'Blood Feast' a pioneer low-budget gore film helmed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

Reviewed by Steve D. Stones

Directed in 1963 by Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Godfather of Gore), Blood Feast centers around a psychopath Egyptian immigrant named Fuad Ramses, played by Mal Arnold, who runs a food catering business in Florida. Ramses murders local beautiful women in the Miami area and uses their body parts in his meals to perform sacrifices to the ancient goddess Ishtar.

Socialite Dorothy Fremont, played by Lyn Bolton, approaches Ramses at his catering business to request catering services for her daughter Suzette's birthday party. Ramses promises a feast for the birthday party that no one will ever forget and one which has not been served for five thousand years. Mrs. Fremont is unaware that Ramses will prepare a feast with body parts of local murdered women. He intends for Fremont's daughter to be one of his next victims in the cannibalistic feast.

Meanwhile, an incompetent, chain smoking police detective named Pete Thornton, played by William Kerwin (aka Thomas Wood), is on the case of tracking down a local killer who takes body parts from his murdered victims. 

Thornton happens to be dating Suzette Fremont, played by 1963 Playboy Playmate Connie Mason. The bad chemistry between both actors is so obvious on the screen. Mason stands in a number of scenes with her arms folded while gyrating back and forth as if she's shivering from cold. In one scene, she looks directly into the camera, searching for her cue card to read her forgotten lines.

Both Mason and Kerwin will go on a year later in 1964 to star as another couple in director Lewis' – Two Thousand Maniacs. Their chemistry does not improve much in this film, but Two Thousand Maniacs is technically a much better film. The couple married in real life in 1964 and remained married until Kerwin's death in 1989.

Despite its $24,500 production budget, Blood Feast went on to earn 4 million worldwide – which is a great return on such a small investment. Blood Feast is considered the first splatter – gore film in cinema history. The film threw the motion picture industry in a panic during an era without film ratings. Drive-in movie patrons across the United States lined up for hours to see Blood Feast. Word of mouth spread quickly about the gruesome nature of the film.

Director Lewis once said Blood Feast was like a Walt Whitman poem - “It's no good, but it's the first of its kind.” Even many of the AD campaigns for Blood Feast live up to the reputation of the film. As one advertising poster states: “Nothing so Appalling in the Annals of Horror! You'll Recoil and Shudder as You Witness the Slaughter and Mutilation of Nubile Young Girls!” Most horror films could never live up to this claim. Blood Feast certainly does a hundred times over.

Many of Lewis' gore films are currently offered on Tubi streaming service – Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs (1964), Color Me Blood Red (1965), The Wizard of Gore (1970) and The Gore Gore Girls. Don't miss these great gore classics. Happy viewing this Halloween season.

The 'Gruesome Twosome' is HGL grindhouse fare!

 

By Steve D. Stones

This 1967 Herschell Gordon Lewis feature has the unique distinction of having one of the most bizarre openings in low-budget horror cinema history. After editing, the film was short in length. As filler, Lewis added two wig blocks with construction paper faces talking to each other during the opening. One of the wig blocks is stabbed as blood gushes out everywhere. Even after inserting this opening sequence, the film only runs 72 minutes.

Crazy Mrs. Pringle and her mentally challenged son Rodney run a wig shop near a Florida college campus. The wigs are advertised as 100 percent real human hair. The shop also rents vacant rooms to college co-eds. The renting of rooms is only a disguise for Pringle to lure young women to the shop so Rodney can scalp and murder them. Pringle often talks to her stuffed cat named Napoleon, adding to her craziness. \

A college girl arrives at Pringle’s wig shop to inquire about a room for rent. She is lured into a back room to be scalped by Rodney. The girl’s friend, Kathy Baker, investigates to try and find the murdered girl. During her investigation, other girls are scalped and murdered. Kathy follows a janitor home who buries bones in his backyard from a campus garbage can. She suspects he has something to do with the murders, but discovers the bones are for his dog.

A number of scenes pad out the length of the film with shots that last too long and don’t tribute to the plot of the film. An unrelated sequence of spectators watching a car race is one example. Another example is a scene of college girls in their dorm room dancing on beds in pajamas and see-through nighties while eating Kentucky Fried Chicken — an attempt at product placement. Colonel Sanders would make an appearance in Lewis’ next film — Blast Off Girls (1967).

The police eventually catch up to Mrs. Pringle and Rodney, and arrest them both. A trailer for the film shows Pringle hamming it up for the camera as the police carry her away in handcuffs.

