Blood Feast

Wikipedia:

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. The screenplay was written by Alison Louise Downe, who had previously appeared in several of Lewis' other films. Lewis also wrote the film's score. It was followed by Blood Feast 2: All You Can Eat.

Cast

Significance

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, the 1931 film The Public Enemy, and the 1960 film Psycho).

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."

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."

Critical reception

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".

In response to Variety's criticism of the film, Friedman wrote: “Herschell and I have often wondered who told the Variety scribe we were taking ourselves seriously.”

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 36% "Rotten" rating.

Illinois metal band, Dance Club Massacre used the film's original poster as the cover for the original pressing of their debut album, Feast of the Blood Monsters.

Sequel

Jackie Kong directed the cult film Blood Diner in 1986, with the intention of making it a "spiritual sequel" to Blood Feast. An official sequel, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, was released in 2002. It marked the first time Lewis and Friedman worked together on a film since 1965.

Trivia

Lewis wrote a novelization of Blood Feast to coincide with the release of the film. The novel, which features significantly different versions of central characters Fuad Ramses, Pete Thornton and Suzette Fremont, has a much more humorous tone than the film and is set in Chicago rather than Miami. It was reprinted by Fantaco Enterprises Inc. in the 1980s.

William Kerwin (credited as "Thomas Wood" in Blood Feast and a number of other Lewis films) and Connie Mason later married.