Just for the Hell of It (1968)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

An action-packed slog

What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

Blistering performances.

Herschell Gordon Lewis has made some memorable films in his time. 1968's Blood Feast introduced the film world to the wonders of gore and although it is an undeniably terrible and amateurish film, it certainly had it's charms. They came thick and fast after that, and his CV added the likes of 2000 Maniacs!, Color Me Blood Red, The Gruesome Twosome, and The Gore Gore Girls. Again, these are all terrible films, but his horror output is genuinely wildly entertaining due to their zero-budget sets, awful scripts, worse acting, and extremely ropy gore make-up. The other films he made in and around these did not share these charms - they were quickies made on a half-idea based around a specific exploitative subject - in this case, juvenile delinquents. They were even given their own sub-genre, known as 'J.D.' films.Just For The Hell Of It is based around a gang of young men and women as they participate in a lot of anti-social behaviour, seemingly only for cheap kicks. Beginning at a party that soon deteriorates into the absolute destruction of the room, they abolish it with fists, feet, hammers, and whatever else they can get their hands on. Their acts become more outlandish, as they throw water over passers-by, set fire to things, throw a baby into a bin, beat an injured man with his own crutches, and hit a blind man with his cane. Innocent, bronze-skinned meat-head Doug (Rodney Bedell) seems to be caught up in it and frequently finds himself crossing paths with the gang, especially leader Dexter (Ray Sager).What is basically an interesting idea is dealt with by H.G. Lewis' usual graceless and heavy-handed approach. The film is nothing more than one act of anti-social behaviour after the next, and it goes on for 90 long minutes. The most ridiculous thing is that the gang does all this in broad daylight, in front of lots of witnesses and bystanders, yet they seem to manage to evade the cops. Even when they attack a bunch of kids playing baseball, Doug runs over to help - yet an old woman passing by somehow manages to mistake the whole gang for Doug, who she ends up blaming. The laughable moral message at the end ('This is the end of the movie, but not of the violence') seems ridiculous coming from the man who directed Blood Feast. I really don't want to waste any more words on this film because it simply doesn't deserve it. Simply horrifying film- making at its very worse. But I somehow still love you, Herschell.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

This film was made by the crown prince of gore and schlock, Hershell Gordon Lewis. It begins with some young people at a party. All of the sudden, one of the 'untamed youth' begins smashing things--at which point they all join in with the fun. What makes it rather strange is that some of them have knives and even hatchets!! Where did they hide them and what sort of folks bring hatchets?! This opening scene lasts about three times longer than it should and could have used a strong editing. Then, the credits roll along with some of the most nasal and annoying music I've heard in years. Tary Rebanar's voice is high-pitched and annoying enough to raise the dead!! Sadly, strains from his god-awful warbling came and went throughout the film.Once the movie begins, you'll most likely notice how bad the sound is--like it's being filmed with a super 8mm movie camera. As for the acting, everyone seems to over-emote--even the band, whose guitarist and bass player appear to be having grand mal seizures. Really...you need to see them bouncing about to believe it. I am sure the king of subtle, Lewis, instructed them on the finer points of acting and style.What follows are some poorly choreographed fights (I truly think Lewis just yelled out "okay, start breaking things" and let them wing it) and MORE destruction of rooms full of cheap furniture. And, like the first time, it seems to go on forever. You'd think these 'youth gone wild' would have gotten bored with this after a while, and so they do. For kicks, then, they fry a guy's hand on the stove, burn newspapers that sit right in front of the camera and smash apart a baby carriage. I especially loved the shot of the baby sitting in a trashcan--just looking at the punks as they did their thing. It was dumb but also kind of funny. Sadly, however, the film didn't stop there. It kept showing more and more and more of the same sort of thing--these kids beating up and humiliating adults time and time again. It really got old very quickly and just looked like padding and made up the bulk of the film. Acting and plot just didn't seem that important. Yet I was also left to wonder how they could do this so many times in broad daylight and yet the cops STILL couldn't figure out who these young whippersnappers were!!! And, considering how loud and obnoxious and noticeable the crazed kids were, you almost thought the cops in the film should have been played by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.Finally, to break the monotony of the same old attacks again and again, a group of four nice girls are invited to one of the gang's parties and are drugged and raped. But, instead of this signaling a move to more serious crimes, in the next scene the gang literally goes out and beats up little children playing baseball. I know it was supposed to be shocking but I just thought the whole thing was incredibly silly. And, once again, the scene seemed to go on way too long. However, even though it's a horrible scene, just get a load of that old lady as she watches the attack! I loved her expressions--the type that make Edith Massey seem like a brilliant thespian.Unfortunately, in addition to the old lady being a horrible actress, she also misidentifies who caused the problems--saying that an innocent kid was at fault for attacking an entire gang. And, the brain-addled police seem to think this is reasonable and arrest the boy. They ignore another more credible witness and don't even bother talking to the little kids! Hmm...it seems the police aren't really blind--just really, really stupid! In the following scene, by the way, you learn what else the vicious gang likes to do for fun. They play bumper pool!!! So, as the gang play, the innocent guy who was just arrested comes into the room full of these clean-cut looking thugs and threatens them!!! What part of stupid didn't this guy understand?! He has just shown that he's dumb enough to join this town's police force. Yet, oddly, we see no beat-down--just the gang enjoying six packs of everyone's favorite beverage, Carling Black Label (could they have perhaps been a sponsor!?). What happened to the dumb guy who just threatened to kill them (and without a gun or tank or even backup to help)?! What follows instead is a rape scene that showed a lot more than I'd assumed they could get away with back in 1968.However, apparently the gang didn't forget about the dumb guy and you see them about to exact their revenge. In the very next scene, his girlfriend calls the cops to report the threatening phone calls she got and they respond that there's nothing they can do(?). I think the Keystone Kops would have been an improvement over the police in this goofy town. What follows are more sexual assaults and mayhem until finally, finally the gang is finally stopped in a weird scene where a bike just explodes for no reason. This film, with a few exceptions here and there, managed to make gang violence rather boring. Too many scenes should have been shortened, there were too many attacks and not enough story. All in all, the violence just got old and dull very quickly and the story never made sense as people cannot be THAT dumb! While this is a terrible film in almost every way, for Hershell Gordon Lewis this is NOT among his worst films. No, for that you might want to try MONSTER A GO-GO and THIS STUFF'LL KILL YA. Believe it or not, however, Lewis did make one low-budget films that didn't completely suck--the surprisingly good TWO THOUSAND MANIACS. This proves that if you try hard enough, you're bound to get lucky once.

