Anonymous Andy (Minus_The_Beer) If you never had any reason to be suspicious of magicians, well, strap in for "The Wizard of Gore." Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1970 cult splatter fest introduces us to Montag (Ray Sager), a vicious virtuoso with a seemingly psychic link to his audience. As his skeptical patrons look on, he prompts random "volunteers" (usually of the buxom and blonde variety) to participate in his nightly show- stopper. Seemingly hypnotized, these poor women are strapped in place as the titular wizard appears to make mince meat of their fine figures. But wait, there's more! After playing around with their guts, Montag sends them back into the audience, and back to their evening they go, inexplicably turning up dead the next day. Lather, rinse, repeat. After watching this about three or four times, a TV reporter and her boyfriend (Judy Cler and Wayne Ratay) launch an impromptu investigation into the wonders of Montag's wizardry. Is it all an illusion? Or is he a maniacal, if inventive serial killer?Shot with all the precision of a drunk dad filming a grade-school talent show, "The Wizard of Gore" is an admittedly cheap affair. Lewis clearly spent what little budget he had on the gore effects (read: re-purposed sheep carcasses) and left little room for hiring actors or a competent director of photography. This doesn't work against the film. If anything, the lack of refinement only adds to its charm. The gore looks real because, well, it is real, and the lead actors have chemistry even as they try not to giggle their way through the whole thing. Judy Cler, in particular, deserves an honorary Oscar for carrying the weight of the film on her shoulders. She is in turns funny and feisty, and proves to be a worthy adversary for Sager's smug svengali. Sager, for his part, does his best as he gleefully toys with his participants' giblets. It's all a little revolting here in 2017, especially a scene in which a metal spike is put through a woman's head while Montag roots around in her eye sockets. So, needless to say, it shocked audiences back in the day who somehow stumbled upon it by misfortune or fate, just as it will you, should you choose to settle in with it some bored, sleepless night."The Wizard of Gore" is a schlocky shocker of the highest variety. True, it's not for everyone, but Lewis was clearly onto something here. Birthing a style that Tobe Hooper would turn onto the mainstream a few years later and which Rob Zombie would... well, whatever Rob Zombie is doing these days, Lewis eschews standard film-making conventions for something more efficient, effective and downright surreal than the average exploitation fare. Don't be surprised if you find yourself needing a shower afterwards, but if nothing else, this "Wizard" does not fail to entertain.

lost-in-limbo Well, I just got through my first experience of film-maker Herschell Gordon Lewis; "The Wizard of Gore". The pioneer of gore. Quite a pleasant surprise. Still there are obvious flaws (wooden acting led by Judy Cler and drawn-out pacing could have seen certain sequences trimmed), but I was simply engaged by this seedy, crackpot, low-budget exploitation. There's a certain charm to the Grand Guignol shocks. Primitive style, but it's creatively staged and fairly unpredictable despite its outrageous, low-rent execution. Some moments had me snickering, especially that of the character's reactions to what's occurring and eye-boggling plot developments.Ray Sager's oddball turn as the subtly menacing small-time magician Montag the Magnificent is a delight. While his unconventional handy-work is a neat mix of raw blood and guts drenched with its strange sense of surrealism. Intentional or not with its strange turn of events(?)... It interestingly does blur the line, between reality and fantasy. The haphazard editing that pieces the scenes together, almost makes it feel like you're part of the illusion.

JoeB131 This movie was also released under the title, "The Mad Magician".The plot is that a cheesy magician named "Montag" performs tricks that seem to mutilate female volunteers who then mysteriously die of the very same injuries they suffered on stage. Then for no apparent reason, he steals the bodies and takes them to a mausoleum in the same cemetery...A group of reporters and cops attempt to solve the apparent mystery. Or maybe it's all a dream... In all probability, it is an opportunity to put gross special effects on the screen when the Hayes board went away and the MPAA was still trying to figure itself out.Of course, the special effects are so poor that they are laughable.

MartinHafer Although I have read countless accolades for many of the gore films of Hershell Gordon Lewis, I found the "gore" in this film to be incredibly stupid. Sure, there was a lot of fake blood--but the gore?! It often consisted of obviously fake mannequin heads and cow guts that just looked nothing like people guts. Perhaps in 1970 people thought this was realistic, but today with improved technology and an increase in the level of gore in films, this and other gore films of Lewis just seem dumb (despite their receiving a plug in the recent film, JUNO). This isn't to say every one of his films was bad...just all but 2 or perhaps 3. 'Genius' is a word way too casually used for Hershell Gordon Lewis. I prefer to use words like 'schlock-meister' or 'wizard of crap'.In this film, a stage magician specializes in gory tricks. He saws women in half or drives spikes in their heads--and yet they are just fine after the trick is complete. Oddly, hours later, they collapse--dead with injuries sustained from the tricks--as the injuries re-appear. The problem for me is that the guts are just stupid looking and the guy starring as the magician (Ray Sager) is a truly awful actor. Sager yells his lines and annunciates in a strange manner--and sports hair that looks like it was colored white using White-Out! This act comes to the attention of a local TV personality and her reporter boyfriend. She wants to book the magician on her show and later he wants to investigate him because all of his stage volunteers keep coming up dead hours later. It all culminates in a TV appearance where he tries to use his evil psychic powers on everyone in the studio AND at home! And, when it ends, the movie actually isn't quite complete. There are lots of mistakes made due to the little-known fact that Lewis is a lemur--this would explain the sloppy direction. Here are a few examples: the woman who collapses dead at a restaurant is still clearly breathing, the newspaper that you see at the 43 minute mark looks nothing like a real paper (the font and style are all wrong) and you can see the different cut and pasted portions peeling off if you pay attention.There is a tiny germ of a good story here but because the entire production is so sloppy and stupid, I can't recommend it to anyone except bad movie fans or those who actually believe that Lewis could direct. I could also see that many see this movie just as misogynistic as it's a film showing contempt for women as you see them hacked to pieces. But, considering how bad and stupid and poorly acted it all is, most who MIGHT be offended might just instead see the whole thing as a waste of time as opposed to something patently offensive.