Shock and Gore / The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast

[kwippleton]

I'm 6 films in and I'm fairly impressed but there are limitations. The digital presentations themselves are solid, though.

Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red look shockingly good. Colours can look off and blacks can be crushed, but the restorations are thorough, just some minor issues remain.

2000 Maniacs! shows more damage and comes from multiple sources. Arrow also had to use a standard definition source from Something Weird Video to fill in a few gaps. There is one long sequence at the camp fire that uses this but the rest, limited mostly to the first half, are quick inserts. Moonshine Mountain does this to an extent as well, but it's mostly sourced from badly degraded film prints and it literally jumps back and forth between these sources and the changes are obvious. The damage is so bad, though, I somehow doubt any restoration could have been done without making the image look like a digital mess.

Something Weird is also heavily damaged but according to notes it was the best they could do. Scum is decent enough. Damage is still pretty consistent and there is a bad flicker but it's still decent enough.

I again have to stress that any issues are really source related and I really doubt much more could have been done than what they've already done. The digital presentations themselves are all quite good and don't exasperate any problems. They look like film presentations and detail is strong (you know, when the camera is actually in focus).

Got my copy of the smaller (but still gigantic) set yesterday and I agree about Blood Feast - it's pretty stunning looking.

It's a bummer that not all of the films can look so good, but it's obvious that Arrow did the best that they could with all of the available elements. Of the three that I've watched, The Gruesome Twosome is in the worst shape, with constant damage, missing frames, and inserts taken from SWV's old master. Still, these are drive-in movies and the grubby presentations actually kind of work in their favor?

Looking forward to checking out the films that I hadn't seen before (Moonshine Mountain, Taste of Blood, She-Devils, Just For the Hell of It, How to Make a Doll, and This Stuff'll Kill Ya)!

[MichaelB]

James White said that this was one of the most challenging restoration projects he'd ever worked on, having to deal not only with a wide range of sources (some in terrible condition) but also the problem that the original cinematography was often none too impressive. You can't magic up shadow detail that was never there in the first place thanks to inadequate lighting!

[Orlac]

I hope on 2000 Manicas the SD inserts are properly converted, because the SWV DVD was PAL-NTSC - and Tartan's UK DVD was a PAL transfer from the NTSC transfer of the PAL original, so that looked especially awful!

[MichaelB]

I hope on 2000 Manicas the SD inserts are properly converted, because the SWV DVD was PAL-NTSC - and Tartan's UK DVD was a PAL transfer from the NTSC transfer of the PAL original, so that looked especially awful!

Given that James White and David Mackenzie are well aware of these issues, I'd be very very surprised if they weren't. As far as I'm aware, all SD video material was provided by Something Weird.

Obviously, being a dual-territory release, the DVDs in Arrow's Lewis box will be NTSC regardless of which side of the Atlantic you purchase them on.

[domino harvey]

Okay, I finally watched Two Thousand Maniacs and Color Me Blood Red after seeing them receive cautious praise upthread and I while I liked both a bit more than the completely unwatchable Blood Feast, they’re still bad, bad movies. Two Thousand Maniacs is the better of the two, in that, as swo says, there is a kernel of a good idea here. But the film’s twist completely neutered what charge its satire possessed.

SpoilerShow

A bunch of Southerners completely embracing gory homicides as a collective town unit when wrapped in the blanket of the Civil War and Dixie is a deviously dark idea and a nice perspective on Southern insulation and heritage. A bunch of ghosts doing it for revenge is just silly and removes the social commentary, which is the only thing this had going for it.

Color Me Blood Red is basically A Bucket of Blood For Dummies, and as much as I liked the utterly inauthentic hepcat girl’s incessant rhyming, this shares several detrimental elements with the other Lewis films I’ve seen: I know it’s obvious, but these are of course hideously-acted and sloppy to the point of ludicrousness, but more than that, they are host to ten minute narratives needlessly extended to an hour and a half. I could see both of these films working as segments in an anthology horror, and indeed even editing what’s here down to 15-20 minutes might actually make for some decent films, even if one couldn’t escape all of Lewis’ filmmaking downfalls in the process. These are flagrantly amateurish, and I guess that’s their appeal for many, but I thought they were also mean-spirited in their desire to slow down (more so!) and focus on the outlandish gore effects while the victims wail in anguish, which for me undercuts any cheesy fun present.

