The Neon Demon (2016)

“Nicolas Winding Refn's Art House Horror”

So cool this movie could chill your fingertips, so slick you might have trouble hanging onto the Blu-ray case, so ludicrous at times that the beginning of this review is nothing in comparison, one of my favourite films of the year - and what feels like Nicolas Winding Refn’s hymn to the EuroHorror exploitation masters of the 1970s -  comes to Blu-ray (which really is how this film should be seen) and DVD on the Icon label.

Ordinary-looking Elle Fanning comes to Los Angeles to pursue a modelling career. Standing out from the stick figures and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS alien wannabes she immediately gets signed by Christina Hendricks’ agency, after which Christina tells the other hopefuls they can leave in a set that could easily have been lifted from a Jess Franco film.

Jena Malone (building an impressive CV of decent genre pictures that includes this, THE RUINS and SUCKER PUNCH) is a photographer’s helper whose day job is probably the sexiest, best-dressed mortician ever (shades of Joe D’Amato, as opposed to the dollops we’re going to get in a bit). She takes Elle to the kind of disco that would have spun a young Dario Argento’s head right round. 

Elle becomes more successful, engendering enemies as she goes until things reach a horrible and bizarre climax at Jena’s isolated country mansion as things become a mixture of scenes reminiscent of movies like D’Amato’s BUIO OMEGA and Franco’s VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD, all given a real kick by Refn’s own glorious visual style. 

I’ve mentioned some of my favourite Eurosleaze directors a lot here because if, like me, you’re a fan of their work you are going to love THE NEON DEMON. If you’re not, however, or if you’ve never heard of them, you may find yourself bewildered, offended, and possibly even a bit bored by a movie that is far stronger on style than it is on substance. Some of the camerawork and production design is evocative of other genre stylists like Peter Greenaway, especially his THE COOK THE THIEF HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER which contains an oddly similar denouement. 

Of course if you’re a Refn fan you’re going to watch this anyway. If you’re not sure, this one has the languid pacing of VALHALLA RISING coupled with the visual sumptuousness of ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Be prepared to be patient and soak up the visuals rather than expect too much in the way of plot. 

Icon’s Blu-ray comes with an audio commentary by Nicolas Winding Refn and Elle Fanning, a short piece on the score with Refn and composer Cliff Martinez, an interview with Refn and Fanning, an image gallery and a trailer.

Nicolas Winding Refn's THE NEON DEMON is out from Icon Home Entertainment on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD and VOD from 31st October 2016

Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)

“Classic Robert Aldrich”

Robert Aldrich’s brutally cynical American political thriller gets a UK dual format Blu-ray and DVD release from Eureka.

Former Air Force general Laurence Dell (Burt Lancaster) escapes from a Montana prison with three death row inmates (Paul Winfield, Burt Young and William Smith) and takes control of Silo 3, an American base home to nine nuclear missiles. His ransom apart from the usual cash and safe passage - for the current US president (Charles Durning) to tell the American public the truth about the Vietnam war. 

The president’s advisors (including William Marshall, Joseph Cotton, Leif Ericson and Melvyn Douglas) all tell him it’s impossible. General MacKenzie (Richard Widmark) is convinced Dell is bluffing and sets about a daring plan to blow up Dell and his group. Then the silos open and the missiles start to emerge...

From a director fascinated by how groups of men behave under pressure (Eureka brought out FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX a while back), TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING manages to be both a searingly cynical commentary of American politics of the era, as well as a nail-biting suspense thriller that will have you wondering right up until the end how it’s all going to turn out. The movie probably boasts the best use of split-screen to heighten rather than dilute the suspense that I’ve ever seen, and the cast is uniformly excellent.

Filmed in Bavaria, TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING boasts, as well as its all-star cast, a range of familiar ‘British American’ faces including Ed Bishop, Shane Rimmer, David Healy and William Hootkins. Clocking in at 144 minutes it’s another long Aldrich picture but the running time just flies by. Eureka’s disc contains a detailed 70 minute making of as an extra. 

Robert Aldrich's TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING is out in a dual format edition from Eureka on Monday 31st October 2016

The Neighbour (2016)

“Deep South Crime and Violence. With Extra Violence”

Director Marcus Dunstan’s new picture (which received its UK premiere at Frightfest this year) come to DVD courtesy of Arrow Films.

All is not well in the small town of Cutter, Mississippi. It’s grim and grimy, and everyone who lives there seems to be involved in some sort of organised crime. This includes John (Josh Stewart) and Rosie (Alex Essoe) who are involved in a drug smuggling racket, receiving a percentage of the takings each time with the intention of eventually moving to Mexico.

