Blood Feast

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Blood Feast
Directed by	Herschell Gordon Lewis
Produced by	David F. Friedman
Written by	Allison Louise Downe David F. Friedman Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring	William Kerwin Mal Arnold Connie Mason Lyn Bolton Scott H. Hall
Distributed by	Box Office Spectaculars
Release date(s)	July 6, 1963
Running time	67 min.
Language	English
Budget	$24,500 (estimated)
Followed by	Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002)

Blood Feast (also known as Egyptian Blood Feast and Feast of Flesh) is a 1963 American horror film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, often considered the first "splatter film". It was produced by David F. Friedman. This movie today would receive an R rating for violence and blood and gore. The screenplay was written by Alison Louise Downe, who had previously appeared in several of Lewis's other films. Lewis also wrote the film's score.

[edit] Significance

Popular with members of Lewis's small but loyal "cult following", as well as by some "B movie" fans, Blood Feast is a low budget horror film about an insane Egyptian caterer who kills people so that he can include their body parts in his meals and perform sacrifices to his "Egyptian goddess" Ishtar (the deity in question is actually Babylonian). Blood Feast immediately became notorious for its explicit blood, gore and violence. Blood Feast is often cited erroneously as one of the first films to show people dying with their eyes open (earlier examples include D. W. Griffith's 1909 film The Country Doctor and the 1931 film The Public Enemy).^[1]

Mal Arnold plays deranged murderer Fuad Ramses, described by author Christopher Wayne Curry in his book A Taste of Blood: The Films Of Herschell Gordon Lewis as "the original machete-wielding madman", and the forerunner to similar characters in Friday the 13th and Halloween. Lewis said of the film, "I've often referred to Blood Feast as a Walt Whitman poem. It's no good, but it was the first of its type."^[2]

Blood Feast is the first part of what the director's fans have dubbed "The Blood Trilogy". Rounding out the trilogy are the films Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). After the third film, producer David F. Friedman said, "I think that for now we're going to abandon making any more 'super blood and gore' movies, since so many of our contemporaries are launching similar productions, causing a risk that the market will quickly reach a saturation point."^[3]

[edit] Cast

• Detective Pete Thornton: Thomas Wood (William Kerwin)^[4]
• Fuad Ramses: Mal Arnold
• Suzette Fremont: Connie Mason
• Frank, Police Captain: Scott H. Hall
• Mrs. Dorothy Fremont: Lyn Bolton
• Trudy Sanders: Toni Calvert
• Marcy, Girl on beach: Ashlyn Marton
• Pat Tracey: Sandra Sinclair
• Motel victim: Astrid Olson
• Drunken husband: David F. Friedman (uncredited)
• Radio Announcer: Herschell Gordon Lewis (uncredited)

[edit] Criticism

Originally, critics were not kind to Blood Feast. A Variety review of May 6, 1964 termed the film a "totally inept shocker", "incredibly crude and unprofessional from start to finish", and "an insult even to the most puerile and salacious of audiences". The review labeled the entire production a "fiasco", calling Louise Downe's screenplay "senseless" and the acting "amateurish". Of Lewis' direction, camerawork and musical composition, the review judged that he had "failed dismally on all three counts".^[5]

[edit] Sequel

Jackie Kong directed the cult favorite Blood Diner in 1986, with the intention of making it a "spiritual sequel" to Blood Feast. A spoof remake, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, was released in 2002. It marked the first time Lewis and Friedman worked together on a movie in several years.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Blood Feast

• Blood Feast at the Internet Movie Database
• Blood Feast at Allmovie
• Blood Feast at the TCM Movie Database
• Blood Feast at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e Films directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis The Prime Time (1960) • Living Venus (1960) • The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961) • Daughter of the Sun (1962) • Nature's Playmates (1962) • Goldilocks and The Three Bares (1963) • BOING-N-G! (1963) • Scum of the Earth! (1963) • Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963) • Blood Feast (1963) • Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) • Moonshine Mountain (1964) • Color Me Blood Red (1965) • Monster A Go-Go (1965) • Sin, Suffer and Repent (1965) • An Eye For An Eye (1966) • Jimmy, the Boy Wonder (1966) • The Magic Land of Mother Goose (1967) • Suburban Roulette (1967) • A Taste of Blood (1967) • Something Weird (1967) • The Gruesome Twosome (1967) • The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967) • Blast-Off Girls (1967) • She-Devils on Wheels (1968) • Just for the Hell of It (1968) • How To Make a Doll (1968) • The Psychic (1968) • Linda and Abilene (1969) • The Ecstasies of Women (1969) • The Wizard of Gore (1970) • Miss Nymphet's Zap-In (1970) • This Stuff'll Kill Ya! (1971) • Black Love (1972) • Year of the Yahoo! (1972) • The Gore Gore Girls (1972) • Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002)