[swo17]

I thought they were also mean-spirited in their desire to slow down (more so!) and focus on the outlandish gore effects while the victims wail in anguish

What makes you think that's what Lewis desired? In his head these scenes may have played out a lot slicker but what you see instead was the best he could do.

[domino harvey]

I think it is tempting to give the use of violence in these films a pass since they are so outlandish and the films operate on a plane of existence far removed from the world as we know it, and I’ll confess I wasn’t so much bothered as annoyed at these aspects, but re: Lewis’ desire:

SpoilerShow

In Two Thousand Maniacs, we get at least two scenes of slow torture: The first when the blonde wife gets her thumb lopped off and is then held down on an office desk in full tableau while the Mayor slowly prepares to chop her arm off with an axe, the camera trained to fill her entire squirming body on the screen. Then, later, we get the other wife being tied to the stakes as the townspeople take turns hurling rocks at the giant rock target. I get the idea, it’s a carnival amusement turned sinister, but the poor woman just lays there begging and pleading and wailing for minutes on end. That’s not fun for me to sit through, and the film treats it with the same jokey touch as the rest of it. Which, again, I “get,” but I don’t see much difference between this and something like Hatchet II.

And in Color Me Blood Red, Chi-Chi is generally painted with the limited brush of being a sitcom wife: a bit persistent, but caring and good-natured. Even moments before her death she’s taking care of our protagonist with affection. Yet, Lewis feels compelled to have her turn into a shrew the moment before she’s murdered, prodding him on to his violent act so as to make her death acceptable to an audience. While there’s not much anguish in her death (it’s sudden, as I recall), it’s the worst one of the lot because Lewis insisted on demonizing her before her death instead of making his protagonist wholly culpable in his actions. “She had it coming” is not fun for me either.

[swo17]

I guess I was thinking more of scenes where you have a character lying in a pile of their own fake body parts and the camera seems to dwell on it, but then the camera dwells on everything in these movies. I see your point about, say, the rock throw in Two Thousand Maniacs, though that's one of my favorite parts of the movie!

[Ribs]

Beaver

[EddieLarkin]

Going by the descriptions on DVDBeaver, most of these films have received the Arrow treatment in respect of new transfers. One film where this appears not to be the case is Two Thousand Maniacs, which I assume to be the same transfer that was used for the previous Blu-ray release. This is a shame because there was a number of issues with this transfer.

The most egregious was an entire missing scene, described in this thread in posts 52, 53 and 54.

The transfer is also in 1.78:1, but its credit sequence is presented in 1.59:1, presumably to prevent any cropping. This may be an indication that the film should have got an alternate 1.37:1 presentation like some of the other films in the set have, Color Me Blood Red included, which also had its credits opened to 1.59:1 on the old transfer.

Lastly, the colour space on the old disc is set incorrectly and thus Two Thousand Maniacs appeared very milky. This does appear to have been corrected though, which is no surprise with David M. on authoring duties: old, new.

[domino harvey]

The audio on the Image Blu-ray goes demonic in one scene (when the barrel roll is introduced), sounding like it's slowed down to maybe a third or half speed-- did that get fixed at least?

[cdnchris]

No, the audio still has that issue

[EddieLarkin]

The discussion in the thread I linked to earlier eventually turns to the audio issue and apparently this was a result of the original sound recording/mixing.

[TheRanchHand]

Big review at Blu-ray. I'm still on the fence of this as I have never seen a Lewis film, but am a fan of the bad movie and as a filmmaker having the behind the scenes supplements could be invaluable.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Hersc ... 92/#Review

[jsteffe]

Big review at Blu-ray. I'm still on the fence of this as I have never seen a Lewis film, but am a fan of the bad movie and as a filmmaker having the behind the scenes supplements could be invaluable.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Hersc ... 92/#Review

If you like exploitation or "bad" films, H. G. Lewis is pretty much ground zero. There's a reason why Arrow went through so much trouble and expense to restore these particular films as best they could. Yes they have LOTS of slow spots, but they are indelible slices of popular American culture.

