Blood Feast [1963] dir Hershel Gordon Lewis

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056875/




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)





Blood Feast (1963, also known as Egyptian Blood Feast and Feast of Flesh) is an 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's other films. Lewis also wrote the film's score.



Popular with members of Lewis's small but loyal cult, as well as by some "B movie" fanatics, 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 (although the deity in question is actually Babylonian). Blood Feast immediately became notorious for its explicit blood, gore and violence. Many people consider its most infamous moment to be when the murderer rips out a young woman's tongue on camera. Blood Feast is also one of the first films to show people dying with their eyes open.[



The film is noted for its "B movie" acting and direction. Notable is the caricature-like performance[citation needed] of Mal Arnold, playing the part of 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 the Friday the 13th and Halloween series of films.



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! and Color Me Blood Red.



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.



This movie is referenced and seen in John Waters' Serial Mom, when Matthew Lillard's character mentions that this movie is "the Citizen Kane of gore movies".