Commonly held in high esteem (or contempt) as the first bona fide gore film, Blood Feast became a grassroots phenomenon and enshrined director Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David F. Friedman in the drive-in hall of fame. Bereft of the qualities which characterize "good" movies, this twisted camp classic instead delivers an avalanche of gruesome dismemberment and howlingly bad acting, resulting in a strangely appealing and tawdry mixture which has yet to be duplicated.

Sweet, monotone Suzette (Playboy Playmate and non-actress Mason) is cheerfully obsessed with her upcoming birthday party. Her mother (Bolton), a matron with terrifying hats, consults a local caterer, Fuad Ramses (Arnold), who suggests having "an Egyptian feast" that hasn't been served for thousands of years. By sheer coincidence, Suzette and her not-terribly-bright cop boyfriend, Pete (Kerwin, billed as "Thomas Wood"), attend a local class on Egyptian cults and learn about the savage blood rites of the Egyptian god Ishtar (or Eetar, or about ten other pronunciations). Could this have something to do with the vicious murders of young women being committed in this sleepy Florida town? Well, since Fuad is seen wielding his machete from the opening scene, it's clear he's planning Suzette's party as the climax of his "blood feast" to pay tribute to the spray-painted mannequin deity in his restaurant.

Impossible to take seriously on any level, Blood Feast compels the viewer simply by topping itself in the gore department. Unlike the Friday the 13th films which mostly tease the viewers with quick and timid flashes of grisly mayhem, Lewis and company trot out the whole dog and pony show under a spotlight. Legs are hacked off, skulls pulled open, tongues yanked out, and so on. Meanwhile the laughs build up faster than any slasher spoof ("Legs Cut Off!" yells one newspaper headline), while Arnold delivers a hand-wringing villainous performance that actually makes Tod Slaughter look subtle. Interestingly, the film's legacy continued on well past the drive-in crowd including a very entertaining unofficial sequel (Blood Diner), a legit Lewis sequel, and a remake; even John Waters included affectionate clips from it in Serial Mom.

A home video stalwart since the dawn of VHS, Blood Feast changed hands so many times it seemed a definitive presentation would be impossible for decades. Luckily the rights fell to Something Weird Video as part of the Friedman catalog, and they wasted no time putting it out on VHS along with a separate cassette of extensive outtake footage from this and the other two subsequent film in the Blood Trilogy, Two Thousand Maniacs! and Color Me Blood Red. They wisely chose to inaugurate their DVD line in 2000 by going back to the original negative, and the gaudy reds and blues in most of the backgrounds looked hypnotic in this open matte presentation. The continuity goofs in Arnold's gray-dyed hair become even more obvious, and the show-stopping tongue tearing looks even more... uh, vivid, than ever. The soundtrack is about as good as can be expected, given the basic microphone set ups and Lewis' "minimalist" tuba and percussion score. SW's Mike Vraney appears on a very entertaining commentary track in which he manages to coax out amazing tidbits of information from Lewis and Friedman. In fact, it's hard to resist any commentary that kicks off by pointing out Blood Feast was edited by Gary Sinese's father. Extras on the DVD include the familiar (and long) theatrical trailer which includes many of the soppiest highlights, a gallery of H.G. Lewis and Friedman ad mats and poster art, and the bizarre "Carving Magic," a 20m31s educational short by Lewis which features Kerwin and Harvey Korman (also in Lewis' Living Venus) in the tender saga of a married man's quest to become the perfect carver. Given the context of its placement on this DVD, the short becomes far more macabre than intended as the camera lingers obsessively on each succulent slice of animal flesh. Best of all, the disc includes those 49 minutes of Blood Feast outtakes. Amazingly, these lost images include some nudity during the opening bathtub sequence and some gore in the climactic garbage truck finale -- all accompanied by judicious snippets of the film's score and dialogue. The initial Region 2 disc is missing both the commentary and nearly half a minute of splatter footage but does contain 11 tracks of the, uh, music score, to use the term loosely.

