Without a big budget, special effects team, or professional actors and crew members, Herschell Gordon Lewis created films that he himself admits were trash. Yet, while Gordon's softcore porn ( The Adventures of Lucky Pierre ) and heavy-duty gore ( The Gruesome Twosome ) were never blockbuster films, they were popular drive-in fare in the sixties and seventies. They have had a strong influence over more recent productions, and they have created for Lewis his own special niche in the world of exploitation and horror film. The history of Lewis the man and the filmmaker is a surprising one. Behind titles like Blood Feast and The Gore-Gore Girls is a warm and friendly gentleman whose road to his own brand of film glory was paved with disappointments, surprising successes, and lots and lots of fake blood. His career is examined in detail, with personal anecdotes and insights into making really gross movies on really small budgets. A filmography is included, and photographs, many of them rare, complement the text.

Palmer, Randy, 1953-

McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers

Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland

United States, United States of America

Jefferson, NC u.a, 2000

PT, 2000

Includes filmography (p. 183-186) and index.

"Get ready for a hair-raising ride through a world of filmmaking so bizarre, so gross, and so low-budget that even its chief practitioner claims the films were "excreted" rather than released.".
"You'll shudder as lurid ad campaigns are recreated before your eyes! You'll scream at the bad jokes and tasteless anecdotes! You'll recoil as filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis compares his work to classic poetry! And you'll love this detailed, delirious history of a (mutilated) body of work in which chicken guts were human organs, blood was concocted from Kaopectate, and a cow's skull was cast as a human head floating picturesquely on the water (except that it sank, ruining the shot).
Here is Lewis's complete story - rich, authentic, and hilariously told through extensive interviews with the filmmaker himself."--BOOK JACKET.

Take your seat! Grab a barf bag! And get ready for a hair-raising ride through a world of filmmaking so bizarre ... so gross ... and so low-budget that even its chief practitioner claims the films were "excreted" rather than released. And you'll love this detailed, delirious history of a (mutilated) body of work in which chicken guts were human organs, blood was concocted from Kaopectate, and a cow's skull was cast as a human head floating picturesquely on the water (except that it sank, ruining the shot). Here is Lewis's complete story--rich, authentic, and hilariously told through extensive interviews with the filmmaker himself. Lewis's humor and gift for storytelling make this book a delightful read as well as the definitive work on his career.

The films made by Herschell Gordon Lewis were never blockbusters but they achieved great success as drive-in movies during the sixties and seventies in the USA. Here, Randy Palmer examines the man and his movies in this illustrated biography.

ix, 193 p. : 26 cm
Includes filmography (p. 183-186) and index

2024-07-01