Shock and Gore / The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast

[swo17]

It actually seems like it's being bought up by scalpers, as they're disappearing five at a time

The listing does specifically say "Strictly limited to 1 copy per person" but who knows how they're enforcing that. Either way, they'll all be gone in another 10 minutes.

[Ribs]

You can just add 15 to your cart so I get the impression they may go back and cancel orders to the same address/from the same account. Hopefully, anyway.

(I wouldn't be surprised if it amounted to like half the sold copies popping back on the store, to be honest)

[swo17]

Well that's your only hope, because the US allocation has entirely run out for now. Still 300 copies left for the victims of Brexit.

[domino harvey]

Perfectly reasonable that people bought copies after they got off work. A set like this is an instant double or more profit for anyone who wants to scalp it, but this isn't Mondo Tees here, they were available all day to any US buyer. They just sold out, as was surely expected

[Chris Stangl]

Personally I'd be all over this no matter what, but really wasn't expecting SCUM OF THE EARTH! (personal favorite). And HOW TO MAKE A DOLL. On Blu-ray. There are not words for this. Anyway.

For those keeping score, this leaves the following 5 Lewis pictures available only on Something Weird Video/Image Special Edition DVD:
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BARES (1963)
MONSTER A GO-GO (1965)
BLAST-OFF GIRLS (1967)
THE ALLEY TRAMP (1968)
YEAR OF THE YAHOO! (1972)

13 are available only via SWV DVD-R (the Lewis/Friedman produced PRIME TIME also available from other PD specialists):
THE PRIME TIME (1959)
THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY PIERRE (1961)
LIVING VENUS (1962)
DAUGHTER OF THE SUN (1962)
NATURE'S PLAYMATES (1962)
BELL, BARE AND BEAUTIFUL (1963)
BOIN-N-G (1963)
SIN, SUFFER AND REPENT (1965)
JIMMY, THE BOY WONDER (1966)
THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE (1967)
THE GIRL, THE BODY, AND THE PILL (1967)
SUBURBAN ROULETTE (1968)
MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN (1970)

[kwippleton]

Personally I'd be all over this no matter what, but really wasn't expecting SCUM OF THE EARTH! (personal favorite). And HOW TO MAKE A DOLL. On Blu-ray. There are not words for this. Anyway.

For those keeping score, this leaves the following 5 Lewis pictures available only on Something Weird Video/Image Special Edition DVD:
GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BARES (1963)
MONSTER A GO-GO (1965)
BLAST-OFF GIRLS (1967)
THE ALLEY TRAMP (1968)
YEAR OF THE YAHOO! (1972)

13 are available only via SWV DVD-R (the Lewis/Friedman produced PRIME TIME also available from other PD specialists):
THE PRIME TIME (1959)
THE ADVENTURES OF LUCKY PIERRE (1961)
LIVING VENUS (1962)
DAUGHTER OF THE SUN (1962)
NATURE'S PLAYMATES (1962)
BELL, BARE AND BEAUTIFUL (1963)
BOIN-N-G (1963)
SIN, SUFFER AND REPENT (1965)
JIMMY, THE BOY WONDER (1966)
THE MAGIC LAND OF MOTHER GOOSE (1967)
THE GIRL, THE BODY, AND THE PILL (1967)
SUBURBAN ROULETTE (1968)
MISS NYMPHET'S ZAP-IN (1970)

Really hope that the quick sell-out paves the way for some of these other films to be restored and released. Interesting how the box set has featurettes about the sexploitation movies and Jimmy, The Boy Wonder, but not the actual movies themselves.

Super excited for this box set! Would be nice to get some other Doris Wishman and Ray Dennis Steckler titles in HD as well.

