The Wizard of Gore

Plot synopsis:
Magician Montag the Magnificent delivers hectoring speeches about the nature of reality to his audience and then performs mutilation tricks on female "volunteers". The women appear unharmed immediately afterward but later collapse, dead, in public or at home—mutilated in the same grisly fashion suggested by Montag's stage tricks (cut in half with a chainsaw, drilled through with a punch press, etc.). Audience member Sherry Carson, a local TV talk show hostess, and her boyfriend Jack begin to suspect that Montag is somehow involved in the murders. Jack and fellow reporter Greg attempt to research the case but are unable to come up with any solid evidence.
Montag agrees to appear on Sherry's show to perform a fire trick; when the cameras roll, he hypnotizes not only everyone in the studio, but also the viewing audience at home. With a wave of his hand, Montag starts a blaze and is guiding Sherry and two plainclothes cops toward it when Jack intervenes and pushes Montag into the fire instead. Screaming, the magician dies.
Back at home, Sherry and Jack have a drink as they discuss their strange experience. Suddenly, Jack laughs and begins peeling his own skin from his face to reveal that he is actually Montag. "What makes you think you know what reality is?" he asks Sherry before disemboweling her with his bare hands. But Sherry, still alive and laughing maniacally, tells the baffled Montag that none of what has happened was real—and that even he is part of her illusion. "You are no longer even here," she informs Montag. "You'll have to start your little charade all over again."
"But I...I am Montag!" the magician stammers helplessly. Then he is back onstage, dazed, reciting the same speech that he delivered to his audience at the beginning of the film: "What is real? How do you know that at this second you aren't asleep in your beds, dreaming that you are here in this theater?" And in the audience an unimpressed Sherry turns to Jack, muttering, "You know what I think? I think he's a phony."

Tags: cult, psychedelic, violence

Review:
Blood Feast may have been more ground-breaking and unintentionally hilarious, but W.O.G. stands up fine against that movie and any of his other gore films.
"The Wizard of Gore" might not be his 'best' film, but it's definitely a fun experience and actually one of Lewis' most ambitiously plotted films, since he toys with subjects like hypnotism and optical illusions.
Ray Sager, some sort of crossover between Vincent Price and porn actor Harry Reems, plays Montag The Magnificent; a self-acclaimed illusionist genius who butchers girls from the audience live on stage but has them return to their seats again in one piece.
Of course, these are the only significant scenes in "The Wizard of Gore" as the rest of the film hangs together by lousy acting, embarrassing dialogues and a shortage of decors.
By the year 1970 and after having unleashed a handful of similar horror movies already, Lewis still couldn't care less about building up tension or continuity and went straight for exploitative grossness.
The ending has to be seen to be believed.Truly a unique horror film that should be seen by fans of bad cinema or just anyone who wants to be totally grossed out and given nightmares.(My personal rating is 10/10).
Known mostly for his earlier stuff like Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs, Herschell Lewis would later go on to make a movie that really stood out for me.
This is the fourth Herschell Gordon Lewis film I've seen so far and only the second I've liked, the other was Two Thousand Maniacs.
Not because it actually has substance and is well thought out, but because it is a lot of fun to watch and has become a cult classic.Let's be honest for a minute here, when Herschell Gordon Lewis was directing films, he had no idea what he was doing.
I had a lot fun with it.See this movie if you're a fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis and you won't find much of anything new but it is a very good time.
Some people love this because it was done by Herschell Gordon Lewis (who did other "masterpieces" like "Blood Feast" and "2000 Maniacs").
I prefer to use words like 'schlock-meister' or 'wizard of crap'.In this film, a stage magician specializes in gory tricks.
Here are a few examples: the woman who collapses dead at a restaurant is still clearly breathing, the newspaper that you see at the 43 minute mark looks nothing like a real paper (the font and style are all wrong) and you can see the different cut and pasted portions peeling off if you pay attention.There is a tiny germ of a good story here but because the entire production is so sloppy and stupid, I can't recommend it to anyone except bad movie fans or those who actually believe that Lewis could direct.
"The Wizard of Gore" is typical of Herschell Gordon Lewis--the in-your-face eviscerations where innards are strewn about with wild abandon is the signature of his work, yet what comes off as completely unexpected (and quite surprising) is the surrealistic turns this film takes.