Director Lewis often combined dark humor and horror in an attempt to make gore and over-the-top violence look silly and unsophisticated. His early “Blood Trilogy” films — Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965) are all good examples of this. Too extreme for most mainstream theatres, these films played on 42nd street grindhouses in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Blood Feast changed motion picture history forever as being the first film to introduce extreme violence and gore to the movie screen. Anyone with a weak stomach is not encouraged to view these films. See them at your own risk.

Happy viewing

A Plan9Crunch podcast -- Two Thousand Maniacs

Today, in our second podcast, Plan9Crunch cult movies expert Steve D. Stones tells us all about the wonderfully gory, deliciously comedic "Two Thousand Maniacs," Herschell Gordon Lewis' classic follow-up to "Blood Feast." The movie was made in 1964 and produced by David Friedman.

Steve’s five favorite John Waters films

By Steve D. Stones

Multiple Maniacs (1971) – The title of this black and white carny film is in reference to Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1964 cult masterpiece – Two Thousand Maniacs. Cross dresser Divine leads a group of freak show artists who perform in a show known as “Lady Divine’s Cavalcade of Perversions.” The performers kill the audience members after each performance to pick their pockets. Watch carefully for the puke eater, a bike seat licker, and a giant paper mache lobster named Lobstora.  Divine’s masturbation scene with a rosary in a church tests the limits of good taste.

Pink Flamingos (1972) – Considering what Johnny Knoxville has achieved in the Jackass movies, Pink Flamingos may not have the over-the-top shock value that it once had upon its release. It remains Waters’ most discussed film. The film concerns the life of Babs Johnson, a transvestite living in a rundown trailer in Baltimore, played by frequent Waters actor – Divine. Babs lives with her traveling companion and son, and claims to be “The Filthiest Person Alive.” She proves it at the end of the film by eating a pile of dog pooh, causing viewers to throw up whatever they had for lunch that day. A print of Pink Flamingos is archived at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Female Trouble (1973) – Many Waters fans consider this to be a sequel to Pink Flamingos. Divine is cast once again – but this time as teenage drop out Dawn Davenport. Davenport leads the stereotypical, dysfunctional, white trash lifestyle. She gets pregnant while still in high school, runs away from home for not receiving a pair of cha-cha heels for Christmas, works a few dead end jobs, and eventually commits murder. She is executed in an electric chair, but feels no remorse for her life of crime. Female Trouble may be Waters’ comment on the media’s obsession of crime and serial killers.

Desperate Living (1977) – This film was made famous by a bizarre nude scene of busty Liz Renay when she was in her late 40s. Waters steps up the poor taste and graphic violence a few notches by showing a castration scene, and nude gay men servicing pleasantly plump Edith Massey – in the role of bitchy Queen Carlotta. Waters calls this film his “monstrous fairy tale.” Cheap wooden sets were built to give the impression of a fairy tale castle. It’s all good (but not clean) fun.

Serial Mom (1994) – Ever had a neighbor who appeared to be so perfect and squeaky clean that you swore they lived an “Ozzie & Harriet” lifestyle, but later discovered they had a few skeletons in the closet? If you have, then you can relate to this film. Kathleen Turner plays the picture perfect, June Cleaver mother who hates her neighbors and is driven to murder. Once again, Waters is out to make a social comment about the news media’s obsession with serial killers and high profile court cases of celebrities – even before the O.J. Simpson trials of 1995. Waters also pays tribute to one of his director heroes – Herschell Gordon Lewis – by showing a scene of Lewis’ 1964 gore hit “Blood Feast” on a TV screen.

Happy viewing!

The Gruesome Twosome — A grindhouse film to scalp you

By Steve D. Stones

This 1967 Herschell Gordon Lewis feature has the unique distinction of having one of the most bizarre openings in low-budget horror cinema history. After editing, the film was short in length. As filler, Lewis added two wig blocks with construction paper faces talking to each other during the opening. One of the wig blocks is stabbed as blood gushes out everywhere. Even after inserting this opening sequence, the film only runs 72 minutes.

Crazy Mrs. Pringle and her mentally challenged son Rodney run a wig shop near a Florida college campus. The wigs are advertised as 100 percent real human hair. The shop also rents vacant rooms to college co-eds. The renting of rooms is only a disguise for Pringle to lure young women to the shop so Rodney can scalp and murder them. Pringle often talks to her stuffed cat named Napoleon, adding to her craziness. \

A college girl arrives at Pringle’s wig shop to inquire about a room for rent. She is lured into a back room to be scalped by Rodney. The girl’s friend, Kathy Baker, investigates to try and find the murdered girl. During her investigation, other girls are scalped and murdered. Kathy follows a janitor home who buries bones in his backyard from a campus garbage can. She suspects he has something to do with the murders, but discovers the bones are for his dog.

