Phil's Horror Watch, Day 2: Phil watches BLOOD FEAST (1963)-October 2, 2011

Welcome back to my month long screening of horror films for this hellish month called October! So continuing my horror film escapade, I decided to watch a true classic of the genre that without it, horror films would not look like they do today. Infusing violence and gratuitous gore, director Herschell Gordon Lewis and produce David F. Friedman unleashed upon the world BLOOD FEAST, and the face of horror would never look the same again!

Theatrical Movie Poster (1963)

The film's about an Egyptian caterer named Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) who kills a series of women to use their dismembered body parts to revive the dormant Egyptian goddess Ishtar. Hot on his heels is Police Detective Pete Thornton (William Kerwin) who plans on capturing Ramses before he sacrifices his love Suzette Fremont (Connie Mason) to Ishtar.

By 1963, Lewis and Friedman, having made several "nudie cutie" films together, decided to try to do something different. Sex was still forbidden to see on the big screen, so the two decided to go in the complete opposite direction. On a five day shoot with a budget of $25,000 (Lewis and Friedman were the ENTIRE crew), the duo forever changed the landscape of cinema, and decorated the screen with blood red gore. The film went on to gross over $3 million dollars, and two other films followed shortly. TWO THOUSAND MANIACS and COLOR ME BLOOD RED continued with the gore and these films are now known as The Blood Trilogy. These films were also recently released on Blu-Ray by Something Weird Video (which its name was taken from a Lewis film). After the trilogy, both Lewis and Friedman went their separate ways, but Lewis went to to direct other classics such as THE WIZARD OF GORE, A TASTE OF BLOOD, and THE GORE GORE GIRLS.

In 2002, Lewis returned to the world of filmmaking (along with Friendman back as producer) to direct the sequel BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL YOU CAN EAT. He has just recently directed the film THE UH-OH SHOW, which was made back in 2009. Currently, most of Lewis' films are available on DVD and can be purchased on the Something Weird Video website at http://www.somethingweird.com/

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!