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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Weak, February 6, 2004
In 1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis, an independent filmmaker best known for making limited release "cutie" pictures, changed forever the face of American cinema when he released "Blood Feast." That film, as low budget as you could possibly get, heralded the era of the gore film. While it would be quite some time before Hollywood caught on to the fact that certain segments of the movie going public hungered for films containing nauseating scenes of explicit violence, H.G. Lewis took one look at the receipts for "Blood Feast" and decided he better quickly make another movie similar to this one. What followed was a series of gruesome zero budget shockers, films like "The Wizard of Gore," "A Taste of Blood," "2000 Maniacs," and this exercise in bloodletting, "The Gruesome Twosome." Lewis went on to make one more gore film, the downright offensive "The Gore-Gore Girls," before retiring from the film business in order to devote his time to the advertising business. It wasn't until 2002 that the director returned to form with "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat," a movie which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Godfather of Gore still has what it takes to gross out an audience."The Gruesome Twosome" tells the story of Mrs. Pringle, her mentally defective son Rodney, and her stuffed cat Napoleon. Mother and son live alone in a rambling house where they run a small wig business out of a room on the ground floor. The store draws in many customers, so many that in order to restock the product Pringle happens upon a novel idea. Since a university sits right down the road, Pringle puts out a bogus advertisement about a room for rent that soon draws in plenty of potential female boarders. The girls aren't in the house for more than a few minutes before they learn the horrific truth about this elderly lady and her disturbed son. Pringle shoves the victim into a room, locks the door, and unleashes Rodney on the frightened victims. A bloody scalping, an evisceration, and a tracheotomy performed with an electric carving knife provide the grue typical of a H.G. Lewis film. The disappearances of several women worries Kathy, a university student with an overbearing attitude and a nosiness that goes beyond all rational sense. When Kathy's friend Dawn suddenly disappears after looking for lodgings, our annoying amateur sleuth starts to uncover clues that will lead to her own personal showdown with Pringle and Rodney. "The Gruesome Twosome" is definitely not the goriest Lewis motion picture, not by a long shot, but it does contain a few scenes guaranteed to turn the stomach. Unfortunately, the infrequent gore is about all this film offers the viewer. As far as Herschell Gordon Lewis films go, "The Gruesome Twosome" is a mediocre effort. Sure, all Lewis films rely heavily on atrocious acting, wooden pacing, and sloppy editing, but the outlandish gore sequences usually balanced out--to some extent anyway--these horrendous flaws. Regrettably, the gore scenes are rare in this picture, but that is the least of our worries here. The Kathy character poses the biggest problem; she is so annoying and so steadfast in her ridiculous quest to blame anyone for the disappearances that I quickly hoped she would come to a bad end. There is some nonsense about her boyfriend getting angry with her about her inquisitiveness, along with several useless scenes involving Kathy and her girlfriends, which totally stifle the pace of the film. Moreover, Lewis admits on the commentary that he failed to shoot enough footage to manufacture a seventy plus minute film. The sort of theaters that showed Lewis films would only present movies of a certain length, so the director had to add several scenes of filler to flesh out "The Gruesome Twosome." Check out the ludicrous opening sequence with the talking mannequin heads or the confusing potato chip/fruit sequence midway through the film to see what I am talking about. Still, a few notable items stand out. The actress who played Mrs. Pringle did a good job with her character. She has a hilarious tendency to turn everything he says into a rhetorical question directed to her stuffed cat Napoleon. After watching a few scenes with Pringle, I began to seriously think that this person might have been the most competent actor Lewis ever hired. The chap who played Pringle's son Rodney also did an effective job as the grotesquely unhinged killer. His leers and grunts while he commits a dastardly deed are quite disturbing in their own right. Sadly, Rodney gets little screen time. I think if "The Gruesome Twosome" had spent more time developing Pringle and Rodney, it would have been a much better film. Instead, we get the two aforementioned filler scenes, a few cheesy dance sequences with Kathy and her friends, and boring shots of the beach, a car race, and a chase scene involving Kathy and the school janitor. Boring! DVD extras include a theatrical trailer for the film, a poster gallery from Lewis's numerous films, a commentary from the man himself, and a clip about making wigs that came from one of the "Mondo Cane" films. The picture quality is sub par, with fading colors and streaks appearing with frightening regularity. This is especially disappointing when one remembers how great "2000 Maniacs" looked on DVD. While "The Gruesome Twosome" disappoints in many areas, it is still a movie with that distinct Herschell Gordon Lewis feel. Personally, I would watch "Blood Feast 2" or "The Wizard of Gore" again before diving back into this mess. "The Gruesome Twosome" is for Lewis completists only.
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