The Wizard of Gore Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

The Wizard of Gore 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 Wizard of Gore, I refer you to my colleague Michael Reuben's The Wizard of Gore / The Gore Gore Girls Blu-ray review. The only thing I'd add is how in retrospect this entry by Lewis seems to hint at a future world where mass media delights in horrors inflicted to others. That may be a "given" in the 24/7 "news" cycle of 21st century television, but for a 1970 film it's a kind of fascinating thesis. It's also interesting to note that Lewis is attempting something a bit more "mind bending" (supposedly) in this feature, offering some pretzel logic and subliminal "reality versus illusion" elements that presage a number of later efforts, including everything from outright horror entries like Phantasm (due relatively soon on Blu-ray from Well Go USA) to more overt science fiction franchises like The Ultimate Matrix Collection . One has to do a bit of mental calisthenics to actually believe Lewis and his crew were aware of these prophetic proclivities, of course.

The Wizard of Gore 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:

The Wizard of Gore has been exclusively restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film was restored in 2K resolution from a 35mm print, as the original negative has been lost. Due to the rough condition of the film elements available, this presentation exhibits some colour fading that could only be corrected to a minimal degree through digital grading. There are also incidents of heavy scratches and similar damage that have been left intact. There is occasional loose audio synch but this is as per the original source materials.

The Wizard of Gore is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Elements are in occasionally problematic condition, with the scratching and other age related blemishing that are alluded to in the above disclaimer. While that same disclaimer also mentions the color fading, and there's an undeniable brown skew toward the palette, elements like some of the bright reds still look very good. Black levels are strong, though crush occasionally intrudes when elements like Montag's cape is in front of a shadowy background. As with several other transfers in this set, grain is pretty coarse looking, something that tends to mask fine detail levels.

The Wizard of Gore Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Wizard of Gore's LPCM mono track has pretty unavoidable hiss throughout the presentation, along with crackles and pops (some of the worst damage is at the beginning, as tends to be the case with several films in the Lewis set). There's noticeable distortion at times in the upper registers, especially in things like some of the string cues. Still, dialogue comes through relatively clearly.

The Wizard of Gore 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 How to Make a Doll and The Wizard of Gore are:

• Montag Speaks! (1080p; 19:33) is an interview with Ray Sager.


• Stephen Thrower on The Wizard of Gore (1080p; 10:20)


• The Gore the Merrier (1080p; 9:05) features Jeremy Kasten, who remade The Wizard of Gore.


• The Incredibly Strange Film Show (1080p; 40:03) is an episode of the cult documentary series, focused on Lewis and Friedman.


• Wizard of Gore Trailer (1080p; 5:04)


• Wizard of Gore Audio Commentary features Mike Vraney from Something Weird Video with Herschell Gordon Lewis.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to How to Make a Doll (1080p; 1:48) is available under the play menu for that film.


• Herschell Gordon Lewis Introduction to The Wizard of Gore (1080p; 1:56) is available under the play menu for that film.

The Wizard of Gore Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wizard of Gore has some suitably over the top immolations, but it never works up much angst. Video and audio both have issues to overcome, but the supplementary package is quite enjoyable.