Hershell Gordon Lewis

[The Mothman]

I havnt seen any of his movies, but his movies came out in the 60's, and supposedly these were basically the start of gore in movies. Bloodfeast, 2000 maniacs, gore gore girls ect. Are these movies all they are amped up to be? like are they really that gory, or is it just for that time frame.

why isnt this guy the godfather of gore and not fulci?

[BaronVonKropp]

Herschell Gordon Lewis is considered the Godfather of Gore as his early 1960's films were the first horror movies to feature explicit violence in vivid detail.

While pretty tame and even silly by today's standards, his first two gore films, "Blood Feast" and "2000 Maniacs" deserve to be in any serious horror fans DVD collection.

"Blood Feast" is about an Egyptian caterer who hacks up women for a....uh... feast... and features limbs being removed and entrails being ripped from torsos.... all in glorious color and f/x about as real looking as those at a local Halloween Haunted House.

"2000 Maniacs" is a bit more fun and proves that rednecks are still scarier than any monster you can think of. This one is probably Lewis's best and he agrees. (I just met him last week at a Convention and spoke to him at length about this film). "Maniacs" moves along at a brisk pace, features a few very memorable death scenes and provides some laughs as well... start with this one if you'd like to see what this guy is all about.

Fulci is much more explicit (and realistic) as far as gore is concerned.

But Lewis got there first. (Though I would argue that it was Franju's "Eyes Without A Face" from the 1950's that really broke open the flood gates).

Lewis was the first American director to place the gore upfront and in our laps though. Hence his title.

Hope this helps! Enjoy!

-Greg

[MisterSadistro]

You forgot 'Color Me Blood Red', which rounded out his trilogy. Awful movies at best, but still a guilty pleasure since I used to rent them when I was 12.
"Have you ever had... an Egyptian feast ?!!" (cue stinger) is all I really remember from them LOL
CK

[GREENBILL]

HGL is one of my fave film-makers. ive got 9 or 10 of his films. i think hes made around 37 films to date, most recent was blood feast 2 in 2001 i think.
hes a very clever guy. he started out making trashy porn films then when he burnt that genre out he met a guy (cant remember his name) then the gore genre rose up. like been said before, his films are cheap, badly acted and not highly serious......nor was evil dead but we love that right! Yeah, HGL films should be in any serious film collectors collection.

check out HGL's official web:

http://www.herschellgordonlewis.com

[urgeok]

i met him about 12 years ago .. he was a nice guy ..
i dont think actors liked him much - he's a tough old guy :)

[GREENBILL]

ive never met him, i aint that lucky. havin' said that i dont think ive met any famous person at all. i'd love to meet him or many others but i live in shitty little UK, where knowone wants to live except me, the ill and the devil. for me, UK is boring, cold, wet, dull, depressing, morbid and its left to float in an ocean of piss. but its home i guess and i godda put up with it.
:mad:

[urgeok]

i thought you guys had all kinds of cool festivals in the UK?


i met Lewis at a Fangoria Weekend of horror here in Toronto .. It may have been the only one held here - i didnt hear about any others.

this was like i said - about 12 - maybe 15 years ago. hardly anyone at the festival knew who Lewis was ..
I was into collecting horror films early and - as a matter of fact - 2000 maniacs was the 1st beta movie i ever bought. I had that and Bloodfeast.
At the festival LEwis gave an abrasive and amusing presentation .. then was left completely alone after that - i approached him and asked for a picture and he put his arma around me and told my buddy to get a picture of us both together ... really cool of him. I suspect he really appreciated at least 1 person who knew who he was.
For some reason i didnt actually know he was going to be at the festival so i didnt bring my movie for him to sign - but he did sign the festival programme for me. (this was so far back in the day - that the guests didnt charge for autographs .. it was all free)


the sad note to this is that although i took about 40 pictures at this festival .. only the 1st 4 turned out. I had dropped my camera a week earlier thinking no damage was done .. but as i found out later a tiny sprocket on the film advance had broken off and once the film drag was too heavy (after the 1st 4 pics) the film didnt advance and i took one picture on top of another until it was just a white square. I could have cried.
All i got was 4 pictures of vendor displays. No HG Lewis, no Tom Savini, no Kane Hodder, no Linnea Quigley and her then husband Steve Johnson (fx-guy)

ah well...i got their autographs on pictures..but it sure would have been cool to have that HG Lewis picture.

[GREENBILL]

we do get some kool festivals but its more to do with how i get there and the money factor. i suppose i could make the effort once in a while but in all honesty, i wont loose any sleep over not going. im genrally quite happy to watch and own their 'works'. as long as im alive and can keep adding to my collection then im happy.....

[urgeok]

so .. anyone know what Greenbill did to get banned ?

just curious .

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by urgeok
so .. anyone know what Greenbill did to get banned ?

just curious .

went crazy ape shit in general forums.....as you do

[urgeok]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep
went crazy ape shit in general forums.....as you do

heh :cool:

[PR3SSUR3]

And I think he thought he was a homosexual, but he was banned before he could clarify it.

:confused:

[PR3SSUR3]

I've been told by my lawers he was not in fact a homosexual.

[filmmaker2]

I haven't seen all his movies, but of the ones I have seen, one stands out as my fave, and it's NOT one of his gore movies!

It's called "BLAST-OFF GIRLS," and seriously, I thought it was a really fun, weird low-budget picture. I recommend the Something Weird disc of "JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT" ("BLAST-OFF GIRLS" is the second half of the double-feature).

It has all kinds of neat stuff like Lewis trailers and lots of drive-in short films, I mean lots and lots of them, hot dog and soda ads, all that kinda neat old stuff. I bought one a couple of years ago for a few dollars and it's still one of the more interesting DVDs in the collection.