A young teenage boy is blamed for a Florida neighborhood being terrorized. But the real culprits are a gang of four punks leading a group of local delinquents on a nihilistic lifestyle of destruction and mayhem.What strikes me about the film is the parallel with "Clockwork Orange". This is obviously not intentional, but the gang accosting an old (apparently blind) man seems very much like the droogs attacking homeless men. Lewis approaches it in a far more gruesome manner, however, with some of the violence very much Ripper-esque. Alex (in "Clockwork") is somehow sympathetic, despite being a murderous rapist. But Dexter (played by Ray Sager) is just a pure sociopath.Worthy of note is the appearance of musician Larry Williams. Williams is best known for writing and recording some rock and roll classics from 1957 to 1959 for Specialty Records, including "Bony Moronie", "Short Fat Fannie", "High School Dance" (1957), "Slow Down", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (1958), "Bad Boy" and "She Said Yeah" (1959). John Lennon was a fan, and the Beatles and several other British Invasion groups covered several of his songs.

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

For entertainment, Charlie Manson LOVED the goriest of magazines and movies or at least something hatefully abusive to women and/or children. He must of thought Herschell's 'hack-em up' films were an great option at the drive-in in the 60's, when they were released. It's coincidental that between Herschell Gordon Lewis filming on Charlie Manson's Spaun ranch in the late 60's and 'Charlie and the gang' getting revenge on the the recording industry (one school of thought), Just For the Hell of It was released. The actual events in the hills of Los Angeles and fictional events in this movie appear way too similar to be a coincidence (instead of 'pig' written on the wall in red, it was 'FUZZ'). Another troubling connection is that besides acting like Manson the cripple kicking, baby throwing White (Denny Fortune) got his albums title song internationally released with THE most controversial 1969 Charlie Manson tune (sung by the Beach boys???) on EMI's Ah Feel Like Ahcid.All this should scare the public more than the connections of Just For the Hell of It, Burgess, Kubrick and the making of Clockwork Orange should interest them.

"Just for the Hell of It" isn't exactly the cinematic masterpiece Herschell Gordon Lewis will be remembered for. Lewis made himself immortal among horror/cult cinema fanatics as "The Godfather of Gore"; a nickname he earned because he was the first one to direct horror movies where blood, guts and gore literally burst from the screen. Movies like "Blood Feast", "Two-Thousand Maniacs", "The Gore Gore Girls" and "The Gruesome Twosome" truly represent HG Lewis' repertoire and lifework, whereas "Just for the Hell of it" is merely just a rapidly produced and nonchalantly elaborated story to cash in on the contemporary popular trend of juvenile delinquency thrillers. There's no actual story and particularly the first full hour of the film feels like a compilation episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos: The Bad Kids Edition". It's basically just a series of amateurishly edited together clips showing a gang of youthful thugs pulling pranks and committing petty crimes in their area. At first their pranks are quite pitiable and laughable (wetting people with a garden hose, smearing pies in a salesgirl's face…) but they gradually turn into harsh crimes and near the end of the film they even turned to gang-rape and murder. The gang members refer to themselves as "Destruction Inc" which is quite the apt name since they surely like to break all kinds of stuff, varying from people's mailboxes, living rooms, snack bars, boats and even baby-carriages. The "plot" only just starts to unfold itself after an hour into the film, when a courageous boy stands up against the vicious gang but then gets falsely accused, threatened and targeted for vengeance. Moral of the story: look the other way when violence is being committed near you! "Just for the Hell of it" is an okay film if you're into cheap and extremely low-budgeted 60's exploitation, but it definitely contains too many overlong sequences of padding and repetitiveness. It's just plain boring to watch a bunch of people demolish all the furniture in one and the same room for five whole minutes. The acting performances are below par, as to be expected from this type of poverty row film production, but it's nevertheless quite funny how these "juvenile" delinquents are depicted by actors and actresses who're all at least in their late twenties. The gangs' last crime on the beach and particularly the denouement form the undeniable highlights of "Just for the Hell of it" because these sequences are shocking and vile, and the use of make-up effects in these scenes finally state clear that you're watching a H.G Lewis' flick! The theme song is also very exhilarating and catchy, so I'll give an extra point for that as well.