Blood Feast (1963): Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Crude Horror

Photo : Everett Collection / Everett Collection

This no-budget horror thriller was written by Allison Louise Downe from an idea by Lewis and David F. Freidman.

It stars Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Lyn Bolton.

The plot focuses on a psychopathic food caterer named Fuad Ramses (Arnold) who kills women so that he can include their body parts in his meals and perform sacrifices to his “Egyptian goddess” Ishtar.

Blood Feast is considered the first splatter film, a sub-genre of horror noted for its graphic depictions of gore.

Grade: B-

Blood Feast
Theatrical release poster

Highly successful, it grossed $4 million against its minuscule $24,500 budget, despite receiving poor reviews, which criticized it as amateurish and vulgar.

Using cut-up mannequin parts, blood that looked like dripping from a ketchup bottle, Lewis was one of the first directors to tap into and explore the collective moviegoing ID, our instable if sometimes latent, voyeuristic bloodlust.

Announcing the birth of the splatter and slasher genres, the movie was followed by a belated sequel, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, in 2002.

Directed, photographed, composed (music) by Herschell Gordon Lewis
Screenplay by Allison Louise Downe
Story by David F. Friedman, Lewis
Produced by David F. Friedman
Edited by Robert Sinise, Frank Romolo
Distributed by Box Office SpectacularsRelease date: July 6, 1963Running time: 67 minutes
Budget: $24,500
Box office: $4 million (not adjusted for inflation).

Blood Feast (1963): Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Crude Horror

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