SCREEM MAGAZINE - ISSUE 19, FALL/WINTER 2009

SIN AFTER SIN: SCREEM INTERVIEW WITH HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS

EXCERPT

In 1963, Herschell Gordon Lewis, with his monumental splatter movie BLOOD FEAST, single-handedly changed the face of horror cinema forever. Lewis also produced a number of "exploitation" movies, as well as sampling the full gamut of exploitation subjects ranging from wife-swapping and ESP to rock 'n' roll and LSD. A TASTE OF BLOOD details all these, plus gore classics such as 2,000 MANIACS, THE GORE GORE GIRLS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED and WIZARD OF GORE, placing them in context amid the roots and development of the exploitation film. Today, Herschell is finishing up a new film, THE UH-OH SHOW, which is coming soon, and hanging around with Michael Moore.

Kevin Sean Michaels (Director of "Vampira: The Movie" and "The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels") catches up with Herschell, who can be seen in the new DVD mockumentary, SEVEN DEADLY SINS: INSIDE THE ECOMM CULT (available from www.cultsarereal.com) along with Michaels. In SEVEN DEADLY SINS, Herschell plays an expert detective in cult activity in search of a missing girl.

Kevin Sean Michaels: Seven Deadly Sins: Inside The Ecomm Cult is a "mockumentary." What mockumentaries have you seen and liked? Or are you a fan of that genre?

Herschell Gordon Lewis: I'll tell you, I am a fan of mockumentaries. Anything at all that has Sasha Baron Cohen in it, I love it. Some of this stuff just don't come off. I remember a movie Woody Allen made, Zelig, which was supposed to be a mockumentary and it didn't come off at all. At least in my opinion it didn't come off at all. It's a very delicate line you run there. With that kind of thing, you want the audience to have the same sense of humor you do. I like the whole idea of mockumentary-- did you ever see one called The Farce of the Penguins?

KSM: Yes, I saw that. That was a parody of the March of the Penguins.

HGL: Yes, exactly. Now, people who didn't quite understand the nature of parody might not have understood what it was about, and probably those who hadn't seen the original that was being mocked, would have lost some of the benefit of looking at a mockumentary altogether. I like the idea, I like the genre, yes.

KSM: You did a great job on Seven Deadly Sins: Inside The Ecomm Cult. What did you think of the resulting film?

HGL: It looked good. I enjoyed it very much.

KSM: There has been some very good reaction about it. Some people think it's the real thing. I like the idea of keeping it as an "in" joke.

HGL: People would think that because some of it is shot with a hand-held camera. I don't know how far you want to go with cinema verite because there are people who will get very itchy seeing an entire feature that way.

KSM: I know. It's always a question. Some people are very big fans of it. They shot a lot of crime shows on TV like that. They shot the Johnny Depp Dillinger movie almost all hand held, so I don't know. But I'm a big fan of tripods.

HGL: That's a great line.

KSM: I know... It sounds a bit strange. They can put it on my tombstone.