The Herschell Gordon Lewis FEAST
In 1963, director Herschell Gordon Lewis pulled a cow’s tongue out of an actress’ mouth on camera, and in doing so, changed the landscape of horror cinema forever. That sequence was just one of numerous gruesome gags featured in Blood Feast, the film credited as being the world’s first gore movie. It’s no exaggeration to say that the modern gross-out movies of today owe their very existence to the pioneering efforts of H.G. Lewis.
But whilst Lewis is most widely celebrated for his blood-and-guts epics (Two Thousand Maniacs!, The Wizard of Gore et al.), there’s more to the prolific director than splatter. From tales of sordid photographers (Scum of the Earth) to sex robots (How to Make a Doll), from biker girl-gangs (She-Devils on Wheels) to youths-run-amok (Just for the Hell of It), and from psychic witches (Something Weird) to hard liquor-loving hillbillies (Moonshine Mountain), the filmography of H.G. Lewis reads like a veritable wish-list of exploitation movie madness.
Now, FEAST gets the ARROW treatment and we are proud to present fourteen of the Godfather of Gore’s most essential films, collected together at last and packed full of eye-popping bonus content. So put your feet up, pour yourself a glass of good ol’ moonshine, and prepare yourself for a feast – H.G. Lewis style!
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Blood Feast
1963 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
The filmography of late movie maverick Herschell Gordon Lewis brims with the mad, macabre, and just downright bizarre. But perhaps the most unhinged of all his directorial efforts, and certainly the most influential, must surely be his or...
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Scum of the Earth
From the shadows of the sordid haunts... they slither like predatory beasts to stalk their prey! A young college co-ed, Kim Sherwood, naively agrees to pose for some glamour shots to earn a quick buck towards her tuition. But when the sleazy photographer begins to blackmail her into taking more a...
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Two Thousand Maniacs
1964 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
The American Civil War may long be over, but the supernatural residents of small Southern town Pleasant Valley won't soon forget. When a group of Yankee tourists take a detour and wind up in the town - which has magically re-materialized ...
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Moonshine Mountain
1964 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
White Lightnin' flows jes' like water on Moonshine Mountain! Country singer Doug Martin returns home to the beautiful Carolina hills to capture back his Southern spirit, but a murder soon shakes this small community-and their precious Whi...
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Something Weird
1967 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
An extraordinary journey into the unknown awaits you. The unimaginably weird, dark universe of ESP—extra-sensory perception—crashes into the mysterious depths of black witchcraft in a strange and mysterious motion picture unlike any you'v...
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The Gruesome Twosome
After dabbling in the unlikely world of children's entertainment with the likes of Jimmy, the Boy Wonder and The Magic Land of Mother Goose, in 1967 Godfather of Gore Herschell Gordon Lewis returned to genre he helped create with the delightfully depraved The Gruesome Twosome! The young women of ...
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A Taste Of Blood
Businessman John Stone receives a mysterious package from Europe containing an unusual gift from his ancestors - two aged bottles of plum brandy. No sooner has he drunk both bottles than he transforms into a bloodsucking vampire, setting out to wreak vengeance on those who have wronged his bloodl...
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How to Make a Doll
The young, gifted university professor Dr. Percy Corley has no trouble explaining the relationship between x and y, but in matters of love, the relationship between b and g remains a puzzling mystery! That is, until his trusted colleague, Dr. Hamilcar West, completes work on his supercomputer wit...
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The Wizard of Gore
Behold, the great Montag the Magnificent! His fiendish magic tricks will make you shiver with fear and recoil in disgust. But are his gruesome on-stage antics - which entail the graphic slicing-and-dicing of nubile young woman with various implements - really just simple sleight-of-hand, or is so...
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This Stuff'll Kill Ya!
1971 • United States • Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
In a Deep Southern town, local parishioners congregate to hear the words of the enigmatic and eccentric Rev. Roscoe Boone...and to get a taste of his Holy Moonshine! But as a string of strange and gruesome murders bring some no-nonsense f...
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The Gore Gore Girls
1972 ･ United States ･ Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
A vicious killer with more than just a little sense of (albeit, twisted) humour is butchering the girls of a saucy go-go dancing club. As the grim death toll mounts, young female reporter Nancy Weston teams up with impossibly obnoxious pr...
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Blood Perspectives
Filmmakers Nicholas McCarthy (Director of The Pact) and Rodney Ascher (Director of Room 237 & The El Duce Tapes) discuss H.G, Lewis' BLOOD FEAST.
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Hershell's History
An interview with the Godfather of Gore himself where he discusses his entry into the film industry.
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Regional Bloodshed
Filmmakers Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Easy) and Spencer Parsons discuss the Midwestern roots and work ethic of Lewis’ output and how The Gore Gore Girls represents the shift into transgressive ’70s cinema that would dominate the American horror landscape
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Hicksploitation: Confidential
Hickspoitation: Confidential – a visual essay on the depiction of the American South in exploitation cinema
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Two Thousand Maniacs Can't Be Wrong
Two Thousand Maniacs Can't be Wrong – filmmaker Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs) discusses H.G. Lewis’ gore classic 'Two Thousand Maniacs'.
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David F. Friedman - The Gentlemen's Smut Peddler
A tribute to the legendary producer, David F. Friedman, featuring Herschell Gordon Lewis, filmmakers Fred Olen Ray, Tim Sullivan and Bob Murawski
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Montag Speaks
A brand new interview with Wizard of Gore actor Ray Sager
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The Art of Madness: Artists As Murderers In Film
The Art of Madness – visual essay on the recurring motif of mad artists as killers in horror cinema
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The Gore The Merrier
The Gore The Merrier – an interview with Jeremy Kasten, director of the 2007 Wizard of Gore remake
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Stephen Thrower on The Wizard of Gore
Celebrated author Stephen Thrower discusses The Wizard of Gore
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Stephen Thrower on The Gore Gore Girls
Author Stephen Thrower discusses The Gore Gore Girls
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A Hot Night at the Go Go Lounge!
A short dance film by Herschell Gordon Lewis from 1966.
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Weirdsville with Jeffrey Sconce
Film Scholar Jeffrey Sconce on H.G. Lewis' Something Weird