A number of scenes pad out the length of the film with shots that last too long and don’t tribute to the plot of the film. An unrelated sequence of spectators watching a car race is one example. Another example is a scene of college girls in their dorm room dancing on beds in pajamas and see-through nighties while eating Kentucky Fried Chicken — an attempt at product placement. Colonel Sanders would make an appearance in Lewis’ next film — Blast Off Girls (1967).

The police eventually catch up to Mrs. Pringle and Rodney, and arrest them both. A trailer for the film shows Pringle hamming it up for the camera as the police carry her away in handcuffs.

Director Lewis often combined dark humor and horror in an attempt to make gore and over-the-top violence look silly and unsophisticated. His early “Blood Trilogy” films — Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965) are all good examples of this. Too extreme for most mainstream theatres, these films played on 42nd street grindhouses in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Blood Feast changed motion picture history forever as being the first film to introduce extreme violence and gore to the movie screen. Anyone with a weak stomach is not encouraged to view these films. See them at your own risk.

Happy viewing and Happy Halloween.

Another look at Monster-A-Go-Go

By Steve Stones

I have sat through many awful films in my lifetime, but this one definitely takes the cake. Monster A Go-Go began production in the early 1960s by director Bill Rebane, who brought us The Giant Spider Invasion, then was passed on to Herschell “Godfather of Gore” Lewis in the mid-60s. The original title was: Terror At Half Day. Half Day refers to a town in Illinois. Lewis purchased the film, added filler footage and came up with the idea to release it on a double-bill with his hillbilly epic Moonshine Mountain. Lewis’ screen credit appears as Sheldon S. Seymour, a pseudonym he frequently used to give the impression that he was not the one doing most of the work on his films.

An astronaut goes up into space and crashes back to earth. A crusty face giant standing over eight feet tall emerges from a cardboard painted space capsule to terrorize the countryside. His first victims are a young couple making out in a car. He then strangles a scientist investigating the crash scene and attacks a group of young sun bathing beauties. The Chicago Fire Department later traps the giant in the city sewer. The plot is similar to First Man Into Space and The Snow Creature.

According to Scary Monsters Magazine issue #74, director Bill Rebane had been introduced to Ronald Reagan (yes, THE later to be President Reagan in downtown Chicago early in the project and suggested that Reagan star in the film. I’m glad Mr. Reagan never agreed to star in Monster A Go-Go. I can’t imagine the Carter Democrats running negative political ads on TV of Reagan starring in this film. What a disaster this would be. Thank you President Reagan for not starring in this film!

The film concludes with one of the most confusing and lame endings in the history of motion pictures. As the Chicago Fire Department traps the giant in the underground sewer, a telegram from Washington is relayed to the Chicago Police Department informing them that astronaut Frank Douglas has been found in a lifeboat alive and well on the North Atlantic Ocean. The giant is never captured, and the viewer is left wondering if the giant was a second astronaut in the capsule or was he someone who arrived from another planet. It’s a very confusing and abrupt ending.

It’s hard to recommend a film like Monster A Go-Go. The only film worse than this one is The Creeping Terror and Manos: The Hands of Fate. Still, like all Z-Grade cult films, it does improve a bit with each viewing. The plot and acting overall is really not that bad. The pacing of the film is what kills it the most. Not much footage is shown of the wandering space giant, which also hampers the film.

Although the film runs only 69 minutes total, it feels as if it runs six hours long. The end sequence showing the Chicago Fire Department seems to drag forever. Fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Bill Rebane need only apply here.

The original "The Wizard of Gore"

By Steve D. Stones

Over the years, gore specialist Herschell Gordon Lewis has not spoken fondly of his 1970 film - The Wizard of Gore. He claims he was unable to achieve the believable gore effects that he wanted in the film. His watershed gore film - Blood Feast, from 1963, broke all the rules for what was acceptable in showing extreme violence on the screen. His reputation for showing some of the most gruesome and over-the-top gore effects soon earned him the title of "The Godfather of Gore."

