The Gruesome Twosome [DVD]

I was a bit disappointed when I first saw this because, from the title, I was expecting a documentary about The Cheeky Girls but it is actually a trashy, low-budget horror film directed by The Godfather of Gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Mad old Mrs. Pringle and her backward son, Rodney, are the titular couple and they are bumping off and scalping pretty young women to ensure that they have a plentiful supply of hair for their wig making business. The Pringles prove that once you pop, you can't stop, and anyone unfortunate enough to visit their wig shop to enquire about the room for rent has certainly had their (potato) chips as they usually end up having toupé with their life.

After several women (and their barnets) go missing (I presume that the police are combing the area, or should that be the "hairier"?!?), a student called Kathy, who thinks she is Nancy Drew, starts poking her nose into things and putting her foot in it. Kathy is convinced that she is on the fringe of something big and she eventually ends up at Mrs. Pringle's wig shop which contains more dodgy syrups than an Elton John concert. Can Kathy survive her brush with death? Can her sceptical boyfriend and the police arrive in time to save her?

What a pity that this film is nowhere near as interesting or as exciting as it sounds. It's all a bit silly and pointless. I realise that "The Gruesome Twosome" is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be taken seriously, as is usually the case with most of the films of H.G. Lewis, but it's just really bad. If I had to compare it to a haircut, it would definitely be a number two! Some films combine horror and humour effectively but "TGT" is not particularly funny or horrifying. Thankfully, the film's running time is quite short - just 72 minutes but it seems longer than that when you are watching it. The gory scenes only add up to a few minutes of the film's total running time and the rest of the film ranges from being extremely dull to being totally daft. The opening scene features two mannequin heads having a conversation with each other and there is another scene featuring someone stuffing their face with crisps (Pringle's perhaps?). For me, the best thing about the film is the music soundtrack that includes a jazzy main theme and some 1960s surfin' music. Everything else, especially the script, the acting and direction, is very poor but I must also add that "TGT" is definitely not the worst film I have ever seen.