The plot centers around a boisterous illusionist/hypnotist named Montag, whose specialty is finding elaborate methods of simulating murder on-stage, only for the female volunteers to later wind up dead via the exact methods (sword-swallowing, head-hammering, chainsaw evisceration, etc.).
Herschell Gordon Lewis is the FIRST director to bring us in your face blood and guts such as those effects in this film and therefore he had no pre-set standards to go by, in fact he set the standards (as low as they may have been) for many of the genre films today.
Many of the horror films of today use god-awful CGI effects most of which are MUCH more fake in appearance than anything I have ever seen in one of Herschell Gordon Lewis' films.
There is also an idea being pitched that would cast many of Mr. Lewis's most (in)famous villains including Montag the Magnificent from "The Wizard of Gore" in lead roles.
"The Wizard of Gore" is another movie from the awesome Hershell Gordan Lewis and is filled with ridiculous gore, bad acting, and a storyline so out there you have to wonder what was going on in his head at the time.Ray Sager plays Montag the Magnificent a magician who does more then just pull the old rabbit out of the hat.
No, Montag likes performing tricks that involve sawing women in half with a chainsaw, or ramming a metal spike through a woman's head, I think you get the idea.
The gore effects are what you can expect from any HG Lewis film, cheesy but extremely gory and bloody, nevertheless.
The Wizard of Gore doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then, like Phantasm, it isn't really supposed to.There is a 2007 remake of this around, and I might just be inclined to check it out, to see what modern film-making could do for this little gem....
After enduring the overrated "2000 Maniacs" and instant classic "Gruesome Twosome", H.G. Lewis has once again won my heart with "Wizard of Gore", his second-to-last horror film.
There is a lack of so-bad-it's-good acting and campy humor that works so well hand-in-hand with the gore effects in Lewis' earlier pictures.
But if you're searching for a H.G. Lewis film, you're obviously looking for gore effects.
A stock company player for gore master Herschell Gordon Lewis, Sager was the last minute choice to play the title role.
The rest of the acting is no more than passable, but it doesn't leave one rolling their eyes quite as much as the acting in some of HGLs' other works.If one wants to see Lewis at his gory best, "Blood Feast" and "Two Thousand Maniacs!" are a safer bet.
THE WIZARD OF GORE is easily the worst out of the three, a simply awful, interminable Z-grade movie that features non-existent plotting and a wearying running time.
In order to wring every drop of blood from the premise, Lewis disposes of continuity completely and repeats the same effects over and over, from different angles.Aside from the gore, next to no effort has been made on the script and it really shows; between the effects shots, this is as deathly boring as they come.
Herschell Gordon Lewis is a cult figure in the world of horror and exploitation films.
At least the Wizard himself (Montag the Magnificent, played by the illustrious Ray Sager) is entertaining for some of the WORST acting you've ever seen in your life.
They know how ridiculous it all is.Aside from Montag's on-stage gore fantasies, the highlights for me are: his Mesmer stare (with powdered eyebrows that don't match the ones he usually 'wears'), which supposedly represents him hypnotizing his audience or a hapless volunteer; the journalist with the crime scene photos who visibly glances at someone off camera several times, perhaps to read his lines; the way the victims suddenly fall down dead after the show in the most awkwardly edited ways...I could go on.So, yes, it's a WOEFUL film, but it's so bad it's an entertaining watch.
Clearly the only reason one would watch 'The Wizard of Gore' is for the gory aspect of it for it is pretty much a poor film in every other aspect such as execution, acting, score, writing etc.
A dreadfully repetitive script, coupled with an abysmal central performance from Ray Sager as the titular character (who delivers every last syllable of his many boring monologues in a drawn out manner guaranteed to irritate) make Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Wizard of Gore a real chore to sit through at times; however, several delightfully outrageous moments of cheesy Grand Guignol splatter and a jaw-droppingly daft ending thankfully prevent it from being a complete waste of time.Curvacious Judy Cler plays Sherry Carson, a TV talk show host who becomes intrigued by mysterious, mesmeric magician Montag the Magnificent (Sager), who uses his hypnotic powers to lure female volunteers to take part in incredible illusions in which they appear to be mutilated and killed on stage, but are finally revealed to be very much still alive.When these same volunteers are found murdered not long after the show is over, with wounds that match those inflicted by Montag during his act, Sherry's boyfriend, a sports reporter, becomes suspicious and alerts the authorities.