[Chris Stangl]

On one hand the titles still awaiting HD release comprise a sort of concise tour through neglected exploitation subgenera (nudie cutie, naturism, fallen girl, kiddie matinee, post sexual revolution/suburban swinger, etc.) However: ALLEY TRAMP, LIVING VENUS, BLAST-OFF GIRLS, and SUBURBAN ROULETTE are the best of these; the rest would likely/reasonably be considered barrel-scraping by Arrow's customer base (and it sounds like Shock & Gore is pushing it already). Ten minutes with even the best nudist camp picture and, well, one comes to understand just how narrow the Something Weird niche becomes the deeper one ventures.

[swo17]

Amazon US preorder is up for $230

[Werewolf by Night]

link

[criterion10]

How does The Wizard of Gore compare to the other films in this box set? I watched it the other night to get an idea of HGL's style, and I suppose the best way to describe it would be to imagine a John Waters attempt at a splatter film -- with all of the subversion and enjoyment/glee/humor of his trashy, pre-Hairspray works sucked out of it. The film is only tolerable when Montag is on screen, and even those moments are so poorly directed and paced, that I thought the film was nearing its end when I had barely approached the halfway mark.

If I continue, Blood Feast and The Gore Gore Girls are on the radar to watch next, but I'd be interested to hear any thoughts from both fans and detractors.

[swo17]

Haven't seen that one, but I did watch the rest of the Blood trilogy over the weekend. Blood Feast isn't anything special really but Two Thousand Maniacs is kind of incredible in its way. What Lewis lacks in formal skills he makes up for here in ideas. Even just the premise (an entire Southern town invites some Northerners down to ritually murder them in "celebration" of the centennial of the Civil War) is bold enough but the means by which the townspeople choose to dispatch their guests grow more inventive and delicious as the film progresses. It's a good film made poorly, which I vastly prefer to a lousy film that's technically well made.

[Werewolf by Night]

I haven't seen everything he made, but Two Thousand Maniacs is definitely Lewis at his early best. If you see that and can appreciate it, seek out more. If that movie doesn't do it for you, this set is not for you.

Blood Feast is fun, but it's Lewis just warming his engine. It's been over 20 years since I've seen Wizard of Gore; I remember almost nothing about it.

[swo17]

The Shock and Gore set is all sold out now, but you can join a waitlist.

[domino harvey]

The automatic board ad for Cascade in this thread is pretty great

[Le Samouraï]

Does anyone know whether the book by Stephen Thrower, included in the limited-limited Shock and Gore edition, is a new text, or just an expanded or rewritten version of his text on Lewis in Nightmare USA (or elsewhere)?

[Alphonse Tram]

I'd imagine it is new, or at least much expanded, as in the Nightmare USA book he only writes about Lewis over two pages in the introduction section.

[tenia]

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... tcount=147" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

According to my Facebook friend Tim Lucas it is done special for the box.

[swo17]

That post is wrong though about the alternate presentations only being on Blu-ray in the deluxe set.

[tenia]

That post is wrong though about the alternate presentations only being on Blu-ray in the deluxe set.

Yes indeed, I answered him there to correct this.

[Le Samouraï]

http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p ... tcount=147

According to my Facebook friend Tim Lucas it is done special for the box.

I know, I was the one who asked about it on blu-ray.com.

He wrote that Tim said it in his FB feed, and all I can really find by Tim about the Thrower book there is this tiny bit:

That exclusive Stephen Thrower book really twists the knife, dunnit!?

Not really a confirmation of anything, as far as I can see.

[cdnchris]

Haven't seen that one, but I did watch the rest of the Blood trilogy over the weekend. Blood Feast isn't anything special really but Two Thousand Maniacs is kind of incredible in its way. What Lewis lacks in formal skills he makes up for here in ideas. Even just the premise (an entire Southern town invites some Northerners down to ritually murder them in "celebration" of the centennial of the Civil War) is bold enough but the means by which the townspeople choose to dispatch their guests grow more inventive and delicious as the film progresses. It's a good film made poorly, which I vastly prefer to a lousy film that's technically well made.

