Blood Feast . Austin Chronicle . 07-27-98

Blood Feast

DIRECTED BY: Herschell Gordon Lewis

REVIEWED: 07-27-98

This is it! This is the mother lode, the Book of Genesis, the wellspring from which spewed the gallons of grue that flowed through 30 years' worth of splatter and gore movies. Herschell Gordon Lewis had previously worked in the nudie genre until he hit on the idea of Grand Guignol violence for his drive-in releases. Blood Feast kicked things off with the tale of a caterer who worships a mannequin designated as an Egyptian goddess. The goddess feeds on blood, and after 5,000 years she's a mite thirsty. He's been hired to cater an Egyptian feast for ex-Playmate Connie Mason, and in the process various people are relieved of legs, tongues, brains, and other body parts. Torrents of the special-recipe H.G. Lewis gore flow in disgusting (if unconvincing) detail. The acting is terrible, the threadbare budget shows in every shot, but just imagine Southern drive-in audiences lining up around the block back in 1963 to toss their cookies to Blood Feast. Lewis' next feature was 2000 Maniacs, a South's-gonna-rise-again bloodbath aimed right at the chicken-fried set. Offensive, nasty, shabby, and revolting, but also great fun, if you can stand the sight of guts (of course ya' can, you wimp).

--Jerry Renshaw

Capsule Reviews
Blood Feast

Film Vault Suggested Links
The Ghoul
Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things
Theatre of Blood

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