Herschell Gordon Lewis (born 15 June 1929, in
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
,
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmmaker, best known for creating the "
splatter filmFor the film in production called Splatter, see Splatter .A splatter film or gore film is a sub-genre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence...
" subgenre of
horrorHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore" (a title also given to Italian director
Lucio FulciLucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombi 2 and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
) though his film career included works in a range of
exploitation filmExploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. Thus, films need something to "exploit", such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
genres including juvenile delinquent films, nudie-cuties, two children's films and at least one rural comedy.
Lewis served as producer only on his first film venture,
The Prime Time (1960), which was the first feature film produced in Chicago since the late 1910s.
Herschell Gordon Lewis (born 15 June 1929, in
Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the second largest city in the state. Its population was 334,563 at the 2000 census; by 2006, it was estimated to have fallen to 312,819. The population of the seven-county metropolitan area is...
,
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
filmmaker, best known for creating the "
splatter filmFor the film in production called Splatter, see Splatter .A splatter film or gore film is a sub-genre of horror film that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of gore and graphic violence...
" subgenre of
horrorHorror films are movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, horror and terror from viewers. Their plots frequently involve themes of death, the supernatural or mental illness...
. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore" (a title also given to Italian director
Lucio FulciLucio Fulci was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is perhaps best known for his directorial work on gore films, including Zombi 2 and The Beyond , although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western, and comedy...
) though his film career included works in a range of
exploitation filmExploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. Thus, films need something to "exploit", such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
genres including juvenile delinquent films, nudie-cuties, two children's films and at least one rural comedy.
Early career
Lewis served as producer only on his first film venture,
The Prime Time (1960), which was the first feature film produced in Chicago since the late 1910s. He would assume directing duties on nearly all of his films from then on. His first in a lengthy series of collaborations with exploitation producer
David F. FriedmanDavid F. Friedman is an American filmmaker and film producer from Birmingham, Alabama.Friedman first became interested in entertainment after spending parts of his childhood at traveling carnival sites. He met exploitation film pioneer Kroger Babb during his stay in the Army. This encounter got...
,
Living Venus (1961), was a fictitious account based on the story of
Hugh HefnerHugh Marston Hefner , sometimes known simply as Hef, is an American magazine publisher, founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises...
and the beginnings of
PlayboyPlayboy is an American men's magazine, founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with a presence in nearly every medium. Playboy is one of the world's best...
.
The two continued with a series of erotic films in the early 1960s. These films marked the beginning of a deliberate approach to filmmaking which each respective party would continue through their production careers- films made solely with the intention of turning a profit. Typical of these nudies were the screwball comedies
B-O-I-N-G! (1963) and
The Adventures of Lucky PierreThe Adventures of Lucky Pierre is a 1961 nudie cutie sexploitation film created by exploitation filmmakers Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman. The first of its kind to be filmed in color, the film starred comedian Billy Falbo...
(1961), a film made for a shoestring budget of $7,500 which would become the duo's first great financial success. Because film restrictions had not yet allowed for sexual depictions in films, the bulk of Lewis and Friedman's early work consisted of nudist camp features like
Goldilocks and The Three BaresGoldilocks and The Three Bares is the thought-to-be-lost second to last nudie-cutie from the legendary exploitation team of Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman. The title can be misleading; the plotline has absolutely nothing to do with the famous fable which inspired the title...
(1963), which appropriately billed itself as "the first (and to date the only) nudist musical".
With the nudie market beginning to wane, Lewis and Friedman entered into uncharted territory with 1963's seminal
Blood FeastBlood Feast is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, often considered the first "splatter film". It was produced by David F. Friedman. This movie today would receive an R rating for violence and blood and gore...
, considered by most critics to be the first "gore" film. Because of the unprecedented nature of this type of film, they were able to cater to the
drive-in theaterA drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. The screen can be as simple as a wall that is painted white, or it can be a complex steel truss structure with a complex finish...
market which would have been inaccessible with their prior skin flicks.
Two Thousand Maniacs!Two Thousand Maniacs! is a low budget 1964 splatter film directed and written by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is the second part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy," including Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red...
(1964) and
Color Me Blood RedColor Me Blood Red is a low budget 1965 horror film directed and written by Herschell Gordon Lewis. Color Me Blood Red is the third part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy", including Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs! .-Film synopsis:An eccentric artist is criticized by...
(1965) followed the same formula. The full-color gore on display in these films caused a sensation, with horror film-makers throughout the world becoming eager to saturate their productions with similarly shocking visual effects.
Lewis stopped working with Friedman after making
Color Me Blood Red (1965), but continued to make further gore films into the 1970s. His next gore entry wouldn't come until 1967, with
A Taste of Blood, often referred to as the "
Gone with the WindGone with the Wind is a 1939 American drama romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name and directed by Victor Fleming...
of Gore" due to its relatively lengthy running time of nearly two hours. The following year would bring a more extreme take on the genre,
The Gruesome Twosome (1967), most notable for incorporating an electric knife used to scalp one of the victims. Lewis's third gore phase served to push the genre into even more outrageous shock territory.