Blood Feast broke all the rules of tasteful entertainment in showing a woman's leg sawed off in a bath tub, a young girl's brain removed from her head, and another woman's tongue ripped out. Lewis is responsible for more sick-to-their stomach movie goers at the movie house as Russ Meyer was responsible for sexually arousing male viewers with his films at the drive-in movie circuit of the 1960s.

Like so many of Lewis' gore epics, The Wizard of Gore suffers from technical problems and strange, kitsch ridden acting, particularly from actor Ray Sager, who plays Montag The Magician in the film. Montag is not your usual dog and pony act wizard. He actually shows his illusions without any barriers blocking the audience's view.

In the opening act, he cuts off his own head with a cheap looking, cardboard guillotine. The head that rolls into a basket below the guillotine is obviously a rubber stage prop that looks nothing like actor Ray Sager, giving the viewer a taste of Lewis' tongue and cheek effects.

Next, Montag asks for volunteers from the audience to perform his gruesome illusions. The volunteers are conveniently women, and appear in a zombie-like trance. In one act, Montag saws a girl in half with a chainsaw, then pushes her innards around with his hands in extreme camera close ups. Another volunteer is punched through the stomach with a punch press. A third victim has a spike nailed through her head.

Each victim lives through the act, then later dies after leaving Montag's theater. Audience members are puzzled as to why each woman walks away from the illusions unharmed.

Lewis' next gore epic is the much less entertaining Gore Gore Girls from 1972. Lewis retired from the film business in the 1970s, and worked in the advertising industry for many years. He is now back in the director's chair directing new gore films. For further information about The Wizard of Gore and the career of Herschell Gordon Lewis, read the two very informative books: "A Taste of Blood" by Christopher Wayne Curry and "Herschell Gordon Lewis - Godfather of Gore: The Films" by Randy Palmer. Something Weird Video in Seattle, Washington has also produced a documentary about Lewis. Be sure to have a vomit bag on hand if you watch any of Lewis' gore films. Happy Viewing! (or should I say - Happy Vomiting!).

Color Me Blood Red -- '60s cinema gore!

By Steve Stones

This 1965 black comedy-horror gem is of particular interest to me, not because it is a great film, but because it involves a struggling artist who turns his career around by employing human blood as paint on his canvases. It’s the third in a “blood trilogy” directed by the infamous “Godfather of Gore” – Herschell Gordon Lewis. The other two films are – Blood Feast (1963) and Two Thousand Maniacs (1964).

The film has some similarities to Roger Corman’s 1959 black comedy – A Bucket of Blood, in which another struggling artist gains local fame by molding clay around a dead cat and victims he murders.

Artist Adam Sorg, played by Don Joseph, discovers a way to use human blood as red paint when he witnesses his girlfriend Gigi cut her finger on a nail on the back of a canvas. Soon, he stabs Gigi in the head and drains her blood in a bowl to paint with. The result is his next great masterpiece, which is quickly hailed by art critics and the local public.

Like so many struggling artists, Sorg is an eccentric loner who hates the pretentious, elitist attitudes of critics and the art world. He dismisses the praise by local critics, but continues to produce new paintings using his own blood and the blood of murdered victims.

One particular tasteless sequence in the film has Sorg tying up and disemboweling a young girl in his art studio after he has just chopped up her boyfriend in a boat chase out on the ocean. Color Me Blood Red was later followed by Gordon’s more inferior 1967 film – The Gruesome Twosome, in which an old woman running a wig shop and her mentally challenged son scalp young local college coeds of their hair as part of the wig shop business.

Something Weird Video in Seattle, Washington recently released the documentary – Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore. Watch it at your own risk. It may not be for those with weak stomachs. Enjoy!

Color Me Blood Red – A Struggling Artist Saturates His Canvases With Human Blood!

By Steve Stones

This 1965 black comedy-horror gem is of particular interest to me, not because it is a great film, but because it involves a struggling artist who turns his career around by employing human blood as paint on his canvases. It’s the third in a “blood trilogy” directed by the infamous “Godfather of Gore” – Herschell Gordon Lewis. The other two films are – Blood Feast (1963) and Two Thousand Maniacs (1964).

The film has some similarities to Roger Corman’s 1959 black comedy – A Bucket of Blood, in which another struggling artist gains local fame by molding clay around a dead cat and victims he murders.

Artist Adam Sorg, played by Don Joseph, discovers a way to use human blood as red paint when he witnesses his girlfriend Gigi cut her finger on a nail on the back of a canvas. Soon, he stabs Gigi in the head and drains her blood in a bowl to paint with. The result is his next great masterpiece, which is quickly hailed by art critics and the local public.

