Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (2010)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Very good documentary from director Frank Henenlotter (BASKET CASE) taking a look at the career of cult filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis. Even though the title draws attention to his horror films, the documentary covers his entire career, which includes nudies, educational shorts and just about any genre that was going against what Hollywood was making. Outside the first fifteen-minutes or so, this here is an incredibly entertaining and very funny documentary. I say it starts off somewhat weak simply because the exploitation genre has already had several documentaries done on it so nothing here is all that fresh or original. The film really picks up when we hit the nudie pictures but especially the horror movies. We get all sorts of interesting tidbits on BLOOD FEAST, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS and COLOR ME BLOOD RED including some cast members being interviewed. We also get to hear from the L.A. Times film critic who went into BLOOD FEAST not really knowing what to expect. As a fan of these films, it's was really fun getting to see all the outtakes as well as getting new interviews with some of the cast members. The documentary also does a nice job taking a look at what the director was doing after these films. The director himself is interviewed about the films as is David F. Friedman, Henenlotter, Jerome Eden, John Waters, Mal Arnold, Bunny Yeager and Joe Bob Briggs. Fans of exploitation and the director will certainly want to check this one out.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Very good documentary from director Frank Henenlotter (BASKET CASE) taking a look at the career of cult filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis. Even though the title draws attention to his horror films, the documentary covers his entire career, which includes nudies, educational shorts and just about any genre that was going against what Hollywood was making. Outside the first fifteen-minutes or so, this here is an incredibly entertaining and very funny documentary. I say it starts off somewhat weak simply because the exploitation genre has already had several documentaries done on it so nothing here is all that fresh or original. The film really picks up when we hit the nudie pictures but especially the horror movies. We get all sorts of interesting tidbits on BLOOD FEAST, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS and COLOR ME BLOOD RED including some cast members being interviewed. We also get to hear from the L.A. Times film critic who went into BLOOD FEAST not really knowing what to expect. As a fan of these films, it's was really fun getting to see all the outtakes as well as getting new interviews with some of the cast members. The documentary also does a nice job taking a look at what the director was doing after these films. The director himself is interviewed about the films as is David F. Friedman, Henenlotter, Jerome Eden, John Waters, Mal Arnold, Bunny Yeager and Joe Bob Briggs. Fans of exploitation and the director will certainly want to check this one out.