The Wizard of Gore
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Movie Reviews of The Wizard of Gore
Movie Review: Should've Been Called The Wizard Of Bore
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Not much has changed
Summary: 2 Stars
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.Movie Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I had looked forward to Jeremy Kasten's remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' The Wizard of Gore, especially with Crispin Glover playing Montag the Magnificent. And while Glover steals the show and this remake delivers most of the goods that fans of the genre and of Lewis' original will look for, there just seems to be something missing overall in the whole affair. What that something is basically amounts to anything resembling an entirely coherent plot, as the film offers plenty of confusing moments in its attempts to deliver twists and turns as it moves on through its running time. Edmund (Kip Pardue) is a journalist who is investigating Montag, whose on-stage dismemberments appear to be crafty magic tricks, until the bodies of the girls (played by the Suicide Girls) start to pile up. Soon enough, Edmund becomes obsessed with Montag's theatrics, and also finds himself trapped in a web of lies, murder, psychotropic drugs, and above all else, confusion. Pardue is pretty wooden in the lead role, while Bijou Phillips doesn't do much better as his shady girlfriend, but Glover's appearances on-screen more than make up for their shortcomings. The rest of the cast includes horror stalwarts like Brad Dourif, an unrecognizable Jeffrey Combs, and Near Dark's Joshua Miller; all of whom do considerably good in their roles. There's decent gore to be found as well, and all in all this remake of The Wizard of Gore isn't terrible, but it just winds up leaving you wanting more than what you get here.Movie Review: Not Much of an Homage
Summary: 2 Stars
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.Movie Review: I Expected More--I Wanted More
Summary: 2 Stars
To be honest, I really thought this film was going to be better than the original, considering the remake's budget and cast. If you've ever seen the original, then you'd know what I'm talking about. Don't get me wrong, though. The original Wizard had a very low budget and it shows, but it had something this movie doesn't but should have: creepiness!
After I saw the original version, I thought to myself, "Did some high school kids puts this mess together?" However, days after the first viewing, my mind began to filter out the trash and left me with elements of horror which made me wonder if the movie was the work of a genius or a rank amateur who was just experimenting. I still can't say for sure, but I will say it left me with a chill.
Unfortunately, this modern remake did not. I was not scared in the slightest and Glover did not persuade, in my opinion. It was nice seeing Combs and Dourif together in the same movie and I thought that was a nice touch.
The only good thing about this movie was the interesting angle they used to explain Montag's magic. A decent plot with a flat script but there's no saving this one.
All in all, I do appreciate the effort that went into this film; I may come off harsh at times, but I do appreciate those directors who bring horror fans new material that they can view, thus keeping the genre alive.