[MichaelB]

It's hard to think of a more perfect illustration of the fact that truly terrible films can also be important cornerstones of popular culture than the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis.

And the man himself would wholeheartedly agree - I assume this box contains the commentary in which he refers to one of his own films being "excreted" rather than released? in fact, that's what makes the commentaries such a joy - Lewis never had the slightest illusions about what he was creating, and was honestly amazed that the films lasted more than a few weeks in drive-ins and grindhouses.

[kwippleton]

I hope on 2000 Manicas the SD inserts are properly converted, because the SWV DVD was PAL-NTSC - and Tartan's UK DVD was a PAL transfer from the NTSC transfer of the PAL original, so that looked especially awful!

Given that James White and David Mackenzie are well aware of these issues, I'd be very very surprised if they weren't. As far as I'm aware, all SD video material was provided by Something Weird.

Obviously, being a dual-territory release, the DVDs in Arrow's Lewis box will be NTSC regardless of which side of the Atlantic you purchase them on.

Hey Michael, by any chance, do you know why the old transfers for 2000 Maniacs and The Gore Gore Girls were used? Are there just no more suitable elements available to scan now? Kind of a bummer because The Gore Gore Girls might be my favorite film in the set and SWV's transfer isn't all that great / could've been better served with the warts-and-all approach that Arrow used for the rest of the films.

[Orlac]

Funnily enough, those two were the PAL-NTSC transfers on the original DVDs.

[What A Disgrace]

I don't actually have a place for the Shock and Gore set. Its too big to fit anywhere that I would safely keep movies. What is wrong with me, why did I buy this? I love the eyeball.

[swo17]

If you don't want it anymore, I'm sure you could get $500-$1000 for it on eBay.

[Cronenfly]

But the shipping costs, my god. Arrow shipped both sets plus Dark Water to me as part of my Indiegogo subscription, overnight via FedEx from Pennsylvania to Toronto. The cost was not indicated on the package, but given the speed and the weight (19 pounds! Two men to carry it to the door!), I'm betting it was a pretty penny. I'm considering selling the smaller set (as beyond the outer box art the contents are identical to both), but as an act of good will I may well donate it to a (probably university) library instead.

[zedz]

Okay, I finally watched Two Thousand Maniacs and Color Me Blood Red after seeing them receive cautious praise upthread and I while I liked both a bit more than the completely unwatchable Blood Feast, they’re still bad, bad movies.

Yep. I'm haltingly making my way through this set, and every film does seem to be incompetent on every level - which is actually some kind of perverse achievement. And as swo and some others noted, there are original ideas throughout that are weirdly compelling, if falling well short of worthwhile. The Gruesome Twosome is predicated on the idea of serial killers murdering coeds to (spoiler!) harvest their hair, and kicks off with the uniquely terrible conceit of the wigs made from two victims having an interminable, leadenly ironic, conversation.

The prize film so far (and I hope you can bring yourself to brave it, domino) is Something Weird, which is the most baffling, godforsaken combination of random genres I've ever seen, punctuated with stunningly misconceived set pieces. Every element of this film is terrible, but I doubt they've ever been combined in this way before or since. As some guy said in one of the bonus features, if you just watch these films for knowing, so-bad-it's-good (it's not!) yucks you're going to exhaust yourself pretty fast, but if you can appreciate the sheer oddity of what Lewis is doing, you're going to get more mileage out of the set. I'd say Something Weird is Exhibit A for that approach.

[domino harvey]

The prize film so far (and I hope you can bring yourself to brave it, domino) is Something Weird, which is the most baffling, godforsaken combination of random genres I've ever seen, punctuated with stunningly misconceived set pieces.

While tempting, after my month-long sojourn through my horror backlog, I'm trying to spend time with movies that have a better chance of not being terrible. I just watched Franju's Thérèse Desqueyroux and it was so refreshing to not worry about whether Philippe Noiret would eventually reach across the dining table and scoop out Emmanuelle Riva's eyeball with a jam spoon

[knives]

Though that could have been a possibility with Franju.

[agnamaracs]

Diabolik shows a standard edition coming on 11/10. 7 Blu-Rays. No Godfather of Gore, no 1.33:1, no book, no DVDs.

You know, this might be just enough for those with morbid curiosity. I'm in.