H.G. Lewis was on quite a roll in the late 60's... In fact, he directed 11 films (!) in '67 and '68. I realize that Lewis has his share of detractors. Many consider him a no talent hack who relentlessly regurgitated disposable entertainment at a disturbingly prodigious rate during the mid-to-late 60's. They often bemoan the nailed-down camera work, wooden acting, and ridiculous situations depicted on screen. Interestingly, these are the exact elements that make Mr. Lewis's films so endearing to me...When I watch movies, I do so for two main reasons. Either I want to be entertained and amused; or I want be pulled out of my comfort zone, and placed in a mental area in which I am forced to think about and ponder various facets of life. This film entertains in a big way. In fact, most H.G. Lewis films never fail to entertain me and bring a big smile to my face...Mr. Lewis is best know as being the Godfather of Gore. Not many film-goers realize that Mr. Lewis was an incredibly versatile movie making machine; dipping into children's films, morality tales, hillbilly musical comedies, juvenile delinquent tales, nudies, roughies, and other assorted ephemera...'Just For The Hell Of It' is H.G. Lewis's juvenile delinquent masterpiece. These are some bad kids...The film starts out with a bang, and within 45 seconds a reckless groups of youths can be found laying waste to and completely trashing a house. These bad boys (and girl) are led by Ray Sager(as Dexter). The entire film is dedicated to the exploits of Dexter and company, as they terrorize a town and it's inhabitants. The pranks and mischief start out relatively harmlessly (setting newspapers on fire, dousing citizens with water, destroying laundry, trashing a restaurant), become more bizarre and off-color (putting a baby in a trash can, beating a blind man with his own cane), and of course become very malicious (gang rape and murder)...I really enjoyed this film quite a bit. With subsequent viewings, it has never ceased to put a smile on my face. I also liked that Mr. Lewis didn't try to justify or explain the actions of the rowdy youth- they did it all 'Just For The Hell Of It'.... they did it for the kicks... In fact, You should watch this highly entertaining piece of nostalgia for the same reason...

"Just For The Hell of It" has to be one of the greatest exploitation flicks I have ever seen. I wanted to see it ever since seeing the trailer a few years ago, which was basically just kids ripping stuff apart. How can you not love that? The film sets the tone quickly as almost immediately the gang destroys a roomful of furniture, even before a single word is muttered on screen. It actually takes seven minutes for any words to come out of anyone's mouth, as after the initial destruction we see a wild late 60's band, complete with guys who seemed like they influenced Angus Young with their head banging on stage.From there, the movie is virtually non-stop as the gang goes literally from one thing to another, destroying stuff, bothering people, causing all sorts of hell. Some of the things they do are throwing buckets of water at people, hosing down a woman, ripping clothes off a clothes line, ripping up a magazine a woman is reading, and more. These scenes are completely hilarious.The acts seem to get more violent as the film progresses, as those things progress into beating a blind man with his cane, beating an injured man with his crutches, beating an eatery owner and burning his hand (after destroying his place), and putting a baby in a garbage can while destroying the carriage (where did the mother go?).The funny thing about all of this is that the gang does it all in broad daylight, in congested places where there are plenty of cars and people around, and of course no one does anything. Even when the gang starts beating on a bunch of little kids playing baseball in the park (in a hilarious scene where you can spot a kid or two laughing as they are being tossed around) one old lady who does see what happened, blames a guy trying to stop the gang for starting a fight with them, and has him arrested.Then from there, things get much more violent and a little less funny as the gang adds murder and gang-rape to their mayhem.Much of "Just For The Hell of It" appears to have been shot silent, with sound added later, adding to the cheesiness of the whole thing. It is funny listening to goofy 60's music as the gang commits these crimes, and they also seem to produce hammers and axes wherever they are when they start breaking stuff, despite the fact that you never actually see them carrying any weapons.The film almost never drags, constantly going from one destructive event to another for almost the entire duration, until the last 15 minutes when things slow down a bit to build up some tension. The guys are all smart alecks and the girls are all pretty. This is a classic JD problem child flick that anyone into very cheesy low-budget stuff will get a huge kick out of. It is H.G. Lewis after all, no one does it quite like him!