NOTE: These Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Herschell Gordon Lewis has had a, bizarre but devout, following since he started making his exploitation films in the early 60's but his name came into the mainstream when it was mentioned, and a clip briefly shown, in the 2007 film Juno. The title character, played by Ellen Page, claims Dario Argento is the 'ultimate master of horror' (or words to that effect) and Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) says "He's all right... but have you seen Herschell Gordon Lewis" and they apparently go on to watch 1970's The Wizard of Gore - where we see the goriest clip.

This is another Arrow Blu-ray release that is being simultaneously released in both region 'A' (US) and 'B' (UK). It is the exact same package on both sides of the pond beyond minor cosmetic differences on the disc labels and sleeve to do with differing copyright info and barcodes, and the US release doesn't have BBFC logos.

Quite the package from Arrow. WOW! We should state that this is actually a 17-disc boxset - 10 Blu-rays and 7 DVDs - 'Dual Format' with the DVD included (All seven DVDs have the identical content of the first 7 Blu-rays). It appears to be the largest boxset of the year - certainly that we have reviewed. Arrow has done an amazing job with dual-layered transfers and supportive-to-high bitrates for the 14 feature films.

Arrow have given both 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 1080P transfers for Blood Feast, Scum of the Earth, Color Me Blood Red, A Taste of Blood and The Wizard of Gore. These are on Blu-ray discs 15 + 16.

The appearance varies with the quality and is often sub-standard. On the other hand colors are vibrant and very rich in the higher resolution for many of the films. The restoration information is put in text screens (see below) prior to the start of the film - if any had been done. Those with text descriptions of the restorations are Two Thousand Maniacs!, Moonshine Mountain - which, incidentally, has the most damage, Something Weird, The Gruesome Twosome, A Taste of Blood, How To Make a Doll, The Wizard of Gore and This Stuff'll Kill Ya! 

NOTE: It appears as though the majority of the films have been newly restored for this release - supervised by James White. All but two - 2000 MANIACS and THE GORE-GORE GIRLS were newly restored exclusively for this release, and the present HD Master of 2000 MANIACS underwent significant re-editing to add the content previously missing. They included on-screen restoration text screens (see below) on those films where they obtained variable (often very poor) state of the materials used which required some clarification. The full restoration info for all the HGL films is in the included booklet.

The bright blue, green or purple vertical lines are quite nostalgic and an effect Tarantino and Rodriquez tried to emulate in their Grindhouse films Death Proof and Planet Terror. Only Moonshine Mountain was so poor it affected by viewing experience. I wasn't phased by the other marks and inconsistencies. I appreciate all the work put into making these accessible to viewers in one humungous package.

All audio transfers use a linear PCM mono. It can sound bit erratic at times - occasionally ultra scratchy openings and I'm sure this is reflective of the condition of the sources, but Arrow stay accurate with the flat, mono tracks via the uncompressed renderings. I'm sure this is the best they have sounded for years and although the imperfections only added another nostalgic layer to the presentation. Wisely, Arrow have included optional English (SDH) subtitles for all films and, as mentioned these are region FREE discs.

Arrow, as usual, stack their packages with hours of in-house produced, supplements including Herschell Gordon Lewis' intros, Outtakes, interviews, the 1959 short comedy Carving Magic, visual essays, and commentaries - many heard before (Eric tells us "I think all of the commentaries are ported from the earlier fullscreen open matte DVDs. the outtakes from BLOOD FEAST, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, and COLOR ME BLOOD RED are part of the original DVD packages.") - on 9 of the films - most with HGL and many with Michael Vraney who passed away at the age of 56 in 2014. Highlight for me included videos by Tim Sullivan (Two Thousand Maniacs Can't be Wrong), Nicholas McCarthy and Rodney Ascher (Blood Perspectives), H. G. Lewis vs. the Censors, Bob Murawski, the Regional Bloodshed extra and two excellent pieces by Stephen Thrower. There are still supplements I have not got to - but everything is interesting - and Herschell Gordon Lewis is given a lot of airtime. Disc 17 is a Blu-ray and has the 1 3/4 hour Herschell Gordon Lewis The Godfather of Gore 2010 documentary by Frank Henenlotter and Jimmy Maslon. It is often quite amusing and has input from John Waters, Bunny Yeager and many others. That BD disc also has over an hour of Outtakes and a trailer. 

Arrow keep outdoing themselves and must have a huge number of people working or a loyal staff that loves film and works 24/7. This is definitely something to consider for our year-end Poll. I started watching this not being a fan - having seen only 2 HGL features in my life. But with all the supplements and the director's input I soon began to love these 'so-bad-they're-good' efforts. So grassroots, strangely innocent, often clumsy and with a big focus on being exploitive - lots of sexuality and gore. His cinema amuses as much as shocks. And it certainly wasn't all disgusting, appalling or terrible. There were lots of basic, simple stories of relationships and human interaction. 

The 'Master of Gore' Herschell Gordon Lewis passed away only a few weeks ago, on September 26th, 2016, at the age of 90. Thankfully he was able to help complete this mammoth boxset and his words - anecdotes and reflections - are now archived in this digital release. I hope he got a chance to see the completes package - it's a doozy! You can always visit these films when you really need something different and original. Amazing job, again, Arrow. Absolutely recommended!    

Gary W. Tooze