The plot of Hershell Gordon Lewis "Blood Feast" is paper-thin:a sinister shop owner is trying to resurrect an Egyptian goddess Ishtar by butchering and dismembering beautiful girls.Fun-filled gore romp with cheesy acting and inept splatter scenes.The tongue removal scene is legendary among horror fans.The plot is just an excuse to move from one bloody murder scene to the next.I am fairly sure that back in 1963 images from "Blood Feast" were shocking for the audience from that time.That's why Hershell Gordon Lewis chunk-blower is so important as perhaps the first gore film ever made.Don't take "Blood Feast" seriously - it's just a gross-out horror comedy.7 blood feasts out of 10.

The same night I saw BLOOD FEAST, I also saw another of director Hershell Gordon Lewis' films, TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (which turned out to be a pretty good film). So the fact that I gave one of these films a positive review is ample evidence that I haven't got a grudge against his films and his very low-budget style. Heck, it's possible to make a decent film on a shoestring budget, as films like CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) and VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) were amazingly good films despite the low production values. In light of this and the over 5400 movies I have reviewed, it says a lot when I declare that BLOOD FEAST has the worst acting I have ever seen--and I have seen SANTA CLAUS VERSUS THE MARTIANS, ROBOT MONSTER and THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS!!

The film is about a homicidal maniac that rips women apart to appease his sick goddess. Ostensibly, she is an Egyptian goddess, though everything about her, the cannibalism and history of Egypt is pure crap and seems to come from Lewis' fertile imagination. But, with a title like BLOOD FEAST, this is a minor consideration to say the least! The real star of the film is the gore and I have to admit that for a film from 1963, the gore is exceptionally realistic. Sure they make gorier films today with top-notch effects, but for 1963 it was groundbreaking AND the blood looked much more realistic than other films of the era.

So if the film was so important to the history of gore films, why does it still earn a 1? After all, the effects weren't bad. Well, let's get back to the acting. It was worse than any high school production I have seen--and I know what I am talking about since I teach in a high school and have seen at least a dozen productions. Any of the kids at my school could have acted circles around the bozos who appeared in BLOOD FEAST. Many of the "actors" had difficulty reading their lines and each time they were required to show emotion it was frankly hilarious! In particular, the time the guy is attacked and his girlfriend is murdered is bad! When the cops tell him that she's dead, his emotional tirade is unintentionally comical! A bit later, when the victim's mother is told, she appears to be trying to hide her laughter when she "cries". It's bad,....real bad.

Now the bad acting could be chalked up to the production values, but that would be a mistake. The "director" never seemed to re-shoot any scene no matter how badly botched and he seemed to do nothing to elicit anything resembling acting from the actors. Much of this is because when he should have been directing, Lewis was actually busy filming the picture and was too busy to offer any coaching or guidance. The fools just seemed like they were told to "act sad" and were left to wing it! I could talk more about the dopey plot and the actor who looked like a shorter version of Michael Richards who did all the killing, but frankly who cares?! The bottom line is that this film is every bit as bad as the worst of Ed Wood, Jr. and for fans of bad films that means this film is pure gold! To normal folks, though, watching this would probably be pretty tough going...like having surgery without anesthesia!

In Miami, the Egyptian serial-killer Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) owns a catering store and kills women taking parts of each one of them. Fuad worships the goddess Ishtar and is preparing a blood feast to resurrect her. Detective Pete Thornton (Thomas Wood) is investigating the murder cases trying to find who the killer is. Meanwhile the mother of his girlfriend Suzette Fremont (Connie Mason) hires the Fuad Ramses Catering store to provide the food for her birthday party. Fuad intends to sacrifice Suzette as the ultimate offering to Ishtar. Will he succeed?

"Blood Feast" is a lame amateurish trash with laughable performances and ridiculous situations. The importance of this film is that it is the first splatter movie with explicit gore. It is unthinkable imagining the reaction of the audiences with the explicit violence and gore in 1963, despite the funny performances. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): Not Available on DVD or Blu-Ray