The Wizard of GoreThe Wizard of Gore is a 1970 film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It stars Ray Sager and Judy Cler. It was filmed in Chicago during 1968, but not released until October 23, 1970...
(1970) featured a stage magician who would mutilate his volunteers severely through a series of merciless routines. By 1973, Lewis had taken the gore approach to such a limit that it began to lampoon itself, which is why
The Gore Gore GirlsThe Gore Gore Girls is a 1972 horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It was his final film for the next 30 years, and is particularly infamous for its scene of chocolate milk produced when the nipple of a woman is severed.-Plot:...
(featuring an appearance by
Henny YoungmanHenry "Henny" Youngman was a British-born comedian and violinist famous for "one-liners," short, simple jokes usually delivered rapid-fire...
as the owner of a topless club) would mark his semi-retirement from film altogether. He decided to leave the industry to work in
copywritingCopywriting is the use of words to promote a person, business, opinion or idea. Although the word copy may be applied to any content intended for printing , the term copywriter is generally limited to such promotional situations, regardless of media...
and
direct marketingDirect marketing is a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media...
, a subject on which he published several books in the 1980s. He returned to directing in 2002 with the straight-to-video
Blood Feast 2: All U Can EatBlood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, also known as Blood Feast 2: Buffet of Blood is an exploitation-style splatter film. Written by W. Boyd Ford and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, it released in 2002, and is the sequel to Lewis's cult classic film Blood Feast...
.
Always resourceful despite the low budgets he worked with, Lewis purchased the rights to an unfinished film and completed it himself, re-titling the film
Monster A Go-GoMonster A Go-Go, also released as Monster A-Go Go and Terror at Halfday is a 1965 science fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis .- Production :...
(1965). Many years later, the film gained notoriety after being shown on the
Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc...
television show. Lewis would repeat this formula when he acquired a gritty psychological piece called
The Vortex and released it as
Stick It In Your Ear (1970) to be shown as a second feature to
The Wizard of GoreThe Wizard of Gore is a 1970 film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It stars Ray Sager and Judy Cler. It was filmed in Chicago during 1968, but not released until October 23, 1970...
. This approach demonstrated Lewis's business savvy; by owning the rights to both features, he knew he would not get fleeced by theaters juggling the box office returns, a common practice at that time.
Outside his notorious gore canon, Lewis pursued a wide gamut of other exploitation avenues throughout the sixties. Some of the more taboo subjects he explored include
juvenile delinquencyJuvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not all of which can be applied to the...
(
Just For The Hell Of It, 1968), wife swapping (
Suburban Roulette, 1968), the corruption of the music industry (
Blast-Off GirlsBlast-Off Girls is a 1967 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.- Plot :In Herschell Gordon Lewis's take on A Hard Day's Night meets Wild Guitar, a ruthless and greedy talent manager named Boojie Baker "discovers" then exploits unknown rock bands...
, 1967), and
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
(
The Girl, The Body and The PillThe Girl, The Body and The Pill was a film made in 1967 and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.-Plot:Always in search of uncharted exploitation territory, Lewis turns his attention this time to the then-controversial topic of birth control. Given the nature of the film, it is surprising that it...
, 1967). He was also not above tapping the children's market, as with
Jimmy the Boy Wonder (1966) and
The Magic Land of Mother Goose (1967), which were padded out to feature film length by incorporating long foreign-made
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
s.
Towards the end of the sixties, Lewis would return to the world of
sexploitationSexploitation or "sex-exploitation" describe a class of independently produced, low budget feature films generally associated with the 1960s and serving largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films...
, with regulations now being considerably more lax. Those films quickly vanished into obscurity: Lewis' 1972 film
Black Love, apparently an erotic film with an all
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
cast, has completely
disappearedA lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or the archive of, for instance, the Library of Congress where all American films are deposited for copyright reasons...
. Also reportedly gone forever are a pair of nudies,
Ecstasies of Women (1969) and
Linda and Abilene (1969), a
lesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
westernThe Western is a fiction genre seen in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in what became the Western United States , but also in Western Canada, Mexico , Alaska The Western...
which remains notorious for having been shot on the
Spahn RanchSpahn Ranch is a 500-acre ranch at 1200 Santa Susana Pass Road, Chatsworth, California. Situated in the Santa Susana Mountains, it is known as the place where Charles Manson and his group of followers, referred to as "The Family," lived in spring 1968....
only months before it became inhabited by the Manson Family.
Year Of The Yahoo! (1972) was also believed lost, though a largely complete print is now available on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
as a double feature with the semi-gory ode to moonshine,
This Stuff'll Kill Ya! (1971).
Recent activities
In 1991, Lewis's voice was sampled on the track
Symposium Of Sickness by
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
death metalDeath metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band
CarcassCarcass are an extreme metal band from England, formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1995. A reunion was enacted in 2008 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen....
