Blood Feast 2 - Will's Review

After being board stupid by the original Blood Feast I was, understandably, not looking forward to it's long-time-coming sequel; where the original at least had its age and relative importance working in its favor (it was arguable the first ever 'gore' movie) this sequel would have to have more going for it than a few pounds of butcher's shop offal going for it to justify its existence.



The plot is pretty much the same this time around; Fuad Ramses' grandson (Fuad Ramses III) inherits his grandfathers catering business, and is almost immediately hypnotized by the statue of Ishtar in the back room, at which point he sets too killing off young girls in order to prepare a 'blood feast' to resurrect the goddess.

This time the party Ramses has been contracted to cater is a wedding; the groom being a local police detective, the bridesmaids being the gore fodder.

From a technical standpoint, Herschell Gordon Lewis is never going to win an Oscar for direction, but it's comforting to see that he has at least improved on the 39 years between installments Although not directed brilliantly, this movie does at least appear to have been directed - the original installment looked very much like the cameras were just vaguely pointed at the actors, who were then given free reign.

Sound wise I'm guessing someone agreed to give some friends' music some coverage - virtually every scene in the movie features music, to the point where it's actually distracting.

The effects, bizarrely, have not improved at all in the almost 40 years between installments still consisting mostly of close ups of hands playing with pig-intestines stuffed into mannequins.

It would seem though, that the (very) old school gore (like the hammy acting) is a very deliberate choice this time around.

Unlike the original, Blood Feast 2 is every inch the parody. From Tip-of-the-hat in jokes, such as the names of the detectives (Myers and Loomis) to in-your-face Airplane! style sight gags.

And it genuinely is a good move; as parody, the film actually works! Like Lewis' direction, it's not going to win any awards, but it does the job.

Some of the gags are a little on the nose, others quite subtle; there was a very quick back and fourth where someone "mistakenly" identifies Ishtar as a Babylonian goddess (which she is) rather than Egyptian (as per movie cannon).

I particularly liked the recurring gag involving a character who was accidentally killed, then never mentioned again, but who's body keeps cropping up in unexpected places (and being ignored).

There are plenty of 'nudie cutie' moments too - an all woman lingerie modelling party, a gratuitous shower scene, etc. but (as with everything else in the movie) they are played as much for laughs as anything; the absurdity of them being part of the joke.

I really don't know how to classify this one; it was an entertaining movie, and I think any horror fan with a penchant for 'Naked Gun' style humor would enjoy it.

I think I'm going to mark this one as "so bad it's good" but that's not quite accurate... after the first 20 mins it becomes apparent that both the lack of quality and the humor are intentional, so I'm not sure if that does make it a "bad" movie‽


Either way, much kudos to all involved. Usually, in order to make a movie this poor, but at the same time this entertaining, one needs to be inept, but earnest. Troll 2, Plan 9 from Outer Space and their ilk are funny only because everyone involved though they were making a masterpiece. Intentionally making a "bad" movie that's still entertaining is no easy task.

In fact, screw it; I've talked myself around! I'm going to recommend this one.