DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Jeremy Kasten
Starring Kip Pardue, Crispin Glover, Bijou Phillips, Brad Dourif
Release date 25 August 2008

An off-Hollywood magician attracts an audience of misfits and thrill-seekers to his hideously realistic on-stage mutilations. However, when his “victims” turn up dead hours after their big break, a small time journalist begins to investigate…

From high on the list of obscure horror movies that neither asked for, nor warranted, a remake comes The Wizard of Gore. Originally a misogynistic mess directed by sixties splatter auteur Herschell Gordon Lewis, this update brings with it a name cast and impressive special effects but fails to recapture the grindhouse grime of its inspiration.

Sure, director Kasten tries his best – showing the infamously madcap Glover pulling out guts, frying naked women alive and decapitating a tattooed, topless goth girl. Yet, try as he might, the CGI-enhanced brutality of this atmospheric shocker succeeds only in becoming tiresome. Indeed, after the likes of The Devil’s Rejects and Hostel Part II this cartoon carnage looks almost quaint.

Still, any movie with a frantically overacting Crispin Glover is far from a dead loss and 2008’s Wizard is well worth seeing just for the erstwhile George McFly’s darkly hilarious performance. Extras include a ‘making of’ feature, a documentary on the suicide girls who star in the movie and some outtakes and deleted scenes. Calum Waddell

VERDICT: 5/10
An odd attempt at remaking a cult horror film for the emo generation; this is as bizarre as it is bloody.