This just sounds... wild. And with Crispin involved, I know I’m going to end up seeing it.
I noticed you guys at AICN hadn't anything up on the new WIZARD OF GORE, so I humbly submit this. No real spoilers that I can see.
I went to the 10 PM Thursday L.A. Film Festival screening of THE WIZARD OF GORE, shown at the brand-spanking-new Landmark Cinema on Pico and Westwood.
I didn't expect a lot from a remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' THE WIZARD OF GORE. What I got, though, was sweet little drug-addled noir that deconstructs H.G.L, mixes his ouevre with D.O.A. and Phillip K. Dick and comes out with a magician flick that rivals THE PRESTIGE and THE ILLUSIONIST on a shitload of levels. The ending also makes more sense than THE PRESTIGE's, which is saying something considering the source material.
Lewis's original film, released in 1970, is about a magician who uses his hypnotic powers to create a bloodspattered gorefest both on stage and off. Over-the-top cinema bloodshed on H.G.L.'s level was rare back in the day, and he combined it with a cruel sense of humor, truly bad acting and miniscule production values to make some of the most hilarious cult films ever seen. The original's still worth a look, and check out 2000 MANIACS and BLOOD FEAST as well.
Armed with a couple of major actors, director Jeremy Kasten and writer Zach Chessler took Lewis' original premise and put it in the context of L A.'s art-hipster, pseudo-decadent club scene, setting the magic show in an abandoned theater that looks like something out of THE ROAD WARRIOR. The hero's a guy who runs an alternative newpaper that he prints himself on an ancient cold type printing press -- the film's opening shots show him covered in gore, clumsily hand-setting the type for his final issue. He's also one of those annoying retro-assholes who spends his trust fund on vintage clothes, cars and furniture so he can look like someone out of Raymond Chandler. Once you accept that, you can start to like him.
The gore's there, and it's really good, but Kasten doesn't seem to be trying to top the original WIZARD. Instead he sexes up the show. Crispin Glover plays the Wiz like Liberace gone wild, wearing a codpiece the size of a compact car, and the film features several of the Suicide Girls in the key victim roles. If you're into naked scrawny girls with tattoos - and who reading this.is not? - then this is the movie is for you. Hollywood locals will also dig the constant referencing of Jumbo's Clown Room, once classically described as "the place to go if you like your strippers with no teeth"
Crispin Glover is awesome as "Montag the Magnificent", the titular Wiz, and Brad Dourif is brilliant as the mysterious "Dr. Chong". Kip Pardue is more than adequate as the retro-protagonist, and Bijou Phillips is decent as his girl friend. It would have helped her performance, however, if she'd gotten naked like the rest of the ladies when it was her turn to "assist" Montag. IŠ erŠmean this in a dramatic logic sense. Since everyone else stripped down, it didn't ring true that she didn't. Technically, there's also a guy who shouldn't have stopped at his underwear, but I don't think showing his weenie would have helped the picture much.
Kasten's use of downtown L.A. locations is really terrific, in particular the sleazy motel that's the setting for the underground party scenes. At the Q&A after the screening, he and his producer refused to say what the final budget was, saying only that it was well over the $150K they'd originally planned on. Whatever it was, they got a lot for their money.
WIZARD did well enough at LAFF that a third screening was added, and the filmmakers hinted at deals in the works for a possible theatrical release. It's a great film and well deserves a crack at the mainstream audience. In the meantime, I recommend you seek it out on the festival circuit.
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