They have a next door neighbour called Troy (Bill Engvall) who they don’t pay much attention to until one day Rosie views Troy through the house telescope they use to spot incoming drug shipments and sees him bash a bloodstained teenager's head in. When John gets home he finds Rosie gone, and a whole lot of girls-in-cages-type trouble waiting for him over at Troy’s house.

Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan were responsible for writing a number of the SAW sequels, including the best of the bunch, (SAW VI). THE NEIGHBOUR doesn’t have that movie’s clever edge of biting satire but it does give us a slick, well-paced, extremely violent thriller that gets more extreme as the movie goes on. The entire third act gives us the kind of ‘trapped in the house’ antics that will have you on the edge of your seat if you like this kind of Southern Gothic melodrama.

The downside of THE NEIGHBOUR, and movies like it, is that it can often be quite difficult to feel sympathy for any of the characters because they have all been shown up to be such reprehensible low-lives, living off the misery of others and in turn having to answer to either senior family members or bosses (sometimes both the same) who abuse them even more cruelly. That said, THE NEIGHBOUR is a good movie of its type. Dunstan directs with a style that matures with every film he makes, and the editing is briskly efficient, meaning that once the fireworks start you’ll be sticking with this one until the end.

Arrow’s DVD gives you the film and scene selections from the menu, but there are no extras at all. Boo. 

Marcus Dunstan's THE NEIGHBOUR is out on DVD from Arrow Films on Monday 31st October 2016

The Lighthouse (2016)

“Terror and Madness in 1801. In Wales”

Chris Crow’s atmospheric tale of isolation, madness and death in a Welsh lighthouse gets a UK DVD release courtesy of co-financiers (along with S4C, the BFI and others) Soda Pictures.

Pembrokeshire 1801. Two men, Thomas Howell (Michael Jibson) and Thomas Griffiths (Mark Lewis Jones) are despatched to Smalls Island lighthouse - a rickety wooden structure perched on a tiny island of rock twenty five miles from land. Their job is to keep the oil lamp burning and, in cases of thick fog, ring a bell as well to ward off ships.

This being Wales, the weather quickly becomes the worst possible, and as an endless storm lashes the collapsing building supplies of food and water run low. With no chance of a relief boat to save them, the two men begin to succumb to the claustrophobic, damp conditions. Howell is haunted by the seven men who died as a result of him falling asleep on a previous watch, and it turns out Griffiths, a bare-knuckle fighter in his spare time, knows all about Howell’s past. As the storm becomes the worst the two have ever experienced, the isolation drives them to the extremes of madness.

So much daft old rubbish uses the phrase ‘Based on True Events’ to justify its existence these days that’s it’s a genuine surprise to see it turn up on a story like this, which is well made, well acted, and increasingly terrifying as director Chris Crow slowly tightens the screws on his lead characters’ sanity. But it is true - it’s one of the most infamous cases in Welsh maritime history and led to a change in maritime law.

That, however, doesn’t matter as much as the fact that THE LIGHTHOUSE is a rattling good terror film in the best tradition of the works of writers like William Hope Hodgson and Henry James. Anyone who loves  the kind of story where someone is driven slowly mad by the sound of a dead man’s hand tapping at a window in a storm will love this, and this film is a welcome, and surprising, release for this Halloween.

Soda Pictures’ DVD comes with cast & crew interviews, behind the scenes stuff, an alternative opening credits sequence that I liked more (because it’s a bit more horror) and a couple of trailers. THE LIGHTHOUSE is a cracking Welsh tale of terror. Watch this and then THE LIBRARY SUICIDES and be impressed by what Wales is putting out there at the moment. 

Chris Crow's THE LIGHTHOUSE is out on DVD from Soda Pictures on Monday 31st October 2016. Here's the trailer:

The Library Suicides (2016)

“Stylish Welsh Thriller”

You don’t see those three words together very often, but that is indeed what this is - a Welsh language thriller (don’t worry, there are English subtitles) set in the National Library of Wales and the nearby town of Aberystwyth, now getting a DVD release courtesy of Soda Pictures.

Famous Welsh novelist Elena Wdig (Sharon Morgan) kills herself by jumping from the window of her seafront home. Or was she pushed? Her twin daughters Ana and Nan (both played by Catrin Stewart) seem to think so, and they believe they know who did it as well. In fact, so convinced are they that biographer Eben (Ryland Teifi) is the culprit that they concoct an elaborate scheme to lock him in the library after hours, with the intention of getting the truth out of him before killing him.

