If you’ve never seen a Herschell Gordon Lewis (BLOOD FEAST, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS, WIZARD OF GORE) film, don’t fret. You’ll find out what you’re getting into with just the first 60 seconds of THE GORE GORE GIRLS. In the opening frames, we see a stripper fixing herself in the mirror, only to be jumped by a masked intruder. She is grabbed by the back of the head and thrust face first into the glass repeatedly. After three blows, her broken facial structure can be noticed, along with dangling, torn flesh. Her face is crushed, and then she is stabbed with a big knife from behind. She falls to the floor, and the killer wipes blood on her mutilated face, which is gaping with the blank expression of death, and a black, bulging, engorged eyeball.

Welcome to the Godfather of Gore’s final low budget splatter film before what would become a 30 year hiatus, from 1972 to 2002 – THE GORE GORE GIRLS. After Suzie Creampuff turns up brutally murdered, reporter Nancy Weston (Amy Farrell) approaches the local sleazeball detective with an offer he can’t refuse. $25,000 to dig up the dirty laundry on the death, and another $25,000 if private dick Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress) can solve the case, all contingent upon delivering the exclusive to Nancy and GLOBE Magazine.

THE GORE GORE GIRLS is your typical poorly acted, thinly plotted, grainy and faded sub 70’s gore flick, complete with go-go dancing strippers, slummy bargoers, and psychedelic… go-go dancers. A good portion of it taking place in a strip club, or in someone’s 20 dollar decor apartment. Its fair to say that most of the material between kills is dry, tasteless, and amateur, but most people who know this going in will be pleased by what they’ve most likely come for. The kills.

Another dancer is bludgeoned over the head while chewing gum in the mirror and playing with herself. Her throat is cut, and then her head is hacked to a pulp with the same kitchen knife. This scene is quite possibly of the worst you’ll witness, ever. Its 30 seconds straight of two hands pulling apart a woman’s face and skull, fingering out the eyeball and punching it back into the broken socket, and mashing bone and brain for all two hands are worth. 100% shown, blood red, close-up. It’s a moment that should one day be honored in a gore movie hall of fame.

Nearly an unendurable 30 minutes later, another stripper is murdered in a kitchen while contemplating the use of a cucumber by the fridge. Her throat is slit for starters, and then she is leaned over the butcher block for one of the most memorable kills in horror history. Death by meat tenderizer to the bare ass. Her rear is beaten to a bloody pulp, and when she is unconscious, the killer seasons this victim with a little salt a pepper, just to spice things up a little bit. Most other killers would be satisfied with this, but this one is especially cruel and vindictive. The stripper gets flipped onto her back, and the eyeball is pried out of her face. After some disfiguring fork stabbings, and popping the removed eyeball in a gripped fist, the killer jams it back into the gaping socket with the fork and is out the door once again. Whew!

Another working woman spending time at home is attacked as well, while ironing and cooking fries. Her throat is cut and then her face is melted with an iron, burnt cheese brown, to death. Its maybe the weakest and least convincing murder of the bunch. But its merely part of a one-two punch – as a friend comes over to visit, and gets their face cooked in a boiling pot of Wesson and Ore-Ida crinkle cuts.

Comedian Henny (“take my wife, please!”) Youngman plays Mr. Marzdone Mobilie, the scrubby strip club owner, who works with detective Gentry on a plot to trap the killer. A contest is held and girls gather from everywhere with flabby asses and banged up breasts to battle it out over the big $1,000 prize. Soon after, the trap is set and the masked killer is revealed. Her head is splattered by a truck on the freeway, ad nauseum. Scooby Doo and the gang get back in the van and go home.

Final analysis: Although bland and polyester for the most part, GORE GORE GIRLS is lifted to respectable horror heights as a result of its uber-violent, pre-CGI kills. Sheep eyeballs, shreddable latex face molds, and bright red paint earn this splatter gore film its “R” by far. While younger viewers may find this to be antique and fake looking, some may still appreciate what Herschell Gordon Lewis manages to pull off with special effects on a low budget scale, and no computer graphics imagery to perfect it all. Else wise a bad movie, GORE GORE GIRLS is a feminist’s nightmare, and a gore hounds wet dream.