos onto her fake body. and the blood wrestling. oh the blood wrestling.

I researched the commentary by running off and watching what i heard were some of the better commentaries out there (UHF, Fight Club, Goonies, Seven Samurai, Orgazmo. the list goes on and on) I took notes of what I liked and didn't like and i got to invite the people who really made this movie awesome and had war stories to add to the commentary. No, none of the actors are in it. I think their work shows itself excellently in the movie. But we've got the writer, director, DP, producer and...me. I gave a everyone a speech about how not to say "oh! I like this scene. let's watch it." because i HATE when commentaries do that. We just opened the whiskey and let the stories fly. I hope you enjoy it.

I've just realized how much I've written so i'm gonna stop now. Let me close by saying that I'm not making a dime if you buy this DVD. But there is a lot of my blood and sweat in it. This DVD is made because it's what I want to see in a DVD. And the movie is made by people who really cared and really enjoyed it. And I hope you enjoy it too.

Just caught a screener of this one today, and wow - i was really floored - It's a thoughtful (and surprisingly less explicit!) remake of H.G. Lewis's campy existentialist horror trash-flick clas-sick from 1970 which really delivers... Crispin Glover was great as Montag, the infamous Wizard of Gore, and the story really takes some neat twists the likes of which were only hinted at in the original. Not a perfect horror movie, but compared to the rest of the ones i've seen lately, it was pretty neat. The special effects were well done, and the acting was pretty damn good - especially the un-recognizable and over the top turn by Jeffrey Combs. (See if you can spot him - i had to wait for the end credits.) i liked this movie a lot more than i was expecting to, and i'd highly recommend it to any horror afficianado as both an unexpected surprising thought-provoker, and a remake which actually improves upon the original.

I purchased this because I like the 1970 original Wizard.I really was hoping to see a new modern twist to "Wizard of Gore" and after watching the new remake I felt as though I'd been cheated.I think Crispin Glover makes an excellent creep,but Kip Pardue seemed to take up all the screen time and to me thats a bad thing(not that he's a bad actor)but he just doesn't bode well in horror.As for the rest of the players, Bijou Phillips and Jeffrey Combs and Brad Dourif are solid as usual for the whole 5 minutes you see them.Again Mr.Pardues scenes seem to drag on forever(I want to see more Montag)The gore level was disappointingly low(this is supposedly the WIZARD OF GORE!!!!remake).The CGI was okay in some parts and the makeup was decent,but as I said the CGI was okay in some parts,other parts it was really cheap looking.Don't get me wrong the original Wizard of Gore had cheap sets,cheap lighting,cheap special effects,cheap everthing,but it was great in a way that this remake isn't.I would say it was okay for seeing just once,if your watching this while your doing your taxes.I traded in my copy of this remake the very next day as it was totally unworthy of being in my collection next to the original.My 1 star rating gets a split with 1/2 star for Crispin Glover as Montag and 1/2 star for The Suicide Girls in the nude of artistic fashion,zero stars for everting else. Not worth seeing for the allstar casting alone because Mr. Pardue takes up about 90% of the movie.Go pick up the original,it is so much better and goes for less then half the price of this remake.

The best that can be said about this new version of "The Wizard of Gore" is that it has a bigger budget than the original. This allowed for better looking sets and the ability to hire actual actors. Unfortunately, the overall telling of the story is out of whack. For starters, I am unclear as to why the main character seems to be stuck in the 1930s. Everyone around him is modern, yet he and his immediate surroundings are of the 1930s. The film tries to play off on this, attempting a noirish cinematic style but it is jarring rather than artistic. I kept focusing on all the antique oddities in the main character's home rather than the plot of the film. Keep in mind the guy is not stuck in some weird time warp thing or something, so there is no real explanation for this strange 1930 vibe. Once Crispen Glover gets on the scene, the film picks up a little due primarily to his crazed acting style. The gore set pieces are not very impressive as they are usually CGI obscured, (he puts his intended victims behind a fog covered screen) so as to not really be worth much. As the story progresses it becomes less coherent and eventually just turns into a whole lot of nothing. The film boasts an appearance of the "Suicide Girls" and they spend most of their limited screen time without clothing, so that's another positive I guess. The DVD contains a few making of supplements, a directors commentary track, deleted scenes and outtakes. Most of the supplements are better than the actual film. The director obviously had a good time making the film and hanging out with the suicide girls. One thing I did note is that the DVD master appears to be too dark so you might have to make adjustments to your screen. This film is a rental at best although you could probably find something a lot better.

I had high hopes for this remake of H.G. Lewis' The Wizard of Gore based solely on the casting of Crispin Glover as Montag the Magnificent. Unfortunately this opportunity for a fun revamping turned out to be horribly directed and acted garbage that has none of the energy found in the original. The biggest problem is Kip Pardue, an actor who delivers his lines like he's reading the ingredients off a cereal box. Since he's the main character the film spends 90% of its time on him, and it makes for a very dull viewing experience. Lewis fans looking for the "gore" of the title will also be left sorely disappointed. Even Glover is disappointing, approaching the Montag character as more of an evangelist than a magician. The best parts of the movie belonged to Brad Dourif and Jeffrey Combs, two actors that could teach the kids in it a thing or two about how to properly go over-the-top. Coming on the heels of 2001 Maniacs, The Wizard of Gore just doesn't measure up.

