Blood Feast . Weekly Alibi . 06-06-97

Blood Feast

DIRECTED BY: Herschell Gordon Lewis

REVIEWED: 06-06-97

Emily and I thought it was high time we finally saw the great-grandaddy of all splatter flicks, and unfortunately, Herschell Gordon Lewis' seminal classic left us feeling a bit hollow and unfulfilled. Feast follows the adventures of freakish-looking caterer Fuad Ramses, whose exotic cuisine may be a little too exotic for the laws of man and God to allow. Y'see, when our boy Fuad gets his Devo plastic-hair eyebrows furrowed over a saucy young thing, he tends to hack 'em into chunks and serve 'em up for dinner. His bloodthirsty shopping spree baffles a pair of cops, who are confused by the utter lack of any clues at the crime scenes. "We're just workin' with a homicidal maniac, that's all!" bleats one of the cops, bursting with pent-up frustration. Meanwhile, Fuad's nocturnal onslaught continues, as he smashes the brains from one young lady's head (her girlie-sounding boyfriend only moments before insisting that she "prove her love" to him) and rips the tongue from another beauty's throat, all in glorious color and extreme close-up. When he sets his sights on the girlfriend of one of the cops, however, Fuad makes a fatal error, and soon the heroic detectives are in hot pursuit! As usual, ol' H.G. Lewis availed himself of the least-talented actors available and shows off his directing chops with an able display of "Shot Held Too Long," making Emily and I feel as if we'd been watching the flick for 17 hours, while in actuality the entire running time is only about 65 minutes! While not as cool as The Gore-Gore Girls (Emily's favorite) and not as goofy as 2000 Maniacs (my favorite), Feast still entertains and is certainly an important piece of crap. (Strand/VCI)

--Scott Phillips

Capsule Reviews
Blood Feast

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