Cheap Blood Feast (DVD) (Herschell Gordon Lewis) Price

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Customer Reviews of Blood Feast

Well this one is different, its so bad it rocks! Horrible horrible acting! I mean this is the lowest you can go! If you thought TROMA actors were bad you havent seen nothing yet. The gore effects are very fake but atleast H.G. splashes it around in buckets instead of being really shy with it in his later movies. This movie is hilarious and worth owning on DVD if you like good....

Oh yeah, H.G. Lewis DID NOT make the first gore movie. Mexican and Asian film makers have been using graphic violence in films since they began. This guy is just overrated.

HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EGYPTIAN FEAST??
Unleashed in drive-in theaters back in 1963, H.G. Lewis's "Blood Feast" shocked and revolutionized the horror genre. Clearly an exploitation film, it was the first to make stomach-churning gore the main attraction. Of course, the effects are cheesy by today's standards. The blood itself looks too much like acrylic paint, and the mutilated tissue was generously piled on top of the skin. Also, while the low-budget plotline is grossly predictable, the soap opera acting is both dreadful and hysterical. Nevertheless, "Blood Feast" is a delectable cult masterpiece of camp. It allowed Lewis to freely assemble a series of twisted slasher flicks, including "Two Thousand Maniacs!," "The Wizard of Gore," and "The Gore Gore Girls."
Actor Mal Arnold plays Fuad Ramses, a diabolical serial killer who runs an exotic catering shop and publishes a book titled "Ancient Weird Religious Rites." Spewing forth his dialogue, he sports a black mortician's suit and a fake pair of blue-grey eyebrows. In addition, he owns a secret hideout where he worships the statue of Ishtar, Egypt's Mother of the Dark Sun. (Actually, she's nothing more than a department store mannequin painted in gold and cheaply draped in blue fabric!) Then, when Dorothy Freemont asks Fuad to prepare a dinner party for her daughter Suzette (Playboy's Connie Mason), he decides to concoct an authentic feast for the goddess. Simmering in a cauldron is a butcher's buffet of body parts that will supposedly resurrect Ishtar from her tomb. Meanwhile, a homicide detective named Pete (William Kerwin) and the Bureau's Chief Frank (Scott Hall) are busy investigating the many grusome murders that plague the city. Both of these actors can be quite dull, since they are not given that much to do in the film. In fact, if you look at Hall carefully, you will realize that he's reading his own lines off the palm of his hand! Anyway, Pete and Frank are frustrated because the perpetrator seems to disappear without a trace, not leaving even one fingerprint behind. Can anybody guess who the killer is? You guessed it! It's none other than Ramses himself!
Walking in broad daylight with an obvious limp, he stalks scantily clad women and cuts them down to size with a machete (a weapon that was later borrowed by Jason Voorhees in the "Friday the 13th" franchise!). Before the opening credits even appear, Ramses attacks a beautiful blond soaking in a bathtub. After stabbing her in the eye socket, he carves off the shin of her leg, allowing the bone to protrude from her thigh! Then, he enters an empty beach and extracts the brains of a bikini girl named Marcy. Much later on, Ramses manages to get his third victim in a cheap motel room. Holding her down on the bed, he rips out the shrieking woman's tongue with his bare hands! Last but not least, as he puts the finishing touches on the blood feast, he kidnaps Truly Sanders, Suzette's best friend. After chaining her to the dungeon wall, Ramses flogs her to death in an act of sadomasochistic torture. I don't want to reveal the graphic ending of this movie, but let's just say that poor Ramses is chased by the law and is taken out with the trash.
What is most entertaining about "Blood Feast" is how the Egyptian legend is revealed through a history lesson attended by Pete and Suzette. 5,000 years ago, Ishtar was a deity whose love is steeped in violence and suffering. In the beginning of spring, when the Nile river gave life to the land, the people visited the goddess's temple and indulged in 6 full days of wild orgies. Then, on the 7th day, 20 virgins were sacrificed on the altar. Their blood was collected in silver bowls and fresh organs were cooked and eaten by the crowd.
I encourage you freaks and lunatics to try "Blood Feast" at least once. Although it's not the best one directed by Lewis, it's certainly not the worst work either. If you are too intimidated by how I described this movie, then I suggest you have hamburgers for dinner instead.

Everything bad means everything's great
These movies are definitely an acquired taste, but love him or hate him, you have to respect a man like Herschell Gordon Lewis. He is a filmmaker truly dedicated to his vision, and thanks to producer David Friedman, made movies that were definitely stepping stones in the future development of horror. The gore on films like Night of the Living Dead probably wouldn't have been made if not for the success of these low-budget terrors. To him, I give my props.
Blood Feast: 4/5 stars
Two Thousand Maniacs: 5/5 stars
Color Me Blood Red: 2/5 stars

Bad and good, it's entertaining all the way through. Recommended for fans of b-movies or students of horror interested in seeing the real origins of gore.