Overrated and overhyped

Don't Believe the Hype

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This has got to be the most outrageous gore flick I have ever seen and by far the funniest! The gore effects in this movie are so outlandish that it is actually not frightening at all but extremely humorous (for those of us with a taste for black humor). A movie like this could only have been created by the "Godfather of Gore" Herschell Gordon Lewis. Known for his mix of sex and extreme gore, Lewis out does himself in this one as Go-Go girls at a nightclub are hacked to pieces one by one. A hot iron is used to melt the face of one helpless victim, another has her face fried in french fry oil, still another has her rear end turned into hamburger meat and of course the infamous scene where a girl has her nipples cut off (the left bosom spews out whole milk while the right spews out chocolate milk!). Faces are mutilated, eyeballs are squished, and even the killer appears to have a dark sense of humor (a lit cigarette is found between the toes of one dead girl and the word "OK" is written on her leg in blood). There is even a cameo by the "King of the one-liners" Henny Youngman (who denies ever having been in this film to this day). After making this film, Lewis retired from the film making business and went on to become a successful investor. That is until 2002 when he is coaxed back into the director's chair for "Blood Feast 2: All you can eat". Gorehounds will LOVE this flick...most others will be repulsed by it but then again, that is the point of the movie.

Various sexy gals who work as go-go dancers at a seedy nightclub are murdered in assorted gruesome ways. Obnoxious and sarcastic stuck-up private eye Abraham Gentry (an amusingly smug performance by Frank Kress) persuades spunky reporter Nancy Weston (lovely Amy Ferrell) to pose as a stripper in order to catch the killer. Director Herschell Gordon Lewis and writer Alan J. Dachman treat the sleazy premise as one big sick and nasty black joke; the wickedly funny gallows humor at work here is certainly cruel and mean-spirited, but nonetheless still often uproarious in its very cheerfully unapologetic crassness. The gleefully over-the-top gore set pieces are truly something to behold: one gal's face gets smashed into a mirror, another has her head smashed into a gooey pulp, one lady's buttocks are savagely spanked with a meat tenderizer, a fourth victim has a hot iron pressed on her face and her nipples are cut off so her breasts can bleed milk (!), and yet another woman has her head dunked in a bowl of French fry grease. The fact that the make-up f/x are extremely cheap and shoddy only enhances the pervasively scuzzy atmosphere. The acting for the most part is laughably awful, with stand-out stinky contributions by Hedda Lubin as sassy waitress Marlene, Russ Badger as the dim-witted, hot-tempered Lt. Anderson, and Ray Sager as fruit-smashing ex-Marine Vietnam vet bartender Grout. Of course, we also get a pleasing abundance of tasty bare distaff skin on display. Henry Youngman as jolly strip club owner Marzdone Mobilie tells plenty of hysterically bad jokes. Alex Ameri's crude, unpolished cinematography, Lewis' wonky redundant score, and the ragged editing all further add to the picture's considerable scroungy charm. A total schlocky hoot.

I love camp movies, believe me and the usual technicolorian gore of Gordon Lewis don't bother me at all, but this is just one of his most stupid movies, even more than BLOOD FEAST, i'm not kidding. THE GORE GORE GIRLS is about a mad person who kills a lot of go(re) - go(re) girls of a night club. A detective and a reporter tries to find out the big secret. Maybe the performances here are slightly better than the usual average acting H.G Lewis films, but that is not saying much. The camera work is even dreadful.But at least is kind of watchable with the go go girls acting ... you going to pass a good time with it, and the killings are just absurd in a very, very bad way: A girl is killed with a wooden hammer punching in her butt (!) and just don't let me talk about what it does with the nipples. You going to laugh like anyone with this. But the better of all this mess is a scene that i only love of it's campness: the go-go girl before being attacked by a lot of feminists dancing in a very American way. Though is important to note that this was one of the first films that got an X rating because of it's violence.ONLY if you want lo laugh and pass a good time (But only with a lot, A LOT of beers).

A series of murders haunts the local strip club scene. A newspaper decides to hire the legendary Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress) to track down the killer, since the police seem obviously inept at the task. Using his advance payment at local strip clubs and interviewing the dancers (with such names as Candy Cane), Gentry begins to compile a list of suspects, including an ex-Vietnam vet who loves to crush produce. But, who is the killer? "The Gore Gore Girls" is Herschell Gordon Lewis' best film. While not his "masterpiece" and not a film he will go down in history for, this one (his last film until "Blood Feast 2" thirty years later) really pushes the exploitation genre to a peak. Crushed brains, eyeballs pulled out, lots of stripping and the enjoyable Frank Kress. Say what you will about Montag the Magnificent or Mayor Buckman or Fuad Ramses (all great Lewis characters). Abraham Gentry is just so suave and cocky, he could have appeared in sequel after sequel and I would devour them like flamingos with shrimp. But, shockingly, this was Frank Kress' first and last film. Where did he come from? Where did he go? Was he not interested in working after Lewis retired? We are all losers for his absence.What has made this film controversial for many people is not, believe it or not, the excessive gore, but a perceived misogyny inherent in the movie. Quite honestly, I did not see it. Sure, Gentry is not particularly kind to women. And yes, the film flatly exploits women (taking place in a strip club, for the most part). But it also has a women's liberation movement subplot (shown in what I would call a neutral light), and there is really nothing here that cannot be seen in any other horror or exploitation film. Nude women in the late 1960s and early 70s? And you are shocked by this? Less controversial, but far more memorable, is the gore. While perhaps not memorable to many people in the mainstream, one scene here will stand out for those familiar with the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Lewis had previously offered grisly torture in "The Wizard of Gore" and some great death traps in "Two Thousand Maniacs!" (the barrel roll, anyone?). But in "The Gore Gore Girls" he pushes the splatter to eleven on the blood and guts scale. Which scene am I referencing? The french-fried face? The iron? The scissors on the milk-squirting nipples? No. In one scene, a stripper is actually murdered by having her buttocks tenderized into hamburger with a mallet. No stabbing, no bone-crushing, no poison. Just excessive paddling. And for good measure, be sure to recall that the killer added a little bit of seasoning to the carnal creation.Add all this to the fact the film co-stars Lewis' most charming and attractive actress yet (Amy Farrell as reporter Nancy Weston) and we have a winner of a film. By far my favorite Lewis film, which is saying a lot as he is quickly become one of my favorite directors. Thank you Something Weird Video for providing us with such great cult films. And a special thank you to Andrew Borntreger, for pointing out to me that the bottle of acid in the film is "made in Poland"... I am not really sure what to make of that, but it seems all too proper in a flick like this.The commentary track is also quite informative, as Lewis will point out Ray Sager (he is easy to miss), talk about Henny Youngman's denial of being in the film, and explain why he disappeared from movies for thirty years. Believe it or not, at one point his films were considered lost and not worth finding, so he went into advertising. I have met Herschell twice now, and never tire of his stories... give them a listen.