The Uh-Oh! Show Explained

The Uh-Oh! Show
Director:Herschell Gordon Lewis
Producer:Andrew Allan
Andy Lalino
Starring:Brooke McCarter
Nevada Caldwell
Krista Grotte
Kenny DeMelloLloyd Kaufman
Babette Bombshell
Joel D. Wynkoop
Music:Patrick Ford
Cinematography:Wes Pratt
Jill Sager
Editing:Chris Woods
Studio:Film Ranch International
Lion's Kill Productions
Runtime:87 minutes
Country:United States
Language:English

The Uh-Oh! Show is a 2009 comedy horror splatter film, written and directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. The film revolves around a game show, The Uh-Oh! Show, where contestants play to win money by answering trivia questions, but appear to be dismembered for every wrong answer. Jill Porter (Nevada Caldwell), a reporter, suspects the gruesome attacks might not be fake.

Plot

A reporter named Jill Burton (Nevada Caldwell) is investigating a gruesome television game show called The Uh-Oh! Show where contestants literally "get rich or die trying". Fred Finagler (Joel D. Wynkoop) is the creator of the show. While a few lucky contestants walk away with big money, most end up killed in gruesome ways. Meanwhile, Jill is suspicious about the supposedly fake deaths and becomes determined to find out if they are real or not.

Cast

Release

On 26 October 2009, Herschell premiered footage for The Uh! Oh! Show at the opening night of The Spooky Movie Film Festival at the AFI Silver Theatre outside of Washington, D.C., following the 45th anniversary screening of Two Thousand Maniacs!. The film was planned to have had its world premiere at Spooky Empire's Weekend of Horror in Orlando, Florida on 11 October; however, according to Herschell Gordon Lewis's introduction to the film at the Abertoir Horror Festival in Aberystwyth, it wasn't ready by that time. The version shown at the Abertoir festival was the premiere but still an incomplete version of the film, lacking music, titles and some special effects.

A more complete version of the film was screened at the Cinema Wasteland movie convention in Strongsville, Ohio in October 2010, with Mr. Lewis in attendance. He held a question and answer session with fans following the screening.

Reception

The film won the Audience Choice Award at Texas Frightmare Weekend and Best Feature Horror Film at the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival.[1] In its review, film review site The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre describes the film as "the usual Lewis campy so-bad-its-good stuff" and reports that "the splatter is over-the-top and all in the name of silly, bad, cheaply provocative fun."[2] Writing in the Underground Film Journal, critic Mike Everleth wrote that the film "has a strong — if loopy and nonsensical — premise" and that "none of it makes much sense, but the energy is high and although the violence is in the realm of the cartoonish, the actual effects are good and grotesque."[3]

Home video

The film was released on DVD on 30 August 2011.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: "UH-OH!" H.G. Lewis Is Back! (with exclusive photos) . Michael . Gingold . 1 September 2011 . . 7 July 2012.
  2. Web site: Herschell Gordon Lewis . The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre . The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre . 2022-04-07.
  3. Web site: Everleth . Mike . The Uh-Oh Show . The Underground Film Journal . Underground Film Journal . 2022-04-07.