Blood Feast

Blood Feast (1963)

Runtime: 67 minutes

Directed by: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Starring: Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, Connie Mason, Lyn Bolton, Scott H. Hall

From: Friedman-Lewis Productions

Randomly I decided that this should be the horror film I would watch TV. Earlier in the year I found it in the used section at an FYE, of all places. It's a Blu that has what has been called The Blood Trilogy from Herschell Gordon Lewis, that being this film, Two Thousand Maniacs! & Color Me Blood Red. I've seen Blood Feast a few times before but the last viewing was awhile ago. Onto the Letterboxd review:

Here's a motion picture I've watched a few times before, but I decided that this would be the perfect month to see it again. After that it may be a long while before I see it again, as it's technically a pretty crappy film, albeit one that is notable in movie history as the first to be graphically gory and show so much blood and visceral remains, even if it looks rather hokey in 2014.

After all, this is a real low-budget movie from B-movie purveyor Herschell Gordon Lewis where some old dude named Fuad Ramses who has crazy eyes and painted on eyebrows starts killing young girls so he can use their body parts in sacrifices to Ishtar; no, he's not praising the infamous Elaine May movie but rather it's the goddess of ancient times.

Like I said the movie's rather bad, whether you're talking about the preposterous story or most of the acting. Yet, those elements also lead to the camp factor, which is pretty high and that's why I give it 2 ½ stars. Everything revolving around Fuad Ramses is pretty funny, from his name and his eyebrows to him having a bum leg that he needs to drag around and how his job is “exotic food catering”.

While the movie definitely isn't as shocking as it must have been when unsuspecting audiences saw it in '63, at least it can still be enjoyable in modern times.

I'll return Saturday night.