I don’t really remember how I first heard of the film Blood Feast and its notoriety as being the first gore/splatter film but I do remember first renting it on VHS when I was 16 years old. I remember a few key gore scenes but it didn’t seem as a big deal for me then. The movie, especially the story, started to grow on me. I loved the story because it was simple and effective. The acting was decent and carried the film along. The directing and score was excellent because I felt as if I was in a gory fairytale.

Fuad Ramses played by Mal Arnold is clearly the star of the picture. Ramses runs an exotic catering service but his real desire is to perform an ancient Egyptian ritual called the blood feast. In this feast a choice virgin is sacrificed so that the goddess Ishtar will come to life. So he limps across town killing young women and stealing their body parts to cook in a stew in honor of Ishtar. In the back room of the store he has prepared a life size idol of Ishtar which he worships, cooks stew, and bakes body parts for. And oh yeah he also whips a girl chained to the wall.

As for the gore, well you have to keep in mind that this movie came out in 1963! It was revolutionary for it’s time but even today you can still get chills. I’m thinking of the scene where he opens a girls mouth and pulls out her tongue. It’s slowly done, there’s lot’s of blood, and the tongue looks great. The scene at the beach also looks real as hell. I have seen real pictures of a person with they’re head smashed (don’t ask) and this looks very real. I want to mention that I also noticed some subtle humor in the movie and it adds to the whole feel. A lot of the lines are hilarious. Most of the dialogue between the two policeman is ridiculous but very funny. You have to enjoy every part of the film. I just finished watching it for the second time and I wouldn’t mind watching it again. Also, Faud Ramses is one of the strangest villains I have ever seen. His eyes and how he takes the whole ritual so seriously is great. If you want to laugh look out for one of the last scenes in the movie where he is trying to get Suzette, the innocent victim onto the table to sacrifice her while her family naively waits in the room next door!

With Blood Feast, directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the godfather of gore, and produced by David Friedman, gore films were born. A gore, or splatter film as it may also be called is a movie whose chief purpose is to portray gore, blood and carnage. The story is then wound around that. Lewis and Friedman produced several other gore films including: Two Thousand Maniacs!, The Gore Gore Girls, and Wizard of Gore. All of these and more are available on DVD. If you love gore films you owe it to yourself to at least rent and see where the whole subgenre began. We have a classic here.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez