ThiefHott Too much of everything

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

preppy-3 Magician Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager) performs illusions of murder in front of audiences. In his show he cuts a woman in half with a chainsaw--but she's perfectly OK minutes later. However, soon after leaving the show, she drops dead cut in half. Another woman gets a spike driven into her head...but is OK. Still, after leaving the show, she dies when her head opens. TV host Sherry (Judy Cler) and newspaperman boyfriend Jack (Wayne Ratay) knows something is going on...but what? What a lousy picture! There's not one thing done right. For starters the plot makes little sense and REALLY derails at the end of the picture. The dialogue is ludicrous (the speeches Montag gives before his illusions are unbelievable), the gore is so laughably fake it's impossible to take seriously and the direction is (at best) uninspired. It also has a music score that appears and disappears with no rhyme or reason. Some people love this because it was done by Herschell Gordon Lewis (who did other "masterpieces" like "Blood Feast" and "2000 Maniacs"). He's been crowned the Godfather of Gore (he was making gore movies WAY before anyone else) but it doesn't mean his movies are any good! Boring, sick and makes no sense (especially at the end). Avoid.

Ralphus2 This one is definitely in the "so bad it's good category" except, of course, for the fact that it's not at all good. Herschell Gordon Lewis is a cult figure in the world of horror and exploitation films. His 'Blood Feast' and 'Two Thousand Maniacs' are famous examples of his "craft". Both of those films, I have to say, are better than this one. At least Two Thousand Maniacs has that toe-tapping "And the South will Rise Again" opening song.Wizard of Gore is of course a terrible TERRIBLE film. But it will raise more than a few smiles, which is why it fits nicely in the "so bad it's good" basket. But then again it's so deathly boring! Between each outrageously gory yet incredibly fake-looking murder scene are stretches of dialog and ham acting that beggar belief for sheer boredom. At least the Wizard himself (Montag the Magnificent, played by the illustrious Ray Sager) is entertaining for some of the WORST acting you've ever seen in your life. I wanted to slap him and scream 'spit your lines out man'. He lingers over every lame sentence; each and every word is delivered so painfully slowly and painfully badly. Seriously, your DAD could act better than this. And you've seen him try on those few rare embarrassing occasions after a few too many beers at a family barbecue. Well, that's how bad Ray Sager is here! The gore scenes are rightfully notorious. Well, if someone fingering entrails (the local butcher's finest) and grinning salaciously is what qualifies as gore. There's plenty of guts on display but it's hardly convincing. Actually, it probably couldn't be LESS convincing. Especially considering after each shot of the viscera being fondled we cut back to a full shot of the victim without a drop of blood on them, let alone guts hanging out. The sword swallowing scene is particularly badly done. The actresses almost seem to giggle at times. They know how ridiculous it all is.Aside from Montag's on-stage gore fantasies, the highlights for me are: his Mesmer stare (with powdered eyebrows that don't match the ones he usually 'wears'), which supposedly represents him hypnotizing his audience or a hapless volunteer; the journalist with the crime scene photos who visibly glances at someone off camera several times, perhaps to read his lines; the way the victims suddenly fall down dead after the show in the most awkwardly edited ways...I could go on.So, yes, it's a WOEFUL film, but it's so bad it's an entertaining watch. But, really, it's just awful AWFUL film-making in every department. Be prepared to fast-forward through all the dialog and everything in between Montag's eyebrow close-ups. The only thing Mr H. G. Lewis had in spades was gumption. And a big-a** pair of "cojones". I hope one day to see some of his nudist camp movies!!!

Woodyanders Deranged small-time magician Montag the Magnificent (a gloriously histrionic performance by Ray Sager) murders female volunteers from his audience in assorted gruesome ways on stage and passes off the atrocious killings as "illusions" in his lurid stage act. Snoopy talk show host Sherry Carson (the pretty, but hopelessly wooden Judy Cler) and her drippy boyfriend Jack (the extremely insipid Wayne Ratay) try to stop Montag. All of notorious goremeister Herschell Gordon Lewis' entertainingly sloppy and low-rent hallmarks are present and accounted for: a plodding pace, hilariously horrendous acting (Sager in particular totally hams it up with unrestrained eye-rolling relish like some kind of bargain basement Vincent Price), a slight script, a general air of pervasive lethargy, chintzy cinematography, a heavy-handed illusion vs. reality theme, badly dubbed in screams, a groovy swinging score, a ridiculous surprise ending, and, of course, loads of hideously graphic and excessive carnage (gross highlights include a gal being cut in half with a chainsaw, a metal spike pounded into a woman's skull, another lass getting split open with a punch press, and swords being rammed down two ladies' throats). Sure, this flick is without a doubt complete garbage with zero artistic merit to speak of, but it's this movie's very artlessness that in turn makes it such a lovably lousy marvel to behold.

BA_Harrison A dreadfully repetitive script, coupled with an abysmal central performance from Ray Sager as the titular character (who delivers every last syllable of his many boring monologues in a drawn out manner guaranteed to irritate) make Herschell Gordon Lewis's The Wizard of Gore a real chore to sit through at times; however, several delightfully outrageous moments of cheesy Grand Guignol splatter and a jaw-droppingly daft ending thankfully prevent it from being a complete waste of time.Curvacious Judy Cler plays Sherry Carson, a TV talk show host who becomes intrigued by mysterious, mesmeric magician Montag the Magnificent (Sager), who uses his hypnotic powers to lure female volunteers to take part in incredible illusions in which they appear to be mutilated and killed on stage, but are finally revealed to be very much still alive.When these same volunteers are found murdered not long after the show is over, with wounds that match those inflicted by Montag during his act, Sherry's boyfriend, a sports reporter, becomes suspicious and alerts the authorities. But the police are unable to tie the grisly murders to the magician, and so Montag is free to continue his act, with his latest and deadliest performance to be broadcast live on Sherry's TV show...Montag's messy on stage antics—sawing a woman in half with a chainsaw, removing a girls brains after hammering a spike into her head, using a punch press to squish a lady, forcing swords into throats, and gouging out eyeballs—just about compensate for the terrible acting, poor editing, and a script that leaves so many unanswered questions that it even feels compelled to mention them all at the end. Unsurprisingly, Lewis is unable to deliver many satisfactory answers, and so opts instead for a WTF finalé that somehow transforms The Wizard of Gore from a gleeful slice of low-budget splatter into a totally whacked-out piece of existentialist horror cinema.Now that's what I call a trick!