The Gore Gore Girls (1972)

Review by Adam C. Thomas



Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Listen to me: I understand people love boobs. I understand people love gore. I really do. Those are two of my favorite things as well. However, when you're in the business of making movies, some effort has to be given to the movie itself. Just putting a bunch of half naked women in a movie and then killing them in a gratuitous fashion does not make a movie. That's called snuff film, and it's illegal, probably because it's stupid.

That being said, The Gore Gore Girls is like the America's Most Wanted of the offenders under these circumstances. There is a half-assed plot about a detective trying to find out who is killing them, but it's really not necessary. You can tell Lewis really didn't give a shit about the story, when he spends SEVEN ENTIRE MINUTES showing the killer crushing, picking apart, and playing with one of his victim's heads. Seriously, it was like one shot, and all we saw was this skull being crushed, pulled apart, played with, rearranged, and then picked at some more. Not only was it excessive, it was unnecessary lengthy. I get that it was about strippers being killed, or, excuse me, "go go dancers", but this movie was awful. I yawned my way through the entire thing. Yes, some of the effects were well done, and the only redeeming character in the entire movie was the detective.

The kills in this movie range from normal (cut throats) to downright bizarre (meat tenderizer spanking?). The gamut is run the entire movie, and it keeps you guessing the whole time who the killer may be, though the method of achieving this is somewhat flimsy. Introduce a new suspect and a new MO, then magically, the killer uses their MO to kill another girl. Oh no, the killer just smashed that poor girls head in, it MUST be that guy who was just drawing faces on melons and smashing them! So on and so forth.

Don't get me wrong, I dig some tasty gore as much as the next guy, but what I do not like, is an entire movie of gore, just for the sake of gore. That is what this movie was, and regardless of Lewis' status of "Godfather of Gore", I just can't get behind this one. If you're a fan of Troma style stuff, but with a very, very tiny bit more substance than most of their fare, then check this one out. If not, avoid this one like the plague.

I give The Gore Gore Girls a 2/10.