Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

This Stuff'll Kill Ya 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 those of you who have ever wondered what a mash up of Richard Brooks’ Elmer Gantry with Herschell Gordon Lewis’ own Moonshine Mountain might look like (and there must be legions of you), look no further than Lewis’ 1971 effort This Stuff’ll Kill Ya. This oddball entry (you expected anything other than oddball from Lewis?) features a wonderfully over the top turn by Lewis regular Jeffrey Allen, this time playing a supposed country preacher named Roscoe Boone. Boone seems to be the same sort of quasi-revivalist that Burt Lancaster’s huckster pretended to be in the Brooks film, a blowhard who leads a flock of folks with morality at least as questionable as Boone’s. The fact that Boone’s real stock in trade is as a moonshiner places this film squarely in the same “hicksploitation” arena as at least some of Lewis’ other, earlier, offerings.

Kind of amazingly, This Stuff’ll Kill Ya features an honest to goodness movie star, albeit one significantly past his prime. Tim Holt, once a marquee name in any number of now legendary films like Stagecoach, The Magnificent Ambersons (available as a standard definition supplement as part of the now out of print Amazon Exclusive edition of Citizen Kane), My Darling Clementine and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, is on hand here in his final film role as FBI Agent Clark, a do gooder sent down south to put an end to Boone’s shenanigans. Suffice it to say Holt, who had seriously curtailed his film appearances for a decade or so, doesn’t look overly thrilled to be making his “big comeback” in a vehicle like this.

While I doubt anyone coming to a Lewis film is going to have outsized religious tendencies (I could be wrong in this assumption), I also have to wonder if some folks might actually find parts of This Stuff’ll Kill Ya on the offensive side, for reasons other than the usual brickbats thrown at Lewis, namely his emphasis on blood and guts and female nudity. There’s at least some of that going on in the film (of course), but there’s an unmistakable skewering of religion (and, let’s face it, one religion: Christianity) at play in the inner workings of this film, something that’s perhaps intentionally provocative but for some viewers at least potentially off putting.

It’s hard to get too worked up over something as patently silly as This Stuff’ll Kill Ya (does that title refer to the hooch or to religious belief? — just wondering). The film has the requisite gory deaths and even a crucifixion (or two), and it provides a real showcase for a typically hyperbolic Allen. Uneven at best and hilariously inept at worst (in the Lewis tradition), This Stuff’ll Kill Ya may inadvertently provide evidence as to why Lewis was nearing the end of his feature film career.

This Stuff'll Kill Ya 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:

This Stuff'll Kill Ya 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.

This Stuff'll Kill Ya is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is another pretty problematic transfer, one that gets off to a rocky start with lots of deep green scratches. Those scratches continue, alternately in green or blue, for the duration of this presentation. The color is faded at best and almost nonexistent at work, and a coarse grain field only adds to a gritty and not very well detailed image. Occasional frame misalignments add to an overall less than optimal viewing experience. My score is 2.25.

This Stuff'll Kill Ya Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

This Stuff'll Kill Ya features an LPCM mono track that has an overall very boxy sound and some recurrent low frequency hum that's especially noticeable during some of the musical elements. Pops, cracks and scuffs are also in pretty large supply, as is underlying hiss, but dialogue comes through at least relatively clearly most of the time.

This Stuff'll Kill Ya 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.

This Stuff'll Kill Ya Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This Stuff'll Kill Ya provides a nice showcase for Allen, but it's frankly kind of sad to see someone like Tim Holt ending his film career in this manner. Technical merits are problematic, but the supplementary package enjoyable.