The Wizard of Gore is Horror, Mystery and Film Noir Rolled into One.
The gore in The Wizard of Gore is shockingly plentiful and the tale is intricate with Crispin Glover delivering trademark creepiness.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
September 10, 2008
Release: August 19, 2008 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: Jeremy Kasten
Starring:
Kip Pardue as Edmund Bigelow
Bijou Phillips as Maggie
Crispin Glover as Montag the Magnificent
Jeffrey Combs as The Geek
Brad Dourif as Dr. Chong
The Wizard of Gore, released in August 2008 on DVD, is a remake of a 1970 film of the same name that has been described as “hysterical nonsense”. The original film is shocking and hard to follow and, while well reviewed and thought of by some as a "classic" by Herschell Gordon Lewis, is not necessarily a film that one would peg as a remake candidate.
The 2008 version stars Kip Pardue as Edmund Bigelow, ace newspaper man who is always on the prowl for a good story and the adulation of the hipsters around town. When Edmund and girlfriend Maggie (Bijou Phillips) are handed a flyer for a magic show while leaving a party scene they decide to check it out.
It is clear from the beginning that this is no ordinary magician’s act. After Edmund and Maggie crowd into the unadorned warehouse with the other visitors and take a seat up 
front they are treated to “The Geek” (Jeffrey Combs) who proceeds to eat squirming maggots and bite the head off of a live rat. With the vermin-feasting out of the way the�star of the show appears, “Montag the Magnificent” (Crispin Glover). Montag proceeds to rant and rave about the “smallness” of people and generally insults the entire crowd in grandiose style until an unsuspecting woman decides she has had enough and starts to leave the auditorium. Bad idea.
Montag calls out the early retreated and orders her to the stage to serve as his assistant. Inexplicably she obeys his command with a comatose expression on her face. When instructed by Montag to strip off her clothes she complies. Montag then instructs her to lie on a makeshift operating table and she does so without question. There, behind an electronic screen, Montag proceeds to operate on her, cutting her open and removing her organs amid large gestures and comments about the “smallness” of humanity. But wait, the screen’s electronics falter and the audience can see what is really going on for a brief moment, and he has actually murdered the woman! Panic strikes the crowd as they stampede the exit door until “Stop!” screams Montag… as the crowd turns they see the woman, perfectly healthy and standing before them on the stage. She is alright – the entire disembowelment was an illusion.
Edmund Bigelow is awestruck by the trick, so much so that he must attend the show again, and then again. Each on-stage murder is more gruesome than the last, from
burnings alive in cast-iron cookers to bodily dismemberment via bear traps. The illusions are flawless, but there is a catch. Each “assistant” turns up dead the next day with�wounds similar to those inflicted on the Magician’s stage. Bigelow becomes entangled in an obsessive hunt for the truth about the murders as his sanity begins to slip further and further away.
The Wizard of Gore is weird and difficult to follow… that is part of the fun of it. The mystery is confusing and yet distinct “Ah Ha” moments are the reward for thinking through the drama on the screen. The gore is deliciously satisfying for those who like that sort of thing, and the covering of faces and expressions of sheer disgust are sure to be aroused in even the most seasoned of horror freaks.
Crispin Glover is true to form as the strangest and most disturbing actor ever to grace mainstream cinema in The Wizard of Gore. As Montag the Magnificent Glover is absolutely over- the-top and his motivation for the extreme levels of “disturbed” he displays defy explanation… much like they do in every role he’s ever played. Pardue and Phillips are fine in their roles as well, although not as irreplaceable as Glover. The biggest disappointment in terms of performances was that of Jeffrey Combs as “The Geek” – not because he didn’t do well but because there wasn’t enough of him.
The Wizard of Gore is NOT a “date movie” by any means. Only the seasoned gore hounds with a taste for difficult to follow experiential horror should venture here. If that is your thing, you’re in for a treat. Questions or comments about The Wizard of Gore? Discuss it on The Ossuary Forums!
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