You'd think a cast of notable eccentrics like Crispin Glover, Jeffrey Combs and Brad Dourif would make this remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' cult classic fun and entertaining, but you'd be wrong. 'Wizard Of Gore' looks terrible, is horribly acted and contains a ridiculous twist ending that not only doesn't make total sense but isn't hard to predict thanks to an annoying voiceover narration.

Edmond Bigelow (Kip Pardue) is a self-styled 50's gumshoe living in modern day Los Angeles. To say that he clashes with his surroundings would be an understatement - he looks like a ridiculous poser. Ed is the publisher of an underground newspaper whose masthead features an illustration of a white rabbit. After an eventful Halloween party, Ed and his girlfriend Maggie (the always sexy Bijou Phillips) get sucked into their own hellish rabbit hole thanks to a mysterious magician named Montag (Glover). After getting invited to one of his shows by a dirty bum (Combs) they witness Montag select a female "volunteer" from the audience, a woman whom Ed recognizes as a stripper, and bring her onstage where he proceeds to hypnotize her and commands her to take off her clothes. Then he kills her. As the horrified audience scrambles for the exit, the house lights come on revealing Montag and the woman who is a little dazed but otherwise unharmed. Ed, fascinated by the show, decides to write a piece on Montage - where he comes from, how he chooses his volunteers, what he uses to hypnotize them and, most importantly, how he pulls off the "trick" of mutilating them without actually harming them. With the help of Maggie and his friend Jinky, a forensics student, Ed begins an investigation that gets him into all kinds of confusing and dangerous situations that ultimately test his sanity. When the female volunteers actually start turning up dead, in the same manner they were killed onstage, Ed realizes he's dealing with something far more bizarre than he anticipated.

I'm a huge fan of Pardue but he's terrible here. His performance is nothing more than an elaborate series of tics that are distracting and annoying. Glover, sporting a pompadour and decked out in a white suit that comes complete with a giant prosthetic crotch, is the most fun to watch but his performance is far from being one of his best. Dourif, whose character was originally conceived as a Chinese hip-hop doctor, is reliably spooky but his only purpose in the film is to explain to Pardue what is happening whenever things get too confusing. Combs is a background character during the film's first half and doesn't get anything important to do until the very end. It's a good scene though full of Combs' manic energy and twisted humor. It's disappointing though since all of these guys have been so good in other movies that the one time they appear together in the same movie it had to be this one. Oh well, at least there's the lovely Bijou to look at.

Purchased this movie simply on a whim and was suprised that I actually enjoyed the movie. Feared receiving a low budget late night cable flop... The Wizard of Gore held its own as a movie.

I have seen both the original Wizard of Gore and the remake at a friends house. The first one may have been good in its day, the concept greatly appealed to me as a horror movie enthusiast, however the first movie was left widely open to interpretation, even featuring the main characters sitting around asking about the unanswered questions and still getting no where. I am not saying it wasn't good, just not to me.

The remake here was equally confusing, and as I read over the bad reviews, I can see where they are coming from. With the remake, it needs multiple viewings to be understood, to follow the complex plot. Perhaps many horror movie enthusiast seek instant gratification, no plot gory kills, and my opinion is they are the one who gave this movie such bad reviews here. I am not saying their preferred method of entertainment is wrong. I am simply saying this movie is not for them.

It took me many times watching this movie to understand it fully, and it just got better every time I watched it. The movie does not coddle you, it does not point and say "This is what is going on", it does go for the slandered plot twist at the very end (Or should I say the beginning.) and to the uninformed it would be very confusing. I believe it is a true masterpiece of a movie, surpassing the original in every way. It stimulated me with every viewing, and I still enjoy it, with every viewing I learn a little more about the plot, the trick and the ultimate illusion of the movie. The movie also comes with an all-star cast including Brad Dourif, Jeffery Combs, Crispin Glover (Who has not seen the completed film still at time of writing.) and many others. I think this is a very under appreciated gem of a film that everyone deserves to watch at least twice to see if they grip it.

This movie was really wacky and horrific and hard to follow and comprehend but I was intrigued by Crispin Glover's performance as a magical gory magician. But the story and plot just really threw me off. I just didn't really understand this movie at all. But I just enjoyed watching the performances of Crispin and Kip Pardue. Guess that's all I can say about this one. LOL!

The updated Wizard of Gore has the look of an episode of Tales from the Darkside or one of those movies that I used to watch on cinemax at midnight on a Sunday night in the late 80's because I wanted to somehow prolong the weekend. Rather than pay homage to H.G. Lewis, this film sets a dark mood, with low lighting and looming shadows, and attempts to put the plot first, over the gore. The gore is actually very well done, but is not nearly as prevalent or gratuitous as portrayed in Lewis's films. While the acting is much, much better than anything in a Lewis film, lead actor Kip Pardue gets way too much screen time, while Crispin Glover is somewhat wasted. Glover comes off suitably demented as Montag, but the bulk of his performance is on stage performing his act. I would have liked to have more verbal interaction with other characters. Ultimately, I became bored with the various plot twists and especially Pardue's character. This isn't a horrible film, and seems fairly ambitious in gore fx and casting (Brad Dourif & Jeffrey Combs both perform admirably as usual) given the obvious budget limitations. The problem is linking it with H.G. Lewis. This Wizard of Gore looks nothing to me like anything Lewis would ever come up with, which makes it fairly misleading as far as I'm concerned. It's too bad, because there are some things to appreciate here, just not enough for me to recommend.