#268. The Wizard of Gore (1970)

Directed By: Herschell Gordon Lewis



Starring: Ray Sager, Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay




Tag line: "Is it magic?  Or Wholesale Slaughter?"

Trivia:  A scene from this movie was shown in the 2007 award-winning film, JUNO

At first glance, The Wizard of Gore appears to be your typical Herschell Gordon Lewis film, complete with bad acting, choppy camerawork, and plenty of eye-catching gore. Like the director's Blood Feast and Two Thousand Maniacs, this movie oozes red stuff by the bucketful, and will certainly entertain any horror fans who like their films soaked in blood. 

Yet The Wizard of Gore does offer an additional surprise for its audience, one that proves just as exciting as all the on-screen mayhem.

Montag the Magician (Ray Sager) has a very unusual act; he invites young girls on-stage, then proceeds to butcher them in the most gruesome ways imaginable. When the act is over, the girl, none the worse for wear, simply walks away.  Yet before the night is out, she will be dead, her body bearing wounds similar to the ones she received during the show. 

Sherry Carson (Judy Cler), who hosts a morning television program, has been hard at work trying to secure an interview with Montag, but her boyfriend Jack (Wayne Ratay) is a bit leery of the magician, and, with the help of the local police, launches an investigation into the grisly murders of Montag's “volunteers”.

When it comes to Herschell Gordon Lewis, I admit I'm a fanboy. What his movies lack in performance and cinematic craft, they more than make up for in spectacle and WTF moments of blood-stained carnage. 

Yet The Wizard of Gore offers something more besides, an added bonus I would never have anticipated going into it. As I said, the acting is bad, yet there is one performance that - while certainly not “good” in the classical sense - proved more than simply effective; in fact, I'd call it downright hypnotic! 

I'm referring to Ray Sager's portrayal of Montag the Magician, a turn so flamboyant, so incredibly over-the-top that I simply could not look away. Every line the actor delivers isn't spoken, it's shouted, and usually with such bravado that you start to believe every word is of the utmost importance. 

In one of the film's earliest scenes, Montag invites a young girl (Karin Alexana) up on-stage. With a single look from the magician's piercing eyes, the girl enters a trance-like state, and has to be helped up onto a table where she is immediately strapped down. The illusion we're about to witness is Montag's personal spin on the “sawing a woman in half” routine, yet we fear the worst when the magician walks off-stage and returns a few moments later wielding a chainsaw! 

Before getting down to business, Montag addresses the audience. “You were expecting a mere handsaw” he scoffs, “and a covered wooden casket? Oh...no!”. As we soon realize, nothing about Montag's act is traditional, and neither, for that matter, is Ray Sager's performance.

According to Lewis, Ray Sager, who normally worked behind the scenes on his films, was a last-minute replacement when the original actor hired to play Montag quit just before filming began. Sager certainly made the most of the situation, and, much like the character he played, he managed to conjure up a fairly impressive illusion of his own.

 

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