Singa Home Entertainment
R1 DVD
In
1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis, an underground filmmaker best known for making
midnite movie "nudie-cutie" films, changed the face of American
cinema forever when he released "Blood Feast." Blood Feast is still
considered the first ever gore film and while low budget was a tremendous
success. Drive-ins were booked out with patrons waiting around the block and
the critics reacted with disgust– the splatter film was born!
Lewis
continued with such other cult classics as “2000 Maniacs” and “The Wizard of
Gore”, both of which have been recently remade. He also made the controversial
sex and gore film “The Gore Gore Girls”, a film which is still banned in
Australia and was recently once again refused classification for release.
The
Gruesome Twosome is one of the less successful of Lewis’ gore films but still
strange and unusual enough to be of interest.
It
seems Mrs.Pringle, her mentally defective son Rodney, and her stuffed cat
Napoleon run a business selling wings out of an old dilapidated house. The
problem is that their business is going rather well and they are running out of
product. Mrs.Pringle hits on a way to solve her dilemma, since there are lots
of university students in the area so she runs an advert for a room to rent.
But she does not aim to give her guests accommodation for long.
When
they arrive they do not even get time to settle in before they are locked in a
room where her disturbed son disposes of them with some brutality using
everything he can find including an electric carving knife. Of course, one too
many students go missing and an investigation begins. Kathy works at the local
university and is determined to figure out why her classmates are missing, much
to boyfriend Dave’s irritation. When her friend Dawn disappears, Kathy gets
close to the truth as she begins investigating
“The Gruesome Twosome”.
The
Gruesome Twosome is an entertaining cult and gore classic which while clearly a
product of its time, it was made in 1967, still packs a punch. It has some
quite astounding gore “set pieces” and a rather over the top story line. Yes,
the acting is pretty average and the film seems a bit padded here and there –
the opening sequence is a tad ridiculous.
However,
as a work of horror cult history it is well worth seeing.