But the police are unable to tie the grisly murders to the magician, and so Montag is free to continue his act, with his latest and deadliest performance to be broadcast live on Sherry's TV show...Montag's messy on stage antics—sawing a woman in half with a chainsaw, removing a girls brains after hammering a spike into her head, using a punch press to squish a lady, forcing swords into throats, and gouging out eyeballs—just about compensate for the terrible acting, poor editing, and a script that leaves so many unanswered questions that it even feels compelled to mention them all at the end.
Unsurprisingly, Lewis is unable to deliver many satisfactory answers, and so opts instead for a WTF finalé that somehow transforms The Wizard of Gore from a gleeful slice of low-budget splatter into a totally whacked-out piece of existentialist horror cinema.Now that's what I call a trick!.
Anyway, the plot thickens (just a little) when the girls he 'murders' on stage begin turning up dead in the same fashion as his illusions - a TV presenter and her boyfriend soon get on the case, but as the bodies start to pile up...the show is allowed to go on, just so HG can think up even more gore scenes!
"The Wizard of Gore" is not a movie.It's a piece of tool designed to insult a horror fan's intelligence.For me to describe this film is like describing what human fecal matter would look like after being thrown against a wall.A big mess of a movie,this film gets only one star because it had that midnight drive-in theater appeal going right along with it.I remember the days of going to those drive-ins and watching those gory blood and guts movies that had an effect on me 'til this very day.The difference between those films and "The Wizard of Gore" is that those films,even though they were silly,had a sense of unease because of the gore.They seemed real.As for "The Wizard of Gore",it was not even shocking.It was way too fake looking.I know this was back in the early 1970s and the technology for blood and gore effects weren't all that good.But,I have seen films(although,I can't remember which)also released in that time that seemed more realistic in terms of gore.I will admit that the gore in this film can be a little stomach churning.It's just the idea that I was expecting a better reaction from this film.Herschell Gordon Lewis is basically the kind of filmmaker that reminds me of one of those cult filmmakers like John Waters."The Wizard of Gore" is a cult classic to the fans who watch his films.I don't get all excited whenever his films come to DVD or VHS because there is no point in doing that.When I was eight,I have seen a lot of gory blood splattered films.Even though now they are considered to me as senseless,they had that "Ooh,wow.Look at that!".Or,it would have me cringing a bit because of the gore."The Wizard of Gore" made me want to laugh.I was uncovinced because the gore was uncovincing.Watching "The Wizard of Gore" is so bad,it makes me want to beat my head in for watching this film..
Now they have solved the case with the help of the cops, before it's too late.Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Something Weird, Two Thousand Maniacs!) made an somewhat enjoyable guilty pleasure horror trash.
It's a compelling concept - murdering women in full view of an audience and getting away with it because the REAL illusion is that they weren't harmed - but it's literally the only thing the movie has going for it.
If you never had any reason to be suspicious of magicians, well, strap in for "The Wizard of Gore." Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1970 cult splatter fest introduces us to Montag (Ray Sager), a vicious virtuoso with a seemingly psychic link to his audience.
Well, I just got through my first experience of film-maker Herschell Gordon Lewis; "The Wizard of Gore".
(1964) was quite fun, and Color Me Blood Red (1965) had its moments, but by the time he reached The Wizard of Gore in 1970, his work had become entirely incoherent and just plain boring.Magician Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager) entertains disinterested crowds at night, introducing his act by condemning his fellow performers and promising to truly deliver what the audience has come to see.
The usual Lewis tropes of terrible acting, cheap- looking sets and laughable special effects (see the moment Sager clearly has trouble popping out an eyeball) are all present, but the worst sin of all is that The Wizard of Gore is a massive drag at a whopping 95 minutes.
The plot, such as it is, is simply a set up for gore-auteur Herschell Gordon Lewis to stage graphic splatter scenes using animal cadavers for the close-ups.
