DVD Artwork
I make no secret of the fact that I love a gory splatter-filled movie, always have and I’m fairly sure I always will. From the cannibal and zombie flicks of 70′s Italy through to the present trend of blood drenched “torture” movies, you name it I’ll watch them. Just show me the blood! The granddaddy of all gore movies though has to be Blood Feast, a movie made over 40 years ago, that was certainly groundbreaking in its showing of the chunkier side of bloodletting. Does Blood Feast have anything else going for it though? Is its reputation warranted? Or is it just an aged old B-movie curiosity piece? The short answers being “Not really”, “Yes” and “Pretty much”. Answers that I’ll expand on after I’ve given the plot the a brief summary.
Young women are being murdered and horribly mutilated, the police are clueless as high buggery and a weird looking fucker with blue hair and scary eyebrows organizes Egyptian banquets. That’s pretty much the plot in a nutshell folks.
Actually there is slightly more to it than that. Each victim has a different part of their body removed and according to the police there is absolutely no clues or links between victims, while it is blatantly obvious to the viewer at home that there is one glaringly obvious link.
While the murders are happening the mother of Suzette (Connie Mason) is organizing a secret party for her daughter. She visits an establishment that caters for Egyptian style food on the recommendation of a friend. Something different is what she is looking for, so it comes as no surprise when freaky haired eyebrow man suggests an Egyptian feast for the party.
We all know that the walking eyebrow is the killer, as it is revealed in the opening scene so don’t bitch about me revealing too much! Why is he doing it though? Well, it is all tied to an ancient Egyptian cult that involves blood sacrifices, and he needs the body parts.
What are the police doing about it all? Acting liking clueless morons to tell the truth. How the hell the two jokers investigating the crimes made detective is beyond me.
Before I continue, let me just say this: Blood Feast is a terrible movie. Okay, that’s off my chest now. Aside from the gore Blood Feast has nothing going for it. You have a killer that would stand out in a circus, police that couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery and so many dodgy moments I found myself wondering if I was supposed to be watching a badly made comedy.
But, but, but it’s a classic I hear you mutter. No, it is a movie that has a reputation based solely on the fact that it introduced us to the wonders of gore, no more than that. And yes, the gore is wonderful, from tongues being ripped out to eyes being gouged out, this movie really pushes the limits of the time. Other than that though it really is nothing special at all.
A scene in the hospital where the police are questioning a survivor had me in absolute stitches, which I’m sure was not the intention at all. As for the final scene, which I won’t spoil for you, well that was a moment of absolute scripting genius, as the viewer gets told what we already knew about 15 minutes into the movie.
Despite the fact that this is not a very good movie, I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a gory movie, or more precisely fans that have an interest in the history of the gore movie. Other than that I would find it hard to recommend on any level other than a curiosity from a bygone era.
Once again I see a release that has “Special Edition” tagged onto the title, and once again Image Entertainment have disappointed. The extras here are virtually identical to the extras on their release of HG Lewis’ Two Thousand Maniacs. So you get a commentary, an Art gallery and a trailer. On this release there is also a short movie about meat carving, which was amusing if nothing else. Blood Feast is a movie that deserves its place in horror history as the make-up effects were way before their time. Other than that? I personally wouldn’t watch it again.