Needless to say, things go wrong. While one security guard is drugged as planned, the other, Dylan (Dyfan Dwyfor) doesn’t get his full dose of sedative. The twins have also failed to take into account that the actual truth behind what happened might be far more complex and involved than either of them has realised.

A slick, sexy thriller with just a few characters and an imposing and atmospheric setting (the outside of the National Library could double for the Tanzakademie in a remake of SUSPIRIA), THE LIBRARY SUICIDES is well worth a watch. The script is fine, the acting is good, and the direction (from Euros Lyn) ensures this is sharp and suspenseful.

         Soda Pictures’ DVD includes a making of featurette, deleted scenes and a trailer. I would say more about this film but I don’t want to give too much away, suffice to say it’s well worth checking out if you’re a fan of unassuming, original Eurothrillers. 

THE LIBRARY SUICIDES (Original title Y LLYFRGELL) is out on DVD from Soda Pictures on Monday 31st October

Gods of Egypt (2016)

“Hoo-Ra! It’s GODS OF EGYPT!”

         Alex Proyas’ infamous megabudget spectacle comes to DVD, Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One, but is it as bad as so many people have claimed? Well, I’ll admit that if you want to have any chance of finding GODS OF EGYPT fun (and it’s actually heaps and heaps of fun, oh yes indeedy) than you need to approach it in the right way. Perhaps a bit like this:

This…Is…Not…Sparta!!!!

         Bryan Brown is Osiris - a god and the King of Egypt. For some reason he decides to make his son Jamie Lannister king instead. We aren’t told why, but perhaps Bryan wants to get back to the sheep shearing that made him famous in THE THORN BIRDS. There’s a big coronation ceremony. Osiris’ brother Set the God of Darkness (it says here) is late. He is played by that man who was very proud of loudly saying what country he was from in that film about Sparta. Being a God of Darkness has left him looking okay but has done something very strange to his accent, and now he seems to be possessed by the spirit of Sean Connery. Set brings Darkness to the land (which everyone seems oddly surprised about) by killing Osiris and blinding Jamie, making us wonder if Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has it in his contract that every role he plays must involve him losing at least one body part.

If I don't lose a body part soon I'm off

Meanwhile, we have also been introduced to two typical examples of the Egyptian working class. These are a pretty girl called Zaya who can’t act at all but has a cleavage so magnificently distracting that quite a lot of the viewing audience just won’t care, and a pretty boy called Bek with perfect skin who can’t deliver his lines very well either. However, as it’s already been demonstrated that you don’t have to act to even be a god in this place we assume that’s not going to hamper him in whatever adventure this film has planned. 

"The only way to meet Geoffrey Rush is to pretend you're Johnny Depp!"

         Bek enters Rufus Sewell’s Video Game of Doom to grab one of Jamie’s eyes. Zaya gets shot and we gasp as the crossbow bolt doesn’t actually bounce off her wooden acting. Jamie’s relaxing in his ?tomb. Bek drops Zaya there and does a deal with Jamie to get his other eye back and defeat Set who plans to take over the world and kill all the other gods which include the rather sexy Nephthys. Continuity fans will love the bit where Set quite obviously treads on Nephthys’s cloak but she gets to her feet without any effort in the next shot anyway. Maybe that’s what being a god is really all about.

"What is it you'll be wantin' up here in space then, Jaaaaaack?"

         Jamie visits Captain Barbossa from PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN who has somehow ended up in space fighting Cthulhu (I know - How could any critic claim that this film isn’t brilliant?). Barbossa sends Jamie Lannister back to earth with a magic potion and he and the pretty boy fight some giant human cows before falling off a waterfall.

         Meanwhile, Set is in his flying chariot being pulled along by giant beetles (you see? This film gets even BETTER) laying waste to everything. Some stuff happens. Jamie turns into a metal flying eagle. Jamie and Set fight and Set bleeds gold in a misplaced tribute to Sean Connery in GOLDFINGER. The film is nearly over and I still haven't told you about the sphinx, the lettuce, the slave girls, that goddess whose dress nearly falls off in a swamp and whose name I don't think I ever learned, the secret lair of Thoth accessed by a door that looks like something off VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, or lots and lots and lots of CGI that gives us a very odd-looking version of Egypt indeed.

