TCM Screens Classic Herschell Gordon Lewis Flicks
Perk an extra pot of coffee or set your DVRs, folks, ’cause Turner Classic Movies is screening not one but two Herschell Gordon Lewis classics in the wee hours of Nov. 1.
I realize some of you may be uncultured heathens, so let me give you a quick education. In addition to being a direct marketing copywriting legend, Lewis is also revered as the “godfather of gore,” thanks to his early days as a B-movie director.
As part of the “48 Hours of Horror,” the cable net will show 1963’s “Blood Feast” at 2:30 am (plot: an Egyptian priest uses human sacrifice to bring back his goddess) and 1964’s “Two Thousand Maniacs” (Travelers stumble on a Southern town out for revenge for losing the Civil War) at 3:45 a.m.
At the recent DMA conference in Las Vegas, Lewis told me that the latter was the favorite of all his films. “The budgets were miniscule,” he said with a smile. “Two words you never heard on my set: ‘take two’.”
I had the pleasure of sitting down for a chat with Lewis
