Interview with Herschell Gordon Lewis – Godfather of Gore

So now thirty years after The Gore Gore Girls, you came back to Blood Feast for the sequel. Was that out of any love for it?

Hardly that. It goes back to my basic philosophy that the motion picture industry is an industry, not an artform. I felt I had the capabilities of supervising a group that would make the movie for less money than almost anybody else could. Over a period of time, I would get letters and emails saying, “I wanna make Blood Feast 2.” This would happen so frequently, at least a half a dozen times a year, that I developed a defense mechanism which was “put your deal together and call me” and that got rid of them until – a fellow from New Orleans called me and put a deal together, so I directed Blood Feast 2. 

And what a pleasure that was because I didn’t have to load the camera, I didn’t have to pick up the cables at the end of the day, he actually had people who were doing that. I could sit in a directors chair, I didn’t have to yell, “Roll sound! Cut!” I had an assistant director – what luxury that was – and I would say very quietly to my assistant director, who was part of Jacky Morgan’s crew, “Uh, roll sound.” And he would yell, “Roll sound!” That’s when you’re truly an executive.

But see, there again, I was not privy to the cutting of that picture. In every case where you leave yourself out of one step, later you say, “Well, why wasn’t I involved in that?” The answer to that is that wasn’t my deal with him. The producer is supposedly the God on the set and the director is sort of the temporary emperor.

Mal Arnold as Fuad Ramses in Blood Feast (1963)

Now what about your upcoming film that you raised funds for on Indiegogo, Zombificador? 

I would point out to you, my dear friend, that that’s a lot of crap. Here’s the story behind that and I’m still facing the embarrassment throughout the industry because of it. There’s a fellow named Marc Fernandez who started to bombard me with emails, I’m not that hard to reach. He was asking if I’d like to direct his movie Zombificador, so I sent an answer to him saying, “If you have financing to make this movie then we can negotiate to have me direct it.” He then sent me his script which I felt had maybe a 10% chance of success at the box office. I sent him back what I regarded as a helpful critique, telling him that in my opinion the only way this movie could succeed on any level would be some tweaking of the script.

I started getting all these things saying I embraced his movie. He then sent me an email saying he was asking a local cameraman or photographer to stop by and take my picture. I said, “Why are we doing this?” and his answer seemed rational enough. He wanted to assure people that if he made this movie, I would direct it. I corrected him again, “Please understand, I can make no commitment until you and I have a signed agreement that specifies who is doing what and who is getting paid what.” This Zombificador was not my movie, it’s his movie! I’ve come across that too many times and learned to pay too much attention without making a mistake that will embarrass me later.

Suddenly all over the web and from people I knew, “Oh you’re going to make a new movie! I want to be in it, I want to be in your crew!” And now I’m still sweeping up the residue of that deal. That is not my new movie. If Marc Fernandez agrees to do things, yes I’ll direct his movie. Number one: the script has to be made choose-able. Number two: we have to have an agreement in US dollars that makes it logical to direct this movie.

Now on my own level I have a script called Mr Booth and the Gore Machine. If a producer says to me – let’s go ahead, I will say to that person I’ll start shooting at 5. That’s a different story altogether because that would be my project and for my projects I take responsibility. I’m not saying the project [Zombificador] is dead, I’m simply saying that at the moment I have no evidence whatsoever that I’ll be involved if it is made.

Herschell Gordon Lewis in The Uh-Oh Show (2011)

Okay, that’s really an interesting side of the story I hadn’t read about when I looked it up. Now to sort of close out the interview, I’m curious to know how you feel about modern filmmakers who cite you as an inspiration – be that artistic or not – particularly those in horror like Eli Roth and the like.

Artistic inspiration [chuckle] Well, I know Eli Roth and he’s a very nice fellow, a very nice guy. But I would point out to anybody in this business to beware movies of this type that become derivative or someone who becomes one of our wonderful group of gore hounds goes, “Yeah, yeah, here’s another one of these. I’ve seen this before.” That’s why, with The Uh-Oh Show and this next work, I’m trying to shift this kind of movie into a slightly skewed direction where the typical splatter movie marries itself to the conventional comedy. We’re getting reactions already that say to me it’s not a bad move because people who would never sully their temperament by going to see a splatter movie will go to see one of these because they’ll see it’s all tongue-in-cheek.

A lot of modern independent horror seems to be going for a blend of horror and comedy, and even now with something like The ABCs of Death – which has a ton of very low budget vignettes – a lot of these filmmakers mix gore with laughs for better shorts. Speaking of which, have you ever been approached for that series? 

I haven’t, but I’m available if they want to approach me.

I’d love to see you work on one of those! 

Well you call ’em!

If I find out how I definitely will.

[You read it here folks, someone seriously needs to approach Herschell Gordon Lewis if and when they make a third entry for The ABCs of Death]

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