The Body Shop

Towards the 2nd half of the film we see the good doctor in love with his creation. I was feeling quite torn about a girl at the time and could almost understand why the doctor felt such strung emotions. Sure, perhaps he goes to far when he puts a cleaver through Igor's hump in a jealous rage, but that's what he did.

Yes this movie is gorey and that's the real strong point. Watch this film if you are into amputations and operations that pretty young girls will not survive.

A couple of clarifying comments are in order. Herschell Gordon Lewis contributed a brief introduction to the video release of DOCTOR GORE (aka THE BODY SHOP), wherein he touched upon his collaborative efforts with J.G. "Pat" Patterson, director and star of DOCTOR GORE. Patterson concocted the "gore effects" for THE GRUESOME TWOSOME and a few other Lewis movies in the late 60s. Lewis remarks that whereas 2,000 MANIACS was a "five gallon" film (referring to the amount of stage blood required), the Lewis-Patterson productions were "fifteen gallon" pictures. Lewis does not describe DOCTOR GORE as a "fifteen gallon" film -- he's only talking about the films he & Patterson made together. Lewis has confessed (elsewhere) that his introduction to DOCTOR GORE was improvised before he'd even seen Patterson's film! So take it with a grain of salt.

This may be an "unfinished" film, but like some unfinished novels it does have an "ending." It's just missing some connective tissue.

Patterson has definite stage presence & a dry sense of humor, helping to make this simplistic show somewhat more watchable than it should be. There's an extremely bare-bones plot -- even BLOOD FEAST is more complex -- and a gratingly repetitive musical score by William Girdler. A bit of nudity & lots of skin. The entire middle section of the film involves the construction of a "perfect woman;" this is concentrated gore for the bloodthirsty, and laughable.

Patterson the director is in way over his head, but he tries hard to tell his story creatively, if it's possible to use Frankenstein clichés creatively. But the best reason to see this film (on Something Weird's DVD, if possible) is that it features a perfect Nashville weeper, Bill Hicks' "A Heart Dies Every Minute." Ain't it the truth!

Sorry, but this movie is too slow paced to make my bad movie night recommendation list. J.G. Patterson, who stars in the movie, does a great job with the gore, although there doesn't seem to be enough of it...especially if you are into that genre.

The variation I saw included a 10-minute introduction by H.G. Lewis who praises Patterson for his acting and directing experience. Unfortunately, the movie does not live up to what is promised.

Fortunately, the color and sound have been preserved, unlike many movies from the late 60s and early 70s that have become faded and trashed.

Like many movies of this genre, the enjoyable parts are the mismatched pieces of editing, makeup and the horrid acting.

It definitely has the influence of Lewis, but stops short. If the pace could have been picked up, the movie just might be worth rating a 5.

Now if Patterson could have mixed in a little gratuitous sex, ALA Harry Novak, it might have made my "B" list. Make sure to watch out for the beach makeout scene...

Ron Jaffe Orlando, Florida

DR. GORE (1973) ½* J.G. "Pat" Patterson, Jenny Driggers, Roy Mehaffey. This was the second and last film by director and lead actor J. G. "Pat" Patterson. (Mr. Patterson reportedly died a year or so after this movie was made.) It's the story of a "doctor" who loses his wife and then decides to build the "perfect mate." Like a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein, he goes out and kills half-dozen or so women and then sews together the parts he likes best. The resulting "perfect mate" is a blond, well-endowed, empty-headed bimbo. The film is so technically inept that it's more annoying than entertaining, and the few unintentionally funny moments the film provides aren't worth the effort it takes to endure the rest of it. Rated X in its day (probably for violence, since there's very little nudity), the gore is laughably phony by today's standards.

The Body Shop is, as its AKA Doctor Gore suggests, a splatter movie. As such, I didn't necessarily expect a great plot, but I had hoped for more than a tired mashup of Frankenstein and Les Yeux Sans Visage. Whenever mad doctor Don Brandon (played by the film's director J. G. Patterson Jr.) is busily hacking up young women for spare parts so he can build his ideal mate, the film is reasonably fun, but everything in between is really dull.

Dr. Brandon decides to build his perfect woman after his beautiful young wife dies in a car crash. Using hypnotic powers, he seduces his pretty victims and takes them to his lab where, with the help of his loyal hunchback assistant Greg (Roy Mehaffey), he removes the best body parts, disposing of the rest in an acid bath (standard kit for any mad doctor). The removal of limbs and organs is good old-fashioned messy fun in the same vein as H. G. Lewis (Patterson Jr. Previously helped on some of the Godfather of Gore's movies and provided effects for drive-in favourite Three On A Meathook), but the rest of the film feels like an excuse for the director to cosy up to some sexy cuties who are way out of his league.

The script is terrible and makes little sense: if the doctor has such incredible mind control over hot women, why does he go to such great lengths to build a mate? Admittedly, she's a babe, but the women who provide the body parts aren't exactly munters. Why not go to Hollywood and hypnotise some A-list actresses?

The acting is diabolical: according to IMDb's trivia, the only trained actor in the whole shebang was Roy Mehaffey and he doesn't say a word. The worst performance comes from the guy who plays an inquisitive cop, who stumbles awkwardly through his lines, and then disappears for the rest of the movie, no doubt hiding in shame.

As for the direction and editing, it's par for the course: so sloppy that we are treated to an entire song by the most lifeless band in the world, a really boring montage of romantic moments between the doc and his mate, and the most obvious accidental inclusion of a clapperboard in the history of film.

In the hilarious final act, the doctor's woman, having been trained to be a subservient sex slave, throws herself at any man she encounters, including Greg, which results in the jealous doctor attacking the hunchback with acid and a machete and then dumping his body in the acid bath. Then, while the doctor is out, Brandon's babe runs off with a truck driver; as a result, the doctor loses what marbles he still had and is locked up in an asylum.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.