Blood Feast

Blood Feast, released in 1963, is an American splatter film. Herschell Gordon Lewis handled the composition, shooting, and direction, while Allison Louise Downe wrote the screenplay based on an idea from Lewis and David F. Freidman. The cast includes Mal Arnold, William Kerwin, Connie Mason, and Lyn Bolton. The story follows Fuad Ramses (Arnold), a deranged food caterer who murders women to use their body parts in his dishes and as sacrifices to his "Egyptian goddess" Ishtar.

This movie is widely regarded as the first splatter film, a horror sub-genre defined by its explicit on-screen gore. Despite harsh reviews from critics, who called it amateurish and vulgar, Blood Feast was a major financial success, earning $4 million against a tiny budget of $24,500. A late sequel, Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, came out in 2002.

**Plot**

In a Miami Beach apartment, a woman hears news of a recent murder in Rogers Park. While she bathes, she is killed. Before leaving, the attacker uses a machete to hack off her leg above the knee, bags it, and leaves behind a copy of *Ancient Weird Religious Rites*.

The next day at the police station, Detective Pete Thornton talks with the homicide bureau chief, who notes the killer’s pattern of removing victims’ limbs and organs. Meanwhile, Dorothy Fremont hires caterer Fuad Ramses to prepare a dinner party for her daughter, Suzette. Ramses, who is the serial murderer, promises an ancient Egyptian feast. Mrs. Fremont is pleased, as Suzette studies Egyptology. After she leaves his store, Ramses goes to a back room where he keeps a shrine to the goddess Ishtar. He is making a "blood feast"—a stew from victims' blood and body parts meant to resurrect Ishtar.

Later, Thornton tells the chief that one victim belonged to a book club. That evening, on a nearby beach, Ramses knocks out Tony and removes Marcy’s brain from her skull. Thornton and the chief arrive, but Tony is hysterical and gives no useful information. Marcy’s mother tells them she was also in a book club. Later, Ramses stakes out a motel, knocks on a woman’s door, and rips out her tongue as another ingredient for his feast.

Suzette attends an Egyptian studies lecture with her boyfriend, Detective Thornton. The lecturer, Dr. Flanders, describes the pharaohs Ramses I and II and the cult of Ishtar from 5,000 years ago.