Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie Review

Dexter: the early years.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 24, 2016

Note: This film is available as part of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast.

Mention the initials “H.G.” to most people, and my hunch is virtually everyone will default to thinking about H.G. Wells, the legendary author whose science fiction masterpieces resulted in such memorable films as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The Island of Dr. Moreau and War of the Worlds. Certain fans who have a slightly different definition of what constitutes a memorable film might have a variant reaction to those same initials, however, positing one Herschell Gordon Lewis instead of Mr. Wells. Lewis has long been known by the sobriquet “Godfather of Gore,” and his early exploitation pictures were, for their day, amazingly overt in their depiction of what ultimately came to be called “splatter”. Lewis, who only just fairly recently died at the age of 90, had an interesting if not especially distinguished career, though it’s notable that Lewis maintained a more than abundant sense of humor about his films and his contributions to the supposed art of cinema. Lewis’ filmography (it’s a bit of a stretch to actually call it an oeuvre) hasn’t been especially well served in the Blu-ray era, though there have been at least a few releases of his work, including The Blood Trilogy, The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls and The Lost Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Now, in what amounts to an elegy of sorts for Lewis, Arrow Video has assembled what will certainly go down in the annals of the Blu-ray era as one of the most lavish deluxe sets produced, at least within the confines of what can only be accurately described as “cult cinema”. Along with a collection of fourteen films (nine making their Blu-ray debut), Arrow also includes a glut of bonus content (some with Lewis’ involvement), as well as impressive packaging and non disc supplements.

The fifties more than the sixties seemed to be the era of films about so-called juvenile delinquents, with such iconic titles as Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle appearing in the wake of World War II to document a new generation that wasn’t content to play by their parents’ rules. Herschell Gordon Lewis may have been thinking “better late than never” when he brought out Just for the Hell of It in late 1968, though it’s important to remember that there was in fact a “youth movement” alive and kicking during that time frame, even if it tended to be focused on elements like opposing the Vietnam War, or supporting extracurricular activities like sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.

Lewis seems to be going for a more mature, civic minded, approach in Just for the Hell of It, as he documents the increasing savagery of a bunch of hoodlums led by the obviously sociopathic Dexter (Ray Sager). This approach is both commendable but also patently ridiculous, for the film frames the early shenanigans of Dexter’s gang in relatively harmless events like setting a reader’s newspaper on fire, hardly the sort of criminal activity that is going to make the Silent Majority sit up and start making noise. But Lewis is Lewis, and soon enough the events take a much more sinister turn, even if some of the gang’s activities are still kind of funny (stuffing a baby into a garbage can being one prime example). By the time Lewis’ stock in trade of bludgeoned bodies has made an entrance, there’s a kind of smarmy aspect to the proceedings that tends to undercut any great “message” Lewis may have been attempting to offer (and it’s obvious he was attempting to send a message, as evidenced by the little blurb that follows “The End” at the film’s finale).

Just for the Hell of It is a really interesting entry in Lewis’ filmography nonetheless. It’s weirdly out of synch with the general zeitgeist of 1968, again seeming to harken back to at least a decade earlier, when teenagers running amok were more common (hippies were too stoned in 1968 to really create much terror in the general populace). But despite that disparity, it’s one of Lewis’ least hyperbolic entries, at least contextually speaking, and it seems to be another attempt by Lewis, admittedly not always successful, to break away from “pure” splatter entries. The “message” may therefore be a bit clouded, but it’s still obvious that Lewis at this stage in his career really wanted to try something new, even if juvenile delinquency wasn’t exactly a timely issue.

Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arrow has included some general verbiage about the transfers in this set:

All film materials sourced for restoration were scanned in 2K resolution on a pin registered 4K Lasergraphics Director Scanner at Deluxe Media, Burbank. Film grading and restoration was completed at Deluxe Restoration, London. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and light scratches were removed through a combination of digital restoration tools. Overall image stability and density fluctuation was also improved when possible.

The original mono soundtracks were transferred from 35mm prints by Deluxe Audio Services, Los Angeles, and were conformed and restored at Deluxe Restoration, London.

Additional audio conform for How to Make a Doll and Just for the Hell of It by David Mackenzie.

Although the best existing elements were sourced for this project and every attempt was made to present the films in this collection in the highest quality possible, some of the films still exhibit varying degrees of damage that could not be digitally repaired to our satisfaction. The condition of the existing materials for Moonshine Mountain, The Gruesome Twosome, How to Make a Doll and This Stuff'll Kill Ya all contained extreme levels of dirt, scratches and debris as well as many instances of torn or missing frames. They all exhibited heavy degrees of colour fading as well. Likewise, the print sections sourced to complete A Taste of Blood were both faded and heavily scratched. Throughout the restoration workflow process, our priority was to retain the original photochemical look of the films rather than create unwanted digital artefacts by heavy handed picture cleanup. Therefore, many of the films in this collection exhibit "warts and all" appearance, in keeping with their distribution history and physical condition.

Restoration supervised by James White, Arrow Films.

Just for the Hell of It is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. While colors have noticeably faded and also encounter some varying levels of saturation along with moments of weird skewing (see screenshot 2), generally speaking things look decent, with a coarse but organic grain field and acceptable if never overwhelming detail levels. Contrast is generally strong, but crush intrudes at several moments, not necessarily always in dark scenes (a schoolgirl's black hair pretty much disappears into the shadows of the high school entryway in one daytime scene). There's some noticeable flicker during the beach attack scene (circa 58:00), and there's also a weird hair dancing in the gate unless the lovers are being attacked by some bizarre swarm of long insects. My score is 2.75.

Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Just for the Hell of It's LPCM mono track is very boxy and thin sounding most of the time, with ubiquitous hiss also adding to the general sonic issues. Spikes in volume are noticeable, as is some high frequency phasing that can be heard in moments like the rock concert when the drummer is playing the cymbals. Dialogue comes through reasonably well, but this track is far from optimal.

Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged this set a little unusually, with two films per disc and one set of supplements for both movies available from a main menu. While some of the supplements are obviously geared toward one individual film, others are a bit more general in nature, and so I'm listing the complete supplemental package for each particular disc rather than for each individual film. The supplements for She-Devils on Wheels and Just for the Hell of It are:

• The Shocking Truth (1080p; 10:25) features film editor Bob Murawski discussing Lewis.


• Garage Punk Gore (1080p; 9:12) features Chris Alexander focusing on some of the musical elements in Lewis' films.


• H.G. Lewis on The Alley Tramp (1080i; 2:58) features Lewis discussing yet another film he completed in 1968.


• Promo Gallery

  She-Devils on Wheels Trailer (1080p; 1:37)

  The Alley Tramp Trailer (1080p; 2:34)

  She-Devils on Wheels Radio Spot (1:00)

• She-Devils on Wheels Audio Commentary features Mike Vraney from Something Weird Video with Jimmy Maslow and Herschell Gordon Lewis.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to She-Devils on Wheels (1080p; 1:24) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to Just for the Hell of It (1080p; 1:59) is available under the play menu for that film.

Just for the Hell of It Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Just for the Hell of It would seem to be Lewis' attempts to do his own version of Rebel Without a Cause, but in Lewis' hands it becomes more like Rebel Without a Clue. Video and audio both have issues, but the supplementary package is enjoyable.