Horror Movie Review: Blood Feast (1963)

An iconic movie way that goes beyond its ‘video nasty’ tag. Blood Feast is the work of legendary splatter master, Herschell Gordon Lewis. A film that is considered to be the first ‘splatter’ movie and was impressively successful.

However, its gory content and on-screen death count would have it run foul of the Obscene Publications Act in the UK and it would become notorious as a video nasty. Now available completely uncut, Blood Feast is showing its age but is still a mostly enjoyable slice of gore.

Something we get to experience early on as a woman is murdered in her bath by a grey-haired man. He stabs her in the eye, cuts off her leg and leaves with it.

This man is Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) and he is trying to prepare a ‘blood feast’ in honour of an Egyptian goddess named Ishtar. The blood feast will be made up on different female body parts and when he completes it, the goddess will be resurrected.

Able to cover his tracks to the point that the police are baffled, Fuad continues to kill and collect the body parts he needs. During the day though? He runs a catering store and his latest customer is Dorothy Fremont (Lyn Bolton). She wants Fuad to cater for her daughter Suzette’s (Connie Mason) upcoming birthday party.

Fuad suggests an Egyptian theme and describes a feast that hasn’t been served in over 5000 years (the blood feast). Not knowing what it entails but excited, Mrs Freemont agrees and the plan is set in motion.

In two weeks time, Fuad will be able complete his ritual and resurrect the goodness Ishtar, the last victim being Suzette. That is provided the ever-enclosing net of the police doesn’t catch him first.

Mostly enjoyable, thanks in part to its less serious tone, Blood Feast is of a time and is certainly unlikely to shock when compared to modern horror. It’s iconic nature betrays what is often a pretty sub-par horror with awful acting and jarring cinematography. The plot is held together with gum and the longer it goes on, the more stretched it becomes.

By time the finale is reached, most will be ready to check out and those hoping to see a full ‘blood feast’ will find themselves very disappointed.

However, for such a small budget and a movie released in 1963, the gore effects aren’t terrible. Sure, they look pretty fake, but they are what most will remember about Blood Feast in the end.