I'm making my way through this set now. It's far more fun than the American Horror Project (oh my God, I still like the idea of those sets, but those films!) but 2000 Maniacs! was what may have won me over. It is poorly made. So poorly made: shots that run on too long, horrible pacing, bad framing (though I haven't looked at the 1.33:1 version yet), awkward cuts, and focus! Oh my God, focus!

But like you said it's a good idea and it works in that regard. Also, despite the rough nature it's still fun, and it even managed to surprise me a bit at the end there.

Color Me Blood Red is also pretty crazy, but the one that also surprised me was Scum of the Earth! Also rough (oh so rough, all of his films have these scenes that just keep going!) but there was something about it and the path it went was surprising.

Really didn't care for Blood Feast. It's "story" couldn't overcome it's general incompetence in other areas and I honestly wondered if I could make it through this thing based on that but so far I'm glad I stuck with it. Once you get into the groove they're oddly entertaining.

[kwippleton]

Haven't seen that one, but I did watch the rest of the Blood trilogy over the weekend. Blood Feast isn't anything special really but Two Thousand Maniacs is kind of incredible in its way. What Lewis lacks in formal skills he makes up for here in ideas. Even just the premise (an entire Southern town invites some Northerners down to ritually murder them in "celebration" of the centennial of the Civil War) is bold enough but the means by which the townspeople choose to dispatch their guests grow more inventive and delicious as the film progresses. It's a good film made poorly, which I vastly prefer to a lousy film that's technically well made.

I'm making my way through this set now. It's far more fun than the American Horror Project (oh my God, I still like the idea of those sets, but those films!) but 2000 Maniacs! was what may have won me over. It is poorly made. So poorly made: shots that run on too long, horrible pacing, bad framing (though I haven't looked at the 1.33:1 version yet), awkward cuts, and focus! Oh my God, focus!

But like you said it's a good idea and it works in that regard. Also, despite the rough nature it's still fun, and it even managed to surprise me a bit at the end there.

Color Me Blood Red is also pretty crazy, but the one that also surprised me was Scum of the Earth! Also rough (oh so rough, all of his films have these scenes that just keep going!) but there was something about it and the path it went was surprising.

Really didn't care for Blood Feast. It's "story" couldn't overcome it's general incompetence in other areas and I honestly wondered if I could make it through this thing based on that but so far I'm glad I stuck with it. Once you get into the groove they're oddly entertaining.

How are the restorations?

I think my local video store is getting their copies later this week - can't wait to dig into this set!

[cdnchris]

I'm 6 films in and I'm fairly impressed but there are limitations. The digital presentations themselves are solid, though.

Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red look shockingly good. Colours can look off and blacks can be crushed, but the restorations are thorough, just some minor issues remain.

2000 Maniacs! shows more damage and comes from multiple sources. Arrow also had to use a standard definition source from Something Weird Video to fill in a few gaps. There is one long sequence at the camp fire that uses this but the rest, limited mostly to the first half, are quick inserts. Moonshine Mountain does this to an extent as well, but it's mostly sourced from badly degraded film prints and it literally jumps back and forth between these sources and the changes are obvious. The damage is so bad, though, I somehow doubt any restoration could have been done without making the image look like a digital mess.

Something Weird is also heavily damaged but according to notes it was the best they could do. Scum is decent enough. Damage is still pretty consistent and there is a bad flicker but it's still decent enough.

I again have to stress that any issues are really source related and I really doubt much more could have been done than what they've already done. The digital presentations themselves are all quite good and don't exasperate any problems. They look like film presentations and detail is strong (you know, when the camera is actually in focus).

[knives]

Glad I'm not the only one who finds Blood Feast (one) of his weakest. It's a nice proto-slasher premise, but lacks the weird Corman hillbilly charm that his other films have.

[Orlac]

Of the ones I've seen so far, Blood Feast was a fascinating Grand Guignol sleaze fest, I didn't really get Two Thousand Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red was rather dull.