Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

The Gore Gore Girls 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.

For an overview of the plot of The Gore Gore Girls, I refer you to my colleague Michael Reuben’s The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls Blu-ray review. I’d also add that in some salient ways this film is more of its time than at least some of Lewis’ other offerings (I’m thinking especially of Just for the Hell of It and How to Make a Doll, two 1968 entries that I personally feel would have been more at home in 1958). By 1972 when The Gore Gore Girls came out, societal morés had at least begun to relax a bit and Lewis obviously recognized that he could “get away” with more overt depictions of sex and, frankly, gore. This film is perhaps the smarmiest of Lewis’ late career (it would be the last film he would helm until he returned decades later with Blood Feast 2 - All U Can Eat in 2002), but as with many of Lewis’ other entries, it’s hard to get too offended by the goings on since they’re all so patently ridiculous. The film does offer some grotesque deaths, some of which are at least a bit reminiscent of gruesome murders in a number of more or less concurrent Italian gialli.

The Gore Gore Girls 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.

The Gore Gore Girls is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This transfer boasts some appealing colors, especially with regard to the all important reds, but it's marred by issues like several vertical scratches, some white, some blue. While there's a finer grain field on display here than in many of the other transfers in this set, I personally wonder whether some of that fineness is due to some high frequency filtering, since this is one of the more digital looking transfers in the set. A kind of unnatural smoothness is evident, at least in passing, and tending to be more noticeable in darker scenes. Still, detail levels are generally decent, especially in close-ups where some of the gore effects are squirm worthy.

The Gore Gore Girls Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Gore Gore Girls' LPCM mono track has some pretty evident hiss, but otherwise isn't overly marred by the pops, cracks and scuffs that several other transfers in this set suffer from. Dialogue is generally cleanly rendered, and the musical elements are also decently clear, if pretty boxy and tinny sounding. There's occasional very slight distortion in some of the louder moments, but nothing that is overly problematic.

The Gore Gore Girls 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 The Gore Gore Girls and This Stuff'll Kill Ya are:

• Stephen Thrower on The Gore Gore Girls (1080p; 16:25)


• Regional Bloodshed (1080p; 12:06) features Joe Swanberg and Spencer Parsons discussing Lewis.


• Herschell Spills His Guts (1080p; 4:02) features Lewis discussing post-film career.


• This Stuff'll Kill Ya Trailer (1080p; 3:32)


• Audio Commentaries

  The Gore Gore Girls Commentary features Herschell Gordon Lewis.

  This Stuff'll Kill Ya Commentary features Daniel Krogh.

• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to The Gore Gore Girls (1080p; 1:43) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to This Stuff'll Kill Ya (1080p; 2:08) is available under the play menu for that film.

The Gore Gore Girls Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Casey Broadwater suggested fast forwarding through the police interstitials to get to the "good stuff" (meaning the kill scenes) in his review of Blood Feast, and some may feel the same strategy is warranted with regard to The Gore Gore Girls. Video and audio both have at least occasional issues to overcome, but as with the other films in the Lewis set, there are some very enjoyable supplements to sweeten the deal.