Like so many struggling artists, Sorg is an eccentric loner who hates the pretentious, elitist attitudes of critics and the art world. He dismisses the praise by local critics, but continues to produce new paintings using his own blood and the blood of murdered victims.

One particular tasteless sequence in the film has Sorg tying up and disemboweling a young girl in his art studio after he has just chopped up her boyfriend in a boat chase out on the ocean. Color Me Blood Red was later followed by Gordon’s more inferior 1967 film – The Gruesome Twosome, in which an old woman running a wig shop and her mentally challenged son scalp young local college coeds of their hair as part of the wig shop business.

Something Weird Video in Seattle, Washington recently released the documentary – Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore. Watch it at your own risk. It may not be for those with weak stomachs. Enjoy!

The Wizard of Gore - Marvel At Montag The Magician's Gruesome Illusions!

By Steve D. Stones

Over the years, gore specialist Herschell Gordon Lewis has not spoken fondly of his 1970 film - The Wizard of Gore. He claims he was unable to achieve the believable gore effects that he wanted in the film. His watershed gore film - Blood Feast, from 1963, broke all the rules for what was acceptable in showing extreme violence on the screen. His reputation for showing some of the most gruesome and over-the-top gore effects soon earned him the title of "The Godfather of Gore."

Blood Feast broke all the rules of tasteful entertainment in showing a woman's leg sawed off in a bath tub, a young girl's brain removed from her head, and another woman's tongue ripped out. Lewis is responsible for more sick-to-their stomach movie goers at the movie house as Russ Meyer was responsible for sexually arousing male viewers with his films at the drive-in movie circuit of the 1960s.

Like so many of Lewis' gore epics, The Wizard of Gore suffers from technical problems and strange, kitsch ridden acting, particularly from actor Ray Sager, who plays Montag The Magician in the film. Montag is not your usual dog and pony act wizard. He actually shows his illusions without any barriers blocking the audience's view.

In the opening act, he cuts off his own head with a cheap looking, cardboard guillotine. The head that rolls into a basket below the guillotine is obviously a rubber stage prop that looks nothing like actor Ray Sager, giving the viewer a taste of Lewis' tongue and cheek effects.

Next, Montag asks for volunteers from the audience to perform his gruesome illusions. The volunteers are conveniently women, and appear in a zombie-like trance. In one act, Montag saws a girl in half with a chainsaw, then pushes her innards around with his hands in extreme camera close ups. Another volunteer is punched through the stomach with a punch press. A third victim has a spike nailed through her head.

Each victim lives through the act, then later dies after leaving Montag's theater. Audience members are puzzled as to why each woman walks away from the illusions unharmed.

Lewis' next gore epic is the much less entertaining Gore Gore Girls from 1972. Lewis retired from the film business in the 1970s, and worked in the advertising industry for many years. He is now back in the director's chair directing new gore films. For further information about The Wizard of Gore and the career of Herschell Gordon Lewis, read the two very informative books: "A Taste of Blood" by Christopher Wayne Curry and "Herschell Gordon Lewis - Godfather of Gore: The Films" by Randy Palmer. Something Weird Video in Seattle, Washington has also recently produced a new documentary about Lewis. Be sure to have a vomit bag on hand if you watch any of Lewis' gore films. Happy Viewing! (or should I say - Happy Vomiting!).

MONSTER A GO-GO: Attack of The Crusty Faced Spaceman

By Steve Stones

I have sat through many awful films in my lifetime, but this one
definitely takes the cake. Monster A Go-Go began production in the early
1960s by director Bill Rebane, who brought us The Giant Spider Invasion,
then was passed on to Herschell “Godfather of Gore” Lewis in the
mid-60s. The original title was: Terror At Half Day. Half Day refers to
a town in Illinois. Lewis purchased the film, added filler footage and
came up with the idea to release it on a double-bill with his hillbilly
epic Moonshine Mountain. Lewis’ screen credit appears as Sheldon S.
Seymour, a pseudonym he frequently used to give the impression that he
was not the one doing most of the work on his films.

An astronaut goes up into space and crashes back to earth. A crusty face
giant standing over eight feet tall emerges from a cardboard painted
space capsule to terrorize the countryside. His first victims are a
young couple making out in a car. He then strangles a scientist
investigating the crash scene and attacks a group of young sun bathing
beauties. The Chicago Fire Department later traps the giant in the city
sewer. The plot is similar to First Man Into Space and The Snow
Creature.