Repeating the pattern, Blood Feast and its two cinematic companion pieces discussed below became one of Something Weird's first Blu-ray titles in 2011. As expected, it was also taken from the negative and receives a major boost in quality given the advances in transfer technology over the years. Colors are vibrant and almost psychedelic at times, perfectly capturing the tacky intensity of the Florida locales. The Blu-ray also marks the first time the film has appeared correctly matted on home video at 1.85:1; like most Lewis films, this was shot open aperture and presented at 1.33:1 in prior video editions with huge amounts of excessive headroom. Though it's hard to still call any Lewis film well composed in visual terms, the widescreen framing locks everything back into standard medium shots and close-ups that make everything much easier on the eyes without huge gaping areas of dead space. Element damage is extremely minimal here as well, and all of the extras from the DVD have been ported over. In 2017, Arrow Video revisited the film with a fresh scan from the negative as part of their Lewis set, The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast, also packaged as a massive deluxe set called Shock and Gore: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis. The film's 1.85:1 presentation is featured on a disc paired up with Scum of the Earth (logical since they share some cast members and came out the same year) along with the outtakes, commentary, "Carving Magic," an archival 1987 Lewis and Friedman interview (18m28s) talking about exploitation and their history together, a trailer, radio spot, theater announcement, bonus trailers (The Adventures of Lucky Pierre, Goldilocks and the Three Bares, and Bell, Bare and Beautiful), "Blood Perspectives" (10m54s) with filmmakers Nicholas McCarthy and Rodney Ascher talking about the film's impact and influence, a 2007 Lewis interview about his early film days called "Herschell's History" (5m18s), and "How Herschell Found His Niche" (7m15s) with Lewis chatting about his nudie cuties. The same disc was also available briefly as a standalone title.

In 2026, AGFA and Something Weird revisited the film as a UHD and Blu-ray set featuring a fresh 4K scan from the negative with HDR on the former format. While the Arrow release looked great, this one leaps past it with much finer detail, more convincing film grain, and most importantly, improved color timing with those prominent reds now looking a rich shade of scarlet compared to the orange cast we had before. (See below for a few examples.) The DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono audio is also in fine shape and comes with optional English SDH subtitles, plus the usual audio commentary on either format. The UHD and first viewing option on the Blu-ray are logically 1.85:1, though you also get the full frame option here on the Blu-ray (with the commentary included as well for that one).

Ported over here are the "Blood Perspectives" featurette, outtakes, trailer, radio and audio spots, '87 Lewis and Friedman interview, and "Carving Magic," plus some new goodies as well. The film's 1990 VHS release hosted by a young Joe Bob Briggs (77m57s) as part of The Sleaziest Movies in the History of the World is included here in its entirety; Joe Bob would revisit it again in 2018 as part of his initial The Last Drive-In marathon. Also included is a 17m3s "Meet the Filmmaker" featurette originally produced for The Criterion Channel with Lewis and Sean Baker covering the golden age of exploitation, the use of kaopectate for stage blood, the challenge of getting a prop tongue from Tampa to Miami, and the impact of unleashing splatter all over movie screens. An audio interview with crew member Andy Romanoff (10m31s) covers the challenging nature of the equipment used on the set including working with a German combat camera, while "Pretty Model Author of Bloody Movie" (9m39s) profiles screenwriter Louise "Bunny" Downe who popped up on camera in numerous tiny roles for Lewis and Doris Wishman while also working as an assistant director, production coordinator, or most notably, a writer (in some capacity or another) for several subsequent Lewis films after this one. A 5m59s gallery is also included, plus an insert booklet featuring Frank Henenlotter's enthusiastic write-up for the film in the 1996 Something Weird catalog ("They Got Dismembered: The World's First 'Gore' Movie"), Lewis' 1988 intro to the novelization reissue, a previously unpublished 2002 "Reflections on Blood Feast" by Friedman, a Janna Jones essay ("Blood, Bodies & Ishtar: Louise Downe & The Invention of Splatter") about the credited screenwriter's importance to Lewis' films in multiple capacities, and a 1965 Friedman interview from Wildest Films magazine.

AGFA (UHD)

AGFA (Blu-ray) (1.85:1)

AGFA (Blu-ray) (1.33:1)

Arrow (Blu-ray) (1.85:1)

Arrow (Blu-ray) (1.33:1)

Updated review on November 11, 2026