Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		2.5

Moonshine Mountain Blu-ray Movie Review

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.

In some ways Moonshine Mountain is the odd man out in what is already (probably obviously) one of the odder aggregations of material ever assembled for a set of Blu-rays. Not really that much of a gore fest (at least comparatively speaking) and played more intentionally for laughs than some of the other Lewis films, Moonshine Mountain documents the adventures of a famous country western singer named Doug Martin (Charles Glore) who decides to get in touch with his roots by journeying back to North Carolina. Doug is accompanied by his pretty girlfriend Della (Marilyn Waters) and they’re both sure he’ll find plenty of inspiration for new material in a more sylvan environment.

It doesn’t take long for Martin to start interfacing with some of the locals, including a moonshining family led by Jeb Carpenter (Jeffrey Allen) and which includes a nubile female named Laura (Bonnie Hinson). Town sherriff Asa Potter (Gordon Oas-Heim) seems less concerned with the supposed illicit activity going on right under his nose than he is in disposing of certain folks who have crossed him in one way or the other, in the film’s sole use of Lewis’ “splatter” stock in trade (which in this case might be better termed "flatter").

Moonshine Mountain is just flat out silly most of the time, “distinguished” by its so-called hicksploitation sensibilities and its decidedly not ready for prime time cast. The film, kind of like its disc mate Two Thousand Maniacs!, has a number of musical elements (written by Lewis), something that gives the proceedings an even more surreal quality at times. Though the two films are resolutely different in any number of ways, I was reminded rather oddly of Takashi Miike's patently bizarre The Happiness of the Katakuris at times as I watched Moonshine Mountain, and any fans of that film may well want to check this out for another hallucinatory experience with so-called yokels.

Moonshine Mountain 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.

Additionally, this film comes with the following disclaimer:

Moonshine Mountain has been exclusively restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film was restored in 2K resolution using a selection of 35mm prints, as the original negative has been lost. Additional sections sourced from standard definition tape masters were also used to create the most complete version of this film possible. Due to the extremely poor condition of the film elements available, this presentation exhibits extreme colour fading that could only be corrected to a minimal degree through digital grading. This presentation also includes numerous instances of damaged and missing frames that were impossible to restore digitally. The audio was similarly affected and as a result the soundtrack contains many noticeable instances of damage. There is occasional loose audio synch but this is as per the original source materials.

Moonshine Mountain is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is by far the most problematic transfer in the Lewis set, and one that some people may not feel even merits a 2.0. The problems are pretty extreme from the get go, with quite a few missing frames in the opening credits that make the theme play like a polyrhythmic Frank Zappa spectacular, and with large blue vertical scratches. The color here is highly variant, at times almost nonexistent at others there, but faded and tinted toward the red side of things. Contrast is about as variant, and there are obvious differences between the film and tape elements, as can be seen by comparing screenshots 8 and 9.

Moonshine Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Moonshine Mountain's LPCM mono track is "kin" to its video counterpart, with missing snippets of tunes and omnipresent hiss along with frequent if not constant distortion. Surprisingly at least some of the musical elements sound decently full bodied. There are occasional anomalies like low level hum (noticeable in the car attack scene), along with regular cracks and pops.

Moonshine Mountain 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 Two Thousand Maniacs and Moonshine Mountain are:

• Two Thousand Maniacs Can't Be Wrong (1080p; 9:54) features Tim Sullivan, who made 2001 Maniacs.


• Hicksploitation Confidential (1080p; 7:14) is a visual essay detailing depictions of southern characters in film.


• David Friedman: The Gentlemen's Smut Peddler (1080i; 9:52) is a loving tribute to Friedman and includes interviews with Lewis.


• Herschell's Art of Advertising (1080p; 3:33) features Lewis opining on marketing techniques.


• Maniac Outtakes (1080p; 16:28) are silent but are underscored here with music and dialogue snippets.


• Promo Gallery

  Two Thousand Maniacs Trailer (1080p; 2:14)

  Moonshine Mountain Trailer (1080p; 1:29)

• Maniacs Commentary features Mike Vraney from Something Weird Video hosting Jimmy Maslow from Shock Films along with Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to Two Thousand Maniacs (1080p; 1:59) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to Moonshine Mountain (1080p; 2:06) is available under the play menu for that film.

Moonshine Mountain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Moonshine Mountain has some enjoyable elements, but it's marred by the most substandard audio and video presentation in the Lewis set. Supplemental material is enjoyable, but this one is probably for Lewis completists.