"The Wizard of Gore," one of splatter pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis's later films, follows a local TV reporter and her boyfriend who become fascinated by a local magician, Montag the Magnificent, who horrifically mutilates women onstage; the magic is that his subjects inexplicably survive their ordeals, restored and unfettered.
They are classic B-movies of a bygone era, one that is impossible to be recapture, and that is why fans still flock around films like "The Wizard of Gore" or "Two-Thousand Maniacs"—they are relics of the genre."The Wizard of Gore" has been touted as one of Lewis's most bizarre offerings, and it's understandable why people have said so.
You know, if there ever was such a school as The College of Inept Film-Making, then I'd definitely say that the likes of Herschell Lewis (a real bargain-basement director) would certainly be its star pupil.With the exception of but a few priceless moments of unintentional hilarity, The Wizard of Gore was nothing but pure, cinematic ineptitude on all counts.From its laughably cheap gore, to a cast full of incompetent actors, to its completely throw-away story-line - This bottom-of-the-barrel horror movie (from 1970) was a real test of my patience.Like, Hello?...
'Cause, believe me, with The Wizard of Gore, Lewis came across to me as being such a total buffoon-of-a-director that he made the likes of that bungling film-maker, Ed Wood, appear to be an absolute genius by comparison..
The Wizard of Gore was my first exposure to one of Herschell Gordon Lewis' films.
In Herschell Gordon Lewis' masterpiece (with possible competition from "Blood Feast") "The Wizard of Gore", we peer into the world of Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager).
It is a cheap and easy gimmick, but works to set a creepy mood effectively.Side thought: In "Juno", two of the main characters debate Herschell Gordon Lewis versus Dario Argento while watching "Wizard of Gore".
Herschell Gordon Lewis made a lot of entertaining drive-in flicks, but none of them were even remotely like "Wizard".
The Wizard of Gore was my first Herschell Gordon Lewis experience...and will probably be my last.
Painfully Bad. Wizard of Gore, The (1970) * (out of 4) A news personality gets drawn to a magic show where Montag The Magnificent act out various forms of torture.
Clocking in at a torturous 96-minutes, this here is clearly the worst of Lewis' gore films.
I'm a big fan of "Blood Feast", "2000 Maniacs", and "The Wizard Of Gore", and, watching them in their chronological order, the discerning splatter freak might notice that, with each one, Lewis was becoming better and better at what he was doing.
If you like this film by Herschell Gordon Lewis, then you will love the remake.
As with all of Mr, Lewis' films, the budget's poor, the acting is bad and the padded out feel is back.
A return to form for Mr. Lewis in other words.Recommended for campy horror film fans.BP.S. The make-up man did a bad job of trying to make the magician look old and wizened..
This was my first Herschell Gordon Lewis movie, and it was certainly entertaining.Surprisingly (for me at least) the acting wasn't that bad.
Deranged small-time magician Montag the Magnificent (a gloriously histrionic performance by Ray Sager) murders female volunteers from his audience in assorted gruesome ways on stage and passes off the atrocious killings as "illusions" in his lurid stage act.
"The Wizard of Gore" isn't much more than a confusing gore opus.**SPOILERS**Dragged along to a magic act, sports columnist Jack, (Wayne Ratay) and his TV hostess fiancée Shelly Carson, (Judy Cler) go along to Montag the Magnificent, (Ray Sager) perform his show.
Daytime TV talk-show host Sherry Carson (Judy Cler) & her newspaper reporter boyfriend Jack Ward (Wayne Ratay) are the first to discover a link between Montag's performance & the woman's death so begin an investigation to find out whats going on, oh & Sherry wants Montag on her TV show....Produced & directed by the so-called Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis this was one of his later efforts but The Wizard of Gore is still as inept, badly made, amateurish & silly as most of his other gore flicks.
The acting sucks, on the DVD commentary Lewis reveals Sagar got the part of Montag because the guy they initially hired never turned up for filming!The Wizard of Gore isn't a film your supposed to like, from a production point of view it's an absolute disaster but I did like it, I liked the imagination on show, it's something different, I liked the basic premise & I loved the over-the-top splatter filled gore effects.
Herschell Gordon Lewis' blood and guts opus concerns a master magician whose stage acts really feature the violent deaths of his assistants from the audience.