Blood Feast-1963

Director H.G.Lewis

Starring Thomas Wood, Connie Mason

Scott’s Review #100

Reviewed July 10, 2014

Grade: B-

Blood Feast (1963) is the debut film by horror master H.G. Lewis, who invented the gore genre.

The film is simplistic and makes his later films almost seem a big budget.

This film is not meant to be taken seriously and anyone who does is completely missing the point. It is exploitation, but completely over-the-top, with wooden performances for laughs, specifically by Connie Mason, who stinks.

The story involves a demented caterer who is hired by a mother to cater an Egyptian-themed dinner party. He, of course, uses real body parts to complete the meal is obsessed with some silly curse, and owns a female Egyptian statue that talks to him.

The kills are laughing out loud in their basic shock value and all the victims are women.

One victim’s tongue is torn out, as another is whipped to death, which, in a more modern film like Saw would be horrific. But the kills are so comedic, and the gore blood so amateurish, that the audience cannot help but chuckle.

The highlight for me was the intentionally (let’s hope) horrendous acting by all involved.

I much prefer H.G. Lewis’s later films, but this blueprint is a nice introduction.

2000 Maniacs-1964

Director H.G.Lewis

Starring William Kerwin, Connie Mason

Scott’s Review #79

Reviewed June 28, 2014

Grade: B

Two Thousand Maniacs is a 1964 offering by gore director H.G. Lewis set in the South.

The premise of the film surrounds a southern town, ironically named Pleasant Valley, slaughtered and destroyed during the Civil War, and is resurrected every 100 years to enact revenge on northerners who are unlucky enough to stumble upon their town.

Five nice-looking, fashionable tourists, headed to Atlanta, are duped by local townspeople into making a wrong turn and given the hero’s welcome by the town folk for a festive centennial celebration.

The welcome is, of course, a guise for a sinister plot to dismember and barbeque the tourists as part of the feast of the celebration.

The film takes a bit to get going, there is no killing until 30 minutes into it but then kicks into high gear as some of the most graphic, brutal deaths ensue.

A woman is tied to a platform as one townsperson after another attempt to hit a bullseye so that an enormous boulder falls, carnival dunk-tank style, stoning her to death.

Another victim has each limb tied to a horse as they gallop in different directions, thus dismembering him.

Still, another is forced into a barrel laced with nails and sent rolling down a hill.

Another has her thumb and arm chopped off and served for dinner.

These are gruesome deaths.

Certainly, a film like this is done for fun, thus the term horror-comedy, but surely heavily influenced other macabre films that followed- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Deliverance (1972).

The southern rednecks are played to the hilt by mostly real townspeople and the cheerful song “The South will rise again” sticks in the viewer’s mind long after the film ends. The entire tone of the film is bright and cheerful, and the townspeople, on the surface, seem happy-go-lucky and warm. They even kill with charm.

Two Thousand Maniacs (1964) is a fun, splatter film from one of the genre’s most revered filmmakers.

The Gore, Gore Girls-1972

Director H.G. Lewis

Starring Frank Kress, Amy Farrell

Scott’s Review #12

Reviewed May 14, 2014

Grade: B+

The Gore Gore Girls (1972) is a fun, late-night, campy horror film by the “Godfather of Gore”, H.G. Lewis.

An unknown assailant is hacking strippers to bits using very unusual methods. An investigator is hired to find out whodunit.

It’s an entertaining experience and I love the use of the whodunit mixed in with horror. I enjoyed the outcome when the killer was revealed.

Influenced by John Waters (even the music seems identical!) it’s a hearty viewing of wildness, merriment, and debauchery.

Comedian Henny Youngman appears, though he later denied being in the film.

The strippers are over the top and unique and the investigator (sort of a Sherlock Holmes type) is wonderful to watch.

Quite a low budget as the audio is tough to hear at times and the video fuzzy, but this only enhances the fun.

Continuity errors for miles, but it hardly matters.