         GODS OF EGYPT is not to be taken at all seriously. I bet five year olds love it. I loved it. I saw it at the cinema and now I’ve seen it on Blu-ray and if anything the Blu-ray is even better. There are some extras on the disc that try to make out this was an actual real film that was meant to be about gods in Egypt but don’t be fooled. This is a marvellous, flamboyant, two hour-plus stream of random consciousness that feels like the big-budget piss take of adventure movies Ken Russell never go the chance to make. The box office performance of this means there will never be a sequel and there shouldn’t be, because you can never catch lightning like this in the same canopic jar twice. Watch it and see what I mean. THE Trapped in the Room with It picture of 2016, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. 

GODS OF EGYPT, directed by Alex DARK CITY & THE CROW Proyas, is out on DVD, Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray from Monday 24th October. 

The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast (1963 - 1972)

“Amazing Collection of Movies and Material From a Unique 

Film-Maker No Longer With Us. RIP HGL. ”

You have to be a special kind of person to appreciate a film made by the (very recently) late, great Herschell Gordon Lewis. You have to be someone who isn’t put off by tatty film-making, writing, or acting; someone who perhaps revels in the sheer bad taste of his shoestring enterprises; and perhaps most of all, someone who can appreciate the work of a man who was actively thumbing his nose at a movie industry that, at the time, considered the output of Hammer Films not worth reviewing, let alone scenes of a foot long tongue being removed from the mouth of a Swedish lady.

  I am an HGL fan, so welcome to a far lengthier review than usual as I delve into the contents of this massive set that provides a most fitting monument to this very singular film-maker. There are 17 discs in here, and even counting the fact that it’s dual format, that’s still pretty impressive. Also impressive is that HGL himself provides a newly filmed (and charming) introduction to every movie included. It’s quite a bit to cover, so let’s dive in!

Discs 1 (Blu) & 2 (DVD)

BLOOD FEAST (1963)

BLOOD FEAST kicks off!

The ‘classic’ that started it all, and still surprisingly watchable if you’re the kind of very forgiving horror fan who can excuse terrible acting, dodgy direction and editing, and crappy dialogue synching. Because BLOOD FEAST really does have something - the verve with which the ludicrousness is pulled off, the sheer outrageousness of the gore effects, and the music that should be terrible (and frequently is) but which somehow fits this jolly nonsense perfectly. I don’t think it’s a classic, and you really do need to be a special kind of horror fan to enjoy it, but if you are you’ll end up watching it again and again. This version has been restored but for some reason is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I would, of course, suggest watching it in 1.33:1 and that version thankfully is on one of the two supplementary Blu-ray discs. 

SCUM OF THE EARTH (1963)

She also gave us the screenplay for BLOOD FEAST!

“You’re damaged goods, and this is a fire sale!” I can’t say I’m at all familiar with the ‘roughie’ subgenre of American exploitation cinema. Knowing HGL, SCUM OF THE EARTH might not even be a reasonable example, but it is a piece of sleazy black and white fun as good girl Kim (frequent HGL screenwriter and general helpmate Allison Louise Downe) gets coerced into having nude pictures taken which are then used to blackmail her into performing ever further unspeakable acts. Interesting for seeing Mal Arnold not being Fuad Ramses (in fact watch this and then BLOOD FEAST and several familiar faces pop up) and some great trashy dialogue. Also presented in 1.85:1 but there’s a 1.33:1 version on the supplemental Blu-rays. 

Extras include a Lewis & Friedman commentary on BLOOD FEAST, directors Nick McCarthy and Rodney Asher talking about the importance of the film, BLOOD FEAST outtakes (silent), archive HGL interview and another with HGL and Dave Friedman as well, CARVING MAGIC vintage short and HGL discussing his early work in nudie cuties (what a strange name for a genre). 

Discs 3 (Blu) & 4 (DVD)

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (1964)

Southern Hospitality. 

Arguably HGL’s best film, which manages to combine BRIGADOON with politics, bluegrass country music and gore effects. More accomplished than BLOOD FEAST (and some of HGL’s subsequent offerings), this one’s actually quite unsettling because of its plot and acting as well as the splat. Like a low rent Twilight Zone episode but with blood and a worrying integrity on the part of some of its actors, this is probably the best HGL film to use as a gateway drug on the unsuspecting (as opposed to TASTE OF BLOOD because that wouldn’t be fair). 

MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN (1964)

You've seen the poster. You probably don't need to see the film

Definitely one for the HGL / crap country music movie completist, because there’s no nudity or gore in this one to liven it up. There is, however, lots of hillbilly tomfoolery, drinking, and the mayor from TWO THOUSAND MANIACS. Maybe it’s not that bad. But then again, it probably is. 

