HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS, THE GODFATHER OF GORE: ONE OF A KIND, GOOD OR BAD

For horror fans the name H.G.Lewis is well known but to many they’re not quite acquainted with him. Once those folks witness one of his films they’re more likely to compare him to Ed Wood than Orson Welles. But the fact is that H.G. Lewis was a director that started something before anyone else did and, for the money he had to work with, did it well. The documentary HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS: THE GODFATHER OF GORE looks back at his career.

Lewis started like many of the directors that weren’t film school students during the sixties, working on industrial films and commercials. This gave him access to equipment as well as an education in the behind the scenes areas of film making. With no money to finance anything he might want to do, Lewis took the independent route and began making exploitation films.

These first films had nothing to do with gore but focused on the other staple of exploitation movies: sex. At that time no one could get away depicting sex of any kind on screen but they did find a way to titillate audiences by filming movies in nudist camps. Audiences were able to see nude bodies but nothing with the exception of volleyball was happening.

These films eventually led to the “nudie cuties” movies the Lewis excelled at, films that used young women in various forms of exposure flaunting what they had. The films were different than the nudist films in that these almost always had a ridiculous plot that involved some poor sap who would find ways to get the women undressed and then find himself in some slapstick moment that showed what a goof he was. Having done a number of these and making a bit of money doing so, Lewis decided to try something else, stepping over another taboo item.

With a budget low enough that a shoestring would be a step up, Lewis and partner David Freidman shot what became known as the first gore film, a phrase Lewis coined. The movie was BLOOD FEAST and featured scenes like a girl having her tongue ripped out (not really it all takes place off camera with the end results making you thought you saw more than you did), a brain removed and a leg hacked off. All of these were done by a campy Egyptian caterer trying to resuscitate and Egyptian goddess. The film was a huge success, making so much money that Lewis continued making these films.

What’s interesting here in listening to Lewis and Friedman both discuss their friendship as well as their approach to making films is to see how well the final product actually is. While I recalled the movie actually looking like it had no budget, on second look you can see that there was some talent involved in how it was made, how it came together. Some of the acting was solid while other parts were performed terribly. According to Lewis in this film the star Connie Mason, an ex-playmate, was the most difficult person on set and the worst actress he ever worked with. Even so, there is more story here than in most exploitation films today and had he been given a decent budget who knows where Lewis could have gone.

Lewis continued grinding out these low budget gore fests like crazy with films like COLOR ME BLOOD RED, THE WIZARD OF GORE, THE GORE GORE GIRLS, THE GRUESOME TWOSOME and what he considers his best film, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS. Along the way he also stepped into another exploitation genre by making his own biker flick, this time with an all girl gang called SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS. Eventually Lewis left film making for a time to take on a more lucrative career, but his name is remembered now by fans that discovered him far after his movies stopped playing on screens across the country.

This documentary is a look back at his career and involves talks with Lewis and Freidman as well as cast members from his various films. Included are clips from a number of his movies and stories of what it was like making these films on the fly. But mostly this documentary is a look back at a pioneer without whom we may never have had films like HALLOWEEN, FRIDAY THE 13^TH or A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. All of these films owe a debt to Lewis.

Fans will love to have a look at scenes from each film and to hear Lewis talk about the days gone by. He’s still quite popular on the horror convention circuit and garners huge numbers of fans at each, one shown in the film here at the end.

While most fans of Hollywood will remember names like DeMille, Huston, Welles and more, horror fans will more likely remember the name Lewis one day. And this documentary gives you a chance to see why.

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