Most are probably familiar with Herschell Gordon Lewis from the scene in Juno where Ellen Page and Jason Bateman argue over who the master of horror is. I know that was the first time I'd heard the name and I'd been a massive horror fan since my junior year of high school (about seven-ish years). It took another four years for me to finally check out one of Lewis' films and, if The Gore Gore Girls is any indication, I have little desire to check out more.
Lewis doesn't waste any time getting to the gore. Before there is any indication that the movie has started, a stripper is seen repeatedly getting her face smashed into a mirror. Some mildly interesting credits role and we meet Abraham Gentry (Frank Kress). Gentry is not unlike Sherlock Holmes in that he is apparently a very fine independent investigator (though Holmes always seems to do it for the fun whereas Gentry will take the cash). At least everyone seems to be impressed when they find out who he is. In action, Gentry is more Oscar Wilde than Sherlock Holmes. He's always ready with a quip and a dismissive barb. It's one of the more irritating aspects in a film full of them. However, like Holmes, he's not above using his compatriots as bait.
There's not much plot. Gentry is trying to solve the case of the mutilated strippers. Probably my biggest issue with The Gore Gore Girls is that it wants to be a comedy with intense gore (lord knows it's not a sexy movie even though there's plenty of stripping). There are scenes of pulverized heads and gouged eyes playing next Gentry acting like he's entertaining at a cocktail party. Lewis tries to have it both ways in one scene that features death by butt tenderizing. I can see how some might find the antics amusing, but it plays as hackneyed and "shocking" for lack of ideas. There's a few interesting things in the gory scenes: a bubble filled with blood and some queasy nipple play, but even that stuff lingers too long.
Basically, the movie boils down to strippers stripping, strippers being murdered (often by bludgeoning), and insensitive quips. I mentioned above how unsexy the stripping is and, aside from it taking up so much screen time as to become dull, the dancing is terrible. The art of stripping has come a long way since 1972, apparently, because all I could think about watching these girls was Andy Kaufman:
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