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Wizard of Gore 2007 UR

Cripin Glover owns this movie. He’s never given a performance this full of life; he plays Montage the Magician with all the glee of a fratboy who just got the new Madden. No nervous ticks or stammering stutters that are hallmarks of his acting style; here, he’s almost normal. He’s the ultimate used car salesman working his slight of hand to get viewers to buy into what would be a lemon without him. That’s not to say the remake of THE WIZARD OF GORE is all bad, far from it, but the final 5 minutes of predictably contrived nonsense seriously undermines the prior 90 minutes of complete psychotronic headtripping that’s built around blured layers of reality. It’s been years since I’ve seen the original WOG, but I remember thinking it was just as terrible as any other H.G. Lewis film (his importance on the genre isn’t lost on me, but let’s face facts, those movies are pretty disposable – fun, but disposable). Improving upon the original shouldn’t have been hard, but casting Glover is a stoke of genius. He leads a cast that’s a veritable who’s who of the genre. The most notable of which is Jeffrey Combs, who you might not recognize under all his make-up – I didn’t.Director Jeremy Kasten utilizes these great characters to full effect in a story that’s pure 40′s pulp. While Kip Pardue is no Boggart, he wanders through the noirish visuals looking for answers like a half-derranged Sam Spade high on smack and lusting for the Suicide Girls. It’s the Suicide Girls who provide the film with its most exploitative elements, a fact spelled out by the always lovely Bijou Phillips. Montage is misogyny personified, and through the Girl’s butchered bare skin he revels in his hatred for women, or so her sentiments lead us to believe. Figuring out what’s really taking place on stage is all part of the movie’s charm.

Horror Rating: 2 out of 5 (gore lots of fake blood)

Boobies Rating: 5 out of 5