Wizard of Gore

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Back in February I watched the original The Wizard of Gore, and kind of tried to defend it before realizing that it really was just a piece of shit. So why did I bother with the 2007 remake? One reason, mainly: Crispin Glover plays the title character.

Admit it, now you kind of want to see the movie a little bit too.

Sadly, Glover doesn't get all that much screen time, and although it's definitely a much better film than the original, it's not very good. It's over-written, over-plotted, over-acted and way over-directed. That's not always a bad thing, in fact most of what's enjoyable about Wizard of Gore is due to its excesses, but it's not done well enough to hold up.

It kind of wants to be a mind-fuck sorta movie, which can be cool, but it's a little too focused on it's labyrinthine, pull-the-rug-out style plot. I don't think that's usually a good fit for a horror movie. The best horror movies usually succeed more on a visceral level than a plot-driven one. And it didn't help that I put this on late, found myself getting tired, and had trouble following the story.

I saw another movie by this director a few years ago, called The Attic Expeditions, and it was similarly over-done with a mind-fuck plot, but it was more fun (and funnier) than this one, and it's deliberate ambiguity let you focus more on the tone and atmosphere.

Anyways, it's not all bad, it's made with a certain amount of skill and has a good cast, but it just doesn't add up to much more than a vaguely confusing experience.