Infamous splatter pioneer Herschell Gordon Lewis acts as host for this low-budget horror anthology that also sees the 'godfather of gore' directing two out of the four segments.
The first story, Gory Story, is directed by Lewis, and is absolute garbage: it follows a man who is possessed by the hook he has instead of a hand, and clumsily mixes comedy and gore as the weirdo injures his leg, pokes out his eye and gets run over by a steamroller and hit by a car. The bloodletting is fine (the mangled corpse is cool) but this episode as a whole rivals Troma at its very worst.
Next up is Attack of Conscience, directed by Melanie Reinboldt, which ups the ante on the first tale in terms of gore with a body falling from a height onto concrete (resulting in a very messy splat), a crucifixion, and a spurting neck wound! The somewhat confusing plot involves a pregnant woman who discovers that her lover is already married, takes revenge, gets shot, and spends the next decade in a coma dreaming that she is being killed in a variety of ways.
Herschell takes the directing reins again for the third segment, The Night Hag, which focuses less on the gore and more on creepy atmosphere (having said that, there is a splattery decapitation at the start). The story sees a family move into a new home only to find that a supernatural hag lives in the walls and likes to eat people's hair (removing their scalp to do so!). It's not a bad attempt by Lewis to do something a little different, although the comical ending in which the family are shown completely bald undoes some of the good work.
The final episode is GOREgeous, from director Kevin Littlelight, and ends things on a very messy note. Stuart Bentley plays Gordo, manager of an all-girl rock band, who loses the plot and goes on a murderous rampage when he is fired. The focus is on nudity and blood, the girls in the band missing no opportunity to get naked before being carved up by Gordo. The impressive effects include a great throat slashing, and a juicy scissors in the back/disembowellment (which make up for the awful 'running machine chase scene' gag).
As is often the case with anthologies, this is a mixed bag, ranging from the bearable to the atrocious, but with enough blood and guts to satisfy most fans of Lewis (who, let's face it, probably aren't expecting a masterpiece).
4.5/10, rounded up to 5 in the memory of HGL.
