‘Nothing has ever stripped your nerves as screamingly raw as’
The Gore Gore Girls is a 1972 American ‘splatter’ horror film produced and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis (The Wizard of Gore; Two Thousand Maniacs!; Blood Feast; et al). It was Lewis’ final film for the next thirty years and is one of his most infamous productions due to accusations of intentionally provocative tongue-in-cheek misogyny. The movie stars Frank Kress, Amy Farrell, Heda Lubin and Henry Youngman.
Plot:
Nancy Weston (Amy Farrell), a reporter for The Globe, approaches Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress), an obnoxious private investigator, and offers him $25,000 on behalf of The Globe to investigate the brutal murder of exotic dancer Suzie Cream Puff (Jackie Kroeger). She sweetens the deal with a $25,000 bonus for solving the case. Of course, this comes contingent that The Globe gets the exclusive story.
Gentry takes the case and begins the investigation of the murder with Weston in tow. When at the club, Gentry encounters a waitress, Marlene (Hedda Lubin), whose obnoxiousness rivals his. He gets through her to speak to another exotic dancer and gets his first suspect, Joseph Carter.
Soon, another stripper, Candy Cane, gets murdered and Gentry expands his suspect list to Grout (Ray Sager, who had played Montag the Magnificent in The Wizard of Gore and went to produce American Nightmare), an unstable veteran who takes pride in crushing the heads of corpses he found when on the battlefields of Vietnam. He relieves tension by drawing faces on squashes and tomatoes and then crushing them with his bare hands.
Gentry also suspects the leader of a radical feminist group that riots in the exotic dancing club, carrying banners with phrases such as “Lewd is Crude”. Pickles, another exotic dancer, is murdered. A badge with “Women Right On!” is found at the scene…
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High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Bonus Feature! This Stuff’ll Kill Ya!
Introductions to the films by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Audio commentary on The Gore Gore Girls with Herschell Gordon Lewis
Audio commentary on This Stuff’ll Kill Ya! with camera operator and Lewis biographer Daniel Krogh
Author and Movies & Mania contributor Stephen Thrower (Nightmare USA) on The Gore Gore Girls
Regional Bloodshed – filmmakers Joe Swanberg and Spencer Parsons on Lewis’ legacy as a pioneer of regional indie filmmaking
Herschell Spills His Guts – H.G. Lewis discusses his career post-The Gore Gore Girls and his further adventures in the world of marketing
This Stuff’ll Kill Ya! trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil
Reviews:
“From its jittery opening jazz theme to its chaotic conclusion, The Gore Gore Girls is a blast: it has an amusing script, loveable lead actors, insanely catchy rock ‘n’ roll instrumentals, burlesque atmosphere, bizarre guest-spots (Henny Youngman??) and more sadism and mutilation than you can shake a severed leg at.” Stephen Thrower, Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents
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” … irreverent humor, odd camera tricks, gruesome effects, and broad characterization to produce a hilarious, hallucinatory, and horrific cinematic experience … Throw in a little nudity (this is a film about a killer who targets strippers, remember), some blatantly bad jokes, some marvelous under- and over-acting by the cast, and you have a truly original, disgusting diversion.” Pop Matters
“The Gore Gore Girls is Lewis’ best film, full stop. While not one of his “masterpieces” that he will go down in history for, this is the one that really pushes the exploitation genre to its peak: crushed brains, eyeballs pulled out, and lots of stripping.” Gavin Schmitt, Hidden Horrors: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks
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“When it comes to the gore, Lewis doesn’t hold back at all. As I stated before a girl is repeatedly stabbed in the face and has her flesh ripped off and the meat tenderizer scene is the highlight; a girl has her throat slit and then an iron pressed against her face and if things couldn’t get any worse she even has her nipples cut and milk pours out (yes, you read that right).” Last Road Reviews
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“It’s filthy, unpolished, amateurish and offensive. In other words, it’s bloody amazing. With moments that have me scrunching my face up in disapproval and jokes in such bad taste that my skin crawls, films don’t get much cruder than this. Admittedly, the scenes between the death scenes are excruciatingly boring at times. The film drags terribly towards the end. But the nasty gore and creative dispatching ensures that The Gore Gore Girls is a true horror classic of the early 70s.” Mondo Exploito
“The Gore Gore Girls is unquestionably his most vicious film. The effects and directing are just as amateurish as they were in Blood Feast, but there’s an extra veneer of sleaze that makes it, depending on your sensibilities either that much more unpalatable or that much more enjoyable.” Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons
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” … The Gore Gore Girls incorporates almost every ingredient that makes a Lewis picture so endearing. He recapped his ‘nudie years’, interjected a more than generous amount of humor and made damn sure that no one would out-gore him for years to come.”
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