The Wizard of Gore

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician who has the ability to hypnotize and control the thoughts of people in order to stage gory on-stage illusions using his ... Read allA TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician who has the ability to hypnotize and control the thoughts of people in order to stage gory on-stage illusions using his powers of mind bending.A TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician who has the ability to hypnotize and control the thoughts of people in order to stage gory on-stage illusions using his powers of mind bending.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.2/10

4.1K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
Ray Sager was a last-minute replacement for the original actor cast as Montag who dropped out of the movie right before shooting started.

Goofs
When Jack reads the newspaper announcing the second murder, the articles are obviously pasted onto the paper rather than printed on it; the corner of one article is clearly peeling away from the paper.

Quotes
[last lines]
[Montag fails to kill Sherry, who laughs maniacally after being disenboweled]
Montag the Magnificent: How dare you laugh! HOW DARE YOU!
Sherry Carson: [sits up] Look at ME now if you dare! Look into MY eyes!
Montag the Magnificent: [goes uneasy] What will I see there?
Sherry Carson: The past... and the future. Do you think you're the only one who deals an illusion?
Montag the Magnificent: You mean... you? You too?
Sherry Carson: I, too. And you... you are my illusion. You are no longer even here. You'll have to start your little charade all over again.
Montag the Magnificent: [stunned] But I... I... I am Montag!
[Montag suddenly finds himself back on stage all the way back to the beginning of the movie]
Montag the Magnificent: Yes! I am Montag, master of illusion! The fire of the laws of reason! What... is real? Are you certain you know what reality is?
[Sherry and Jack are seen within the audience]
Montag the Magnificent: How do you know that at this second you aren't sleeping in your beds dreaming that you are here sitting in this theater?
Sherry Carson: [whispers to Jack] You know what I think?
Jack: What?
Sherry Carson: I think he's a phony.

Connections
Featured in Film House Fever (1986)

User reviews78

Review

Featured review

One of Herschell Gordon Lewis goriest and dullest movies.

'The Wizard Of Gore' is one of H.G.Lewis' goriest movies but it is also one of his dullest. More explicit than any of the "blood trilogy" which his reputation rests on, but without a tenth of the entertainment value. In fact I'd say it's even worse than his non-gore turkey 'She-Devils On Wheels'. At least that one had one or two laughs. Ray Sager plays Montag The Magnificent and could be Lewis' most wooden leading man (which is saying a lot!). He plays a magician who causes a sensation by dismembering female volunteers on stage then apparently making them whole again and none the worse for it. However afterwards the girls turn up dead, injured as they were in his "illusions". An ambitious TV talk show host (Judy Cler) and her sceptical sportswriting boyfriend (Wayne Ratay) try and solve the mysterious deaths and determine just what, if anything, Montag has to do with it. Some people seem to inexplicably rate this snoozefest very highly, but if it was the first H.G.Lewis movie I'd ever seen it would probably be my last. The acting is terrible as expected, and the gore is ridiculously unconvincing, but this time round the plot drags, and I found the whole thing terribly unamusing. For Lewis beginners I'd recommend you avoid this one and go straight to his hillbilly horror 'Two Thousand Maniacs!'. It may not be as in-your-face as 'The Wizard Of Gore' but it is a lot more fun.