3. Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis, known as the Godfather of Gore and probable instigator of the slasher movie, is an incredibly eloquent and avuncular man. Before he got into film making, he was a Professor of English, but he decided film making would be more lucrative. Lewis teamed up with notorious exploitation producer David Friedman and in 1963, they set about making the film Blood Feast. A wily man, Lewis hit upon the idea of gore and blood and guts to sell his movies. Audiences had not really experienced gory violence in American drive ins or movie theatres. Blood Feast was made on a minimal budget and it consisted of an Egyptian caterer called Fuad creating an altar to the Goddess Ishtar. He does this by mutilating women - taking a heart, a brain, a tongue, limbs etc. Eventually people twig on to his murderous shenanigans and that's the end of Fuad. Blood Feast was a massive success. It is such a gruesome film, 20 years after its inception, it was plonked on the Video Nasty list in Britain. However, Blood Feast is technically inept and really shows that Lewis had minimal training in how to make a film. This ineptitude plagued Lewis' films until he retired with the Gore Gore Girls in 1972. I actually think it is his ineptitude that endears Lewis to fans. But some may argue - who cares about technical stuff when Lewis was achieving his goal to gross out cinema audiences? Lewis' films, however, suffer from some very poor acting - dreadful acting and terrible dialogue - "Go fumigate yourself, craphead!" in She Devils On Wheels, is a typical Lewis line. While I think its hilarious, most cinema goers would have limited appreciation of Lewis' films - they are too 'bad'. The special effects are of the animal innard ilk, the gore and brutality in his films is extreme but it is clearly dummies who are copping spikes to the head, disembowelment, and getting their faces mashed in. Sometimes Lewis' films are so inept, they are downright bizarre. Check out The Gruesome Twosome in which 10 minutes or so of footage is taken up at the beginning of the movie with two styrofoam dummy heads with faces painted on them having a conversation! Lewis' artistic ineptitude has worked in his favour, with lovers of camp and bad movies revering him as a cult director. I think Lewis knew he was churning out garbage and I think he is amazed by the fans today who love his trash. As an HG Lewis mega fan, I find it hard to justify my love of his films. They are just so inept it is brilliant!