Blood Feast

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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)
Followed by Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002)
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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.[citation needed]

The film is noted for its intentional "B movie" acting and direction. Notable is the caricature-like performance 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".

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Films directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis

The Prime Time (1960) • Living Venus (1960) • The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961) • Daughter of the Sun (1962) • Nature's Playmates (1962) • Goldilocks and The Three Bares (1963) • BOING-N-G! (1963) • Scum of the Earth (1963) • Bell, Bare and Beautiful (1963) • Blood Feast (1963) • Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) • Moonshine Mountain (1964) • Color Me Blood Red (1965) • Monster A Go-Go (1965) • Sin, Suffer and Repent (1965) • An Eye For An Eye (1966) • Jimmy, the Boy Wonder (1966) • The Magic Land of Mother Goose (1967) • Suburban Roulette (1967) • A Taste of Blood (1967) • Something Weird (1967) • The Gruesome Twosome (1967) • The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967) • Blast-Off Girls (1967) • She Devils on Wheels (1968) • Just for the Hell of It (1968) • How To Make a Doll (1968) • The Psychic (1968) • Linda and Abilene (1969) • The Ecstasies of Women (1969) • The Wizard of Gore (1970) • Miss Nymphet's Zap-In (1970) • This Stuff'll Kill Ya! (1971) • Black Love (1972) • Year of the Yahoo! (1972) • The Gore Gore Girls (1972) • Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002)