Extras: TWO THOUSAND MANIACS Friedman & Lewis commentary, outtakes and Tim Sullivan talking about it. A tribute to David F Friedman, visual essay on the American south in horror from David Del Valle, and Herschell’s Art of Advertising! 

Discs 5 (Blu) & 6 (DVD)

COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965)

But is it art?

Holy bananas! There’s a foot sticking out of the sand here! Don’t worry - it’s just HGL’s tale of a mad artist who discovers blood is just the right shade of red for his grisly paintings. Neither as amateur as BLOOD FEAST nor as interesting as 2000 MANIACS it’s still worth a watch as the final part of the Lewis-Friedman trilogy. Plus there’s some of the reddest swimsuit attire I have ever seen

SOMETHING WEIRD (1967)

The aspect of this still is wrong, but then so is the entire film. 

HGL’s tale of ESP and a serial killer kicks off with three minutes of karate, then something silly happens and a man falls off a roof before we cut to a picture of clouds. A lecture follows and just as we are all falling asleep we cut to our man in hospital and flashing lights. Some doctors talk. The man attacks a nurse, then puts a sock over his head and starts telling fortunes. A pretend old lady appears. She has lips tattooed on her right knee. The porn boss from SCUM OF THE EARTH turns up. Everything turns red during an LSD trip. What on earth is going on? Why am I even asking? Is it SOMETHING WEIRD? Yes it is. 

Extras: Commentaries on both movies. Outtakes from COLOR ME BLOOD RED, David Del Valle affects his best spooky voice (if there’s a better one I want to hear that too) to tell us about mad artists in the movies, Film Scholar Jeffrey Sconce defends SOMETHING WEIRD, saying you have to work up to that one (he’s right). HGL talks about his musical JIMMY THE BOY WONDER (not on this set - are we pleased or relieved?). A 1966 dance short HOT NIGHT AT THE GO GO LOUNGE ‘presumably’ directed by Lewis which plays more like the inside of John Waters’ head than anything remotely sexy. Never before in the annals of horror....

Discs 7 (Blu) & 8 (DVD)

THE GRUESOME TWOSOME (1967)

Irresistible daftness

This is the one about the wig shop run by a batty old lady who is obsessed with her stuffed cat Napoleon. On the opposite side of the shop are rooms for rent. Every girl who comes inquiring gets locked in with the old lady’s son who scalps them with typical Lewis...style. Apart from the wacky ‘comedy horror’ plot, this one’s worth watching for the priceless drive-in scene (and the film being shown) that had me in tears. 72 minutes, quite a few of them serving nothing plotwise at all, but still a pretty good time. Especially those talking heads at the start that feel so post-modern they could be a youtube video. 

A TASTE OF BLOOD (1967)

…and a blob of gore

HGL’s ‘vampire epic’ that features him as a sailor because the chap intended for the role never turned up. It’s a bit overlong at two hours but if you’ve been watching the discs in sequence you’ll probably be surprised at how competent this one is. A businessman inherits a couple of bottles of brandy from Dracula, basically. They turn him into a vampire & he embarks on a revenge spree for his late relative. Slightly better acting than usual and a nice print on the whole, except for some greeny spotty bits in the middle. 

Extras: San Francisco female impersonator Peaches Christ talks about the film, Fred Olen Ray talks about filming in Florida, HGL commentaries on both pictures and a piece on HGL versus the censors. 

Discs 9 (Blu) and 10 (DVD)

SHE DEVILS ON WHEELS (1968)

An icon of grindhouse!

A bit like the TV show THE BANANA SPLITS but with women bikers and no cartoons, HG’s second most profitable picture is brightly lit and features lots of ladies riding motorbikes while wearing the kind of clothes a young Divine must have drooled over. There’s a fair bit of violence as well (including the old head flying through the air gag) before a really abrupt ending. Stay after the credits, though, for some more of the biker ladies’ “poetry”.

JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT (1968)

I put up the poster. Just for the hell of it

Teens smash things up as four punks (Denny, Mitzi, Dexter and Lummox!) terrorise a neighbourhood. WIZARD OF GORE Ray Sager leads the gang. Possessing the same level of energy as (if not more than) SHE DEVILS this is juvenile delinquency HGL style. Just make sure if you watch this you also catch the Ray Sager interview on the next disc.

