I cannot recall the last Herschell Gordon Lewis movie that I watched, but I know it has been a while. I have only seen a few films from the “godfather of gore”, despite having the huge boxset from Arrow Video that I had to make time to order while on holiday in Croatia, but each one has been an experience, in one way or another. The Gore Gore Girls can now be marked off the list, and was certainly . . . an experience.
Amy Farrell plays Nancy Weston, a journalist who is given permission to hire the skilled Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress). A number of go-go girls have been viciously murdered and Gentry could well be the private eye to crack the case. He’s a modern day Sherlock Holmes, with a lot more sexism and unnecessary sneering. As these two try to narrow down a list of suspects, the murderer keeps murdering, which allows Lewis to showcase some of his typically excessive gore moments.
As surprising as it may seem, there were a couple of moments in this film that actually turned my stomach. Lewis may have been working with fairly amateur actors, and he may rarely have managed to acquire a budget larger than my own measly amount of savings, but he could always enhance his gore gags with squelchy sound effects and an unnerving camera that stays focused on the ruination and disfigurement of faces and body parts. It doesn’t always work, but when it does . . . ooft.
The script by Alan J. Dachman (his only film work, as far as I can see) isn’t good, and falls apart spectacularly in a finale that feels as rushed as it is underwhelming. The character of Gentry is almost constantly irritating, and there’s absolutely no chemistry created between the two leads. The only highlights are the gory kills, but they are good enough to at least particularly make up for the failings elsewhere. And people do watch these movies for the gory kills.
Farrell and Kress are, well, they are in line with almost every actor that Lewis has placed in a leading role. Which is a nice way of saying that they’re certainly not up there with the greats. Hedda Lubin has fun as a catty bar waitress named Marlene though, and there’s a small role for Henny Youngman that at least adds one vaguely familiar face (at the time) to the cast.
To try to say any more about this film would be redundant. It isn’t good, not when you judge it by the criteria used to critique standard movies, but it’s one for fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis. And that is about the best you can hope for from a Herschell Gordon Lewis movie.
5/10
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