According to Scary Monsters Magazine issue #74, director Bill Rebane had
been introduced to Ronald Reagan (yes, THE later to be President Reagan)
in downtown Chicago early in the project and suggested that Reagan star
in the film. I’m glad Mr. Reagan never agreed to star in Monster A
Go-Go. I can’t imagine the Carter Democrats running negative political
ads on TV of Reagan starring in this film. What a disaster this would
be. Thank you President Reagan for not starring in this film!

The film concludes with one of the most confusing and lame endings in
the history of motion pictures. As the Chicago Fire Department traps the
giant in the underground sewer, a telegram from Washington is relayed to
the Chicago Police Department informing them that astronaut Frank
Douglas has been found in a lifeboat alive and well on the North
Atlantic Ocean. The giant is never captured, and the viewer is left
wondering if the giant was a second astronaut in the capsule or was he
someone who arrived from another planet. It’s a very confusing and
abrupt ending.

It’s hard to recommend a film like Monster A Go-Go. The only film worse
than this one is The Creeping Terror and Manos: The Hands of Fate.
Still, like all Z-Grade cult films, it does improve a bit with each
viewing. The plot and acting overall is really not that bad. The pacing
of the film is what kills it the most. Not much footage is shown of the
wandering space giant, which also hampers the film.

Although the film runs only 69 minutes total, it feels as if it runs six hours long. The end sequence showing the Chicago Fire Department seems to drag forever. Fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis and Bill Rebane need only apply here.

All about 'Monster A Go Go'

Monster a Go Go

Monster a Go Go, 1965, starring Phil Morton and Harry Hite. Directed by Sheldon Seymour (Herschell Gordon Lewis. Film originally started by Bill Rebane. Around 80 minutes long. Film garners a * on the 10-star Schlock-Meter.

In Monster a Go Go, a once normal size spaceman emerges from his capsule. He s now 10 feet tall and deranged to boot. He apparently kills several people and generally wrecks havoc. The authorities close in on him. Just as he s about to be captured, the monster seems to vanish. A narrator solemnly explains that none of this ever happened. All is well.

Yes, Monster a Go Go is as bad a movie as the synopsis indicates. It's unwatchable except in its Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, and even then it's a tough sell. There is virtually no plot to speak of. We are taken to fields, sleazy clubs, boring living rooms, etc. We listen to a dull narrator and even duller characters talk on and on. According to some web surfers at the Internet Movie Data Base, a human ringing voice is used to dub in the ringing of a phone in a scene from Monster a Go Go. I don t remember this exact scene from my viewing, but I was so bored that it's quite likely I let that bit of comedy pass by unnoticed.

More interesting than Monster a Go Go's inane plot and execution is the story of the film itself. It's an example of the type of film released by some exploitation filmmakers. There's no effort to make a coherent story; they just want the film in the can. Then, they can make a great movie poster and drive suckers into theaters, get their cash and leave most disappointed. Directors Al Adamson and Ted V. Mikels did it to perfection in the 60s and 70s, although in fairness, a few of their films clicked.

Anyway, a guy named Bill Rebane started this film, but soon gave up. Cult film director Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs) bought up the unfinished movie, I presume added a few scenes and tacked on the title Monster a Go Go to try and cash in on the '60s youth movement. Except even Lewis couldn't put his name on this turkey. He used the pseudonym Sheldon Seymour. Avoid it like the plague.

-- Doug Gibson

Review: Two Thousand Maniacs

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS

(This review was originally published in The Standard-Examiner newspaper)

"Two Thousand Maniacs." Directed in 1964 by "The Godfather of Gore," Herschell Gordon Lewis, who gave us such cult favorites as "Blood Feast," "Color Me Blood Red" and "The Gruesome Twosome." This film is appealing to me because it is a reworking of "Brigadoon," and has a charming "backwoods," hillbilly flavor to it that is very fun to watch.

A small ghost town in St. Cloud, Fla., comes to life to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War. The town diverts a carload of Northern tourists to the town to include them in a series of gruesome festivities, such as a man placed in a rolling barrel spiked with nails, a woman tied down to a bull's-eye target with a giant boulder hanging above her, and a young man tied to two horses that pull his body in two directions.

The musical performances add to the Southern hillbilly tone of the film. The film also inspired cult director John Waters' 1970 film "Multiple Maniacs," and is said to have inspired the name of the pop-rock band 10,000 Maniacs.

-- Steve Stones