Extras: Chris Alexander talks about HGL and there’s a clip of the two of them performing the title song from 2000 MANIACS a couple of years ago that’s utterly endearing. Also an interview with Bob Murawski (editor on ARMY OF DARKNESS and SPIDERMAN), HGL on THE ALLEY TRAMP, trailers and a commentary for SHE DEVILS. 

Discs 11 (Blu) and 12 (DVD)

HOW TO MAKE A DOLL (1968)

No stills available for this one. There's a reason

Oh good Lordy. Here’s one just for the HGL completists out there. If a group of schoolboys in the late 1960s had decided to make a sex comedy about a scientist building lady robots they would probably have done better than this. Worth seeing the bit with the computer about 20 minutes in, complete with special HGL sound effects that consist of him burping, groaning and playing what sounds like a swanee whistle to suggest the computer is going about its business. 

THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970)

Oh Montag, what are you up to now?

Chris Alexander claims this is the apotheosis of HGL’s work and he may well be right. At his nightly stage show Montag the Magician does ridiculous things to people on stage and they somehow survive except they don’t really. It’s all to do with the audience being hypnotised. Or is Montag hypnotised? Or asleep? Or is the entire film a dream? Either ambitious (if you’re being kind) or a load of old random rubbish (if you’re not and if so why have you read this far?) it’s fair to say that there is no film on earth quite like THE WIZARD OF GORE. Not even that remake with Crispin Glover came close. Show this one to an unsuspecting friend and watch their face as their brain fries. Oh, and this is the 1.85:1 aspect version. The 1.33:1 is on one of the bonus Blu-rays. 

Extras: Trailer and commentary for WIZARD OF GORE. Great interview with star Ray Sager, Stephen Thrower talks about WIZARD, Jeffrey Kasten (who made the WIZARD remake) talks about HGL’s movies, and we get the HGL episode of Jonathan Ross’ Incredibly Strange Film Show (which is a huge piece of 1980s nostalgia in itself). 

Discs 13 (Blu) and 14 (DVD)

THIS STUFF'LL KILL YA! (1971)

See my caption for MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN and apply

Hillbillies, moonshine, lots of bluegrass fiddle music, two girls crucified and an early appearance by Larry Drake (DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW, DARKMAN et al). That’s all you need to know about this one, which is for HGL completists only. 

THE GORE GORE GIRLS (1972)

A rare non-gory, non-sleazy bit. Well, non-gory anyway.

A mixture of giallo murder mystery and rather dull TV detective movie, this is the one that even Fangoria said contained ‘vomitous amounts of hard core gore’. Certainly the treatment of the (extremely amateur) effects verges on the pornographic. That, along with one of the darkest, grimmest-looking strip clubs ever committed to film as the main setting of this one, means you may want to have something else lined up afterwards as a bit of a palate cleanser

Extras: Stephen Thrower reminds me of my youth watching this stuff on very very blurry VHS and provides as erudite a ‘defence’ of GORE GORE GIRLS as anyone possibly could. HGL commentaries on both pictures, HGL talks about why he left the film industry at this point, and Joe Swanberg and Spencer Parsons discuss HGL’s movies in general and GORE GORE girls in particular. 

Disc 15 (Blu-ray only)

Original aspect ratio transfers (1.33:1) of

BLOOD FEAST

SCUM OF THE EARTH

COLOR ME BLOOD RED

Disc 16 (Blu-ray only)

Original aspect ratio transfers (1.33:1) of:

A TASTE OF BLOOD

THE WIZARD OF GORE

Disc 17 (Blu-ray only)

H G Lewis: The Godfather of Gore - Quite possibly more entertaining than the films themselves, this is a 100 minute+ documentary on HGL with plenty of interviews, clips, and a healthy sense of humour about the whole thing. There’s also just over an hour of deleted scenes as well, so in all you get nearly three hours of people talking about HGL’s films, including John Waters, Frank Henenlotter and of course HGL himself. 

So in summary, I loved this set. It's probably the most exhaustive tribute to HGL that's ever going to exist. There is so much stuff here, and so many extras, that it's going to keep grindhouse fans happy for a month and possibly forever. Arrow are releasing two sets - a standard version and a special limited edition that looks like this:

The postcards are especially nice. Right - I'm off to run my brain under a cold tap and chill out by watching something normal. Or perhaps I'll just watch WIZARD OF GORE again…

Arrow Films are releasing THE HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS FEAST and THE HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS FEAST - SHOCK & GORE EDITION (with all that extra stuff in the picture up there) on Monday 24th October 2016.