.
In 2006, Lewis was inducted into the Polly Staffle Hall of Fame. Lewis has a pair of film projects in development with Florida-based feature film production company Film Ranch International. He also made a cameo appearance in the Shock O Rama film
Chainsaw Sally, and starred in issue one of
American Carnevil, a graphic novel created by Johnny Martin Walters.
In 2007 his film "The Wizard of Gore" would be remade by Writer Zach Chassler and Director Jeremy Kasten.
In 2008 it was announced that he would direct the film Blood De Madame: The Fallen Ones starring horror film actors
Tiffany ShepisTiffany Shepis is an American scream queen from New York City, who has been involved in film-making since the age of 12.- Career :...
,
Debbie RochonDebbie Rochon is a Canadian B-movie actress and former stage performer, best known for her work in Troma films.-Biography:...
,
Felissa RoseFelissa Rose Esposito is an American actress, known for her role as Angela Baker in the 1983 cult classic, Sleepaway Camp....
, Brandon Slagle and Brooke Lewis.
Lewis also has a book written about him called "A Taste of Blood" written by Christopher Wayne Curry.
Selected Filmography
- The Prime Time (1960)
- Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961)
- Living Venus (1961)
- B-O-I-N-G! (1963)
- Blood Feast
Blood Feast is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, often considered the first "splatter film". It was produced by David F. Friedman. This movie today would receive an R rating for violence and blood and gore...
(1963)
- Goldilocks and the Three Bares
Goldilocks and The Three Bares is the thought-to-be-lost second to last nudie-cutie from the legendary exploitation team of Herschell Gordon Lewis and David Friedman. The title can be misleading; the plotline has absolutely nothing to do with the famous fable which inspired the title...
(1963)
- Scum of the Earth!
Scum of the Earth! aka Devil's Camera is a 1963 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre.-Synopsis:...
(1963)
- Two Thousand Maniacs!
Two Thousand Maniacs! is a low budget 1964 splatter film directed and written by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is the second part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy," including Blood Feast and Color Me Blood Red...
(1964)
- Moonshine Mountain (1964)
- Monster A Go-Go
Monster A Go-Go, also released as Monster A-Go Go and Terror at Halfday is a 1965 science fiction horror film directed by Bill Rebane and Herschell Gordon Lewis .- Production :...
(1965)
- Color Me Blood Red
Color Me Blood Red is a low budget 1965 horror film directed and written by Herschell Gordon Lewis. Color Me Blood Red is the third part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy", including Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs! .-Film synopsis:An eccentric artist is criticized by...
(1965)
- Jimmy, the Boy Wonder
Jimmy, the Boy Wonder is a 1966 children's musical film about a boy who successfully stops time. The film is one of a handful of children's features directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, better known for gory horror films. It was described as a "glorious bomb" by the Scarecrow Video Movie...
(1966)
- A Taste of Blood
A Taste of Blood is a 1967 American film, directed and produced by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It is a horror movie that stars, among others, Bill Rogers, and Elizabeth Wilkinson. The movie was also known as The Secret of Dr...
(1967)
- The Gruesome Twosome (1967)
- Something Weird (1967)
- The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967)
- Blast-Off Girls
Blast-Off Girls is a 1967 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.- Plot :In Herschell Gordon Lewis's take on A Hard Day's Night meets Wild Guitar, a ruthless and greedy talent manager named Boojie Baker "discovers" then exploits unknown rock bands...
(1967)
- She-Devils on Wheels
She-Devils On Wheels is a 1968 American exploitation film about an all-female motorcycle gang called The Man-Eaters, directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis.-Plot:...
(1968)
- Just for the Hell of It (1968)
- How to Make a Doll (1968)
- Suburban Roulette
Suburban Roulette is a 1968 American film by Herschell Gordon Lewis. In a surprisingly engaging drama that stars, among others, William Kerwin and Allison Louise Downe who are involved in wife swapping to overcome the boredom of living in the suburbs...
(1968)
- Linda and Abilene (1969)
- The Wizard of Gore
The Wizard of Gore is a 1970 film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It stars Ray Sager and Judy Cler. It was filmed in Chicago during 1968, but not released until October 23, 1970...
(1970)
- This Stuff'll Kill Ya! (1971)
- Year of the Yahoo! (1972)
- The Gore Gore Girls
The Gore Gore Girls is a 1972 horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. It was his final film for the next 30 years, and is particularly infamous for its scene of chocolate milk produced when the nipple of a woman is severed.-Plot:...
(1972)
- Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, also known as Blood Feast 2: Buffet of Blood is an exploitation-style splatter film. Written by W. Boyd Ford and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, it released in 2002, and is the sequel to Lewis's cult classic film Blood Feast...
(2002)
- Blood De Madame: The Fallen Ones (2009)
- The Uh! Oh! Show (2009)
External links