Blood Feast (1963)

 

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Screenplay: Louise Downe

Cast: William Kerwin as Det. Pete Thornton; Mal Arnold as Fuad Ramses; Connie Mason as Suzette Fremont; Lyn Bolton as Mrs. Dorothy Fremont; Scott H. Hall as Frank; Christy Foushee as Trudy Sanders

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #207

 

Have you ever had an Egyptian feast?

We talk of Psycho (1960) being a huge cultural influence in cinema, but with actual seriousness, what was the lasting effect when Herschell Gordon Lewis, bored of making nudie cuties, found a new niche and created the "splatter" genre? Whether it was more the decades later when we finally learnt of its significance or not, Blood Feast is still historically important even if from a director who never considered his work art but merely entertainment. It is not hyperbole to say that, whilst this genre could have been created later on by another movie, Blood Feast was the first and from it so much horror and genre cinema fixated on splatter effects and fake gore grew from this film's initial seed.

I will be honest though, even as a fan of Herschell Gordon Lewis, that I cannot fully appreciate the film, a case of a person's most well known creation which is yet not as interesting as others. It is the one many think of with Lewis, in terms of pop culture, but it is not as interesting or weird as later productions, even Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002). The one factor I have to take into consideration, in this tale of Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold), caterer and worshipper of the blood goddess Ishtar in the midst of killing women for titular blood feast, is that this was the blue print for later work with kinks to iron out. It does show the virtues I came to like in his work, still the inherently kitsch and delightfully eccentric tone of his other work, but merely a fragment.

The splatter film, with the poster paint red and use of real butcher shop offal, could not truly exist without colour film, but one of the most distinct aspects of Lewis in general is that, most of his golden era of films in the sixties, this work is imbued with a distinct aesthetic also alien to the stereotype of the sixties, being for many flower power and hippies. Even in the context of exploitation films, Blood Feast sadly does suffer from its structure of a prolonged crime procedural which drags on even over sixty eight minutes, but alongside the gore still being strong in the modern day in context, the Americana and tone is arguably as much its personality. It is a film which is quite goofy, openly so, very much of square middle suburbia with its interior decorating and Wilma Flintstone hair on actresses violently juxtaposed with its gore. This is the kind of world you would presume to see in a beach film or an exotica album cover, inexplicably here instead and striking as a result.

In another context, the exoticism of Egyptian culture would be offensive nowadays, of evil cults of orgies and sacrifice to ogle over. Ishtar is not even an Egyptian God, but a Sumerian one, which adds an absurdity to this. Thankfully, these problems are neutralised by Lewis' personality. The later films were funnier, but from the start, Blood Feast has to its advantage a deeply ghoulish sense of humour, or least the sense of self deprecation to overcome its limitations. Helping considerably is the aesthetic - having to shot where he could, Lewis more than likely brought a lot more verisimilitude to the film where the clothes worn are likely those the actors had off-camera, whilst the grocery store Ramses works out of, as he offers the mother of a young woman soon to have her birthday to cater for, is clearly a real one. Even in mind, sadly, many of his films were not preserved as well as they could have been, only much later when the likes of Something Weird Video became his flag waver, Lewis' work as films shot in colour have their own gaudy, idiosyncratic atmosphere which still applies here.  The take on Egyptian culture, which merely boils down to a golden Ishtar statue that could proudly sit in a casino lobby, and even a flashback in the past with anachronistic sixties hair on the female sacrifice, instead comes off silly.

It cannot be denied how crudely made Blood Feast is. Some of the memorable aspects are likely unexpected - Arnold's performance is "memorable", more because whilst as an actor he felt less restricted in Scum of the Earth (1963), also be Lewis, but here is stiffer both trying to work with an accent and playing an older man with fake grey in his hair. Even here though, you have flickers of intentional silliness. Lewis makes some sadistic scenes here, but he never wanted to not be entertaining. It takes some of the bite of the issues I have had with the film when it was clearly made with his tongue in his cheek. Not ironic, but as its infamous tongue ripping scene, being like a spectacle of yucks holding it aloft in the air, wanting to make the viewer squirm like a haunted house spectacle, and then following it up with humour. There is humour when, even though her caterer has just been revealed to be a killer, the mother of the birthday girl says immediately afterwards will just have to have hamburgers instead, never mind that her daughter was nearly sacrificed. Moments like this would be amplified in his later work, and this one of Herschell Gordon Lewis' best aspects as a creator.

Also, one has to bear in mind that Lewis was also one person in the midst of this production, and whilst in the midst of this, I hold up Lewis as an idiosyncratic figure who made films distinctly of his wn, the people he worked with are of interest and built the foundations around him as in all film making. Intriguing, writing the script according to some sources, is Louise Downe, who was one of the lead actresses in Scum of Earth, and is a figure who, in truth, has been unfortunately sidelined in Herschell Gordon Lewis' history considering she was a writer on multiple films of his (The Gruesome Twosome (1967)), second unit/assistant director on many, even special effects for films like The Gore Gore Girls (1972), making her a figure who really needs a lot more information on. Mal Arnold, who sadly has a tiny filmography, is still compelling in his odd performance here,  though I have become fond of William Kerwin, who by this point, beyond this role as the lead detective, was a veteran in films and especially television. His tale is sweeter knowing he met his future wife Connie Mason, a model who played the lead and would be together until his death in 1989.  Even Lewis himself is underappreciated, as one of the most iconic aspects, and one of the best for me, is his own contribution to the score. Basic yes, but from its drum beats and extreme minimalism, it is as much part of the film's legacy.

Returning to a phrase used earlier, that this is the blue print for his later work, that reason is why I still will look to Blood Feast with admiration. Stiff and not as interesting as the later films, definitely, but still with a lot to like, and historical importance means it is necessary to see. Too much of it has become iconic in context for exploitation cinema - the trailer alone even, with Kerwin (as himself warning the viewer of the trailer itself before continuing with it, or the title screen being a Sphinx against a bright blue sky with the title composed from dripping (fake) blood. That this also was the progenitor of a genre too is impossible to deny either, and thankfully, the figures behind this film, not just Lewis, found a niche as a result of this and built from the plan in deliberately more lurid and entertaining ways.