One of my most beloved filmmakers is Herschell Gordon Lewis, the "Godfather of Gore", the man who shocked audiences with the blood and guts he brought to the screen – in vivid color – back in the 1960s. I didn't always love his movies, but I am a huge fan of the man himself and the approach he took to making his movies.
Now theatres are going to have the option to book screenings of restored versions of 17 of Lewis's films, as the American Genre Film Archive will have them available on DCP as of October 1st.
Here's the press release from AGFA:
In 1963, H.G. Lewis and partner David F. Friedman pulled a cow’s tongue out of an actress’s mouth on-camera, forever changing the horror landscape with BLOOD FEAST, the world’s first gore movie.
The versatile and prolific Lewis was most known for blood-and-guts epics (TWO THOUSAND MANIACS!, THE WIZARD OF GORE), but there’s more to his work than splatter. From smut photographers (SCUM OF THE EARTH) to sex robots (HOW TO MAKE A DOLL), from biker girl-gangs (SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS) to youths run amok (JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT), from psychic witches (SOMETHING WEIRD) to liquor-loving hillbillies (MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN), Lewis’ films are a wish list of movie madness.
AGFA will distribute restorations of Lewis’s work to theaters beginning October 1. This is AGFA’s latest theatrical collaboration following distribution partnerships with Don Coscarelli (PHANTASM), Celestial Pictures (THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN), Arrow Films (DEEP RED), Severin Films (SANTA SANGRE), and Vinegar Syndrome (DOLEMITE).
For the first time ever, all 17 of the following H.G. Lewis titles are available on DCP starting October 1:
BLOOD FEAST (1963)
SCUM OF THE EARTH (1963)
TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)
MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN (1964)
COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965)
A TASTE OF BLOOD (1967)
THE GRUESOME TWOSOME (1967)
SOMETHING WEIRD (1967)
HOW TO MAKE A DOLL (1968)
JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT (1968)
SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS (1968)
ECSTASIES OF WOMEN (1969)
LINDA & ABILENE (1969)
THE WIZARD OF GORE (1970)
BLACK LOVE (1971)
THIS STUFF’LL KILL YA! (1971)
THE GORE GORE GIRLS (1972)
There are some awesome movies on that list (BLOOD FEAST and TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! are personal favorites), and I'm hoping to hear that a lot of theatres are going to be booking Lewis films as part of their Halloween celebrations this year.
If you'd like to set up a screening of the films of H.G. Lewis on DCP at your theatre, contact the AGFA at THIS LINK.
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