Director must have gone to the Ed Wood School… 
Psycho wants to bring Ishtar back with a special meal.
Considered to be the oldest film on the BBC list of “video nasties”, BLOOD FEAST is a melodramatic and hokey gorefest for those who indulge in pathetic, dumbass comedy horrors.
Hershel Gordon Lewis, of 2000 MANIACS (1964) fame (and COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965) was the third picture in his “Blood Trilogy”), as well as thirty-nine other throwaway low budget horrors, helmed this garbage as if he’d gone to the Ed Wood School of Directing. Though not as funny as PLAN 9 FROM OUTERSPACE (1959), BLOOD FEAST incorporates bad acting, ridiculous music, long-winded gore scenes, a half-assed plot, lame and on-the-nose dialogue, and some really awful hair dye jobs.
Mal Arnold, with freaky eyebrows, a limp and whacky colored blue hair, is Faud Ramses, out to raise Ishtar from the depths. And to do so, he must kill young maidens, and take some of their body parts to be incorporated in a special Egyptian stew. His over-acting is hilarious to the point where one wonders why none of the actors on set busted a gut from laughter. All the other “performers” either over-acted or were stiff as Ed Wood. And those stick in the mud actors made dialogue delivery a handful, and every word came off flat and deadpan like an old “Dragnet” episode.
Unlike Ed Wood, Lewis did get some things right. Yes, he composed the cheesy music, had come up with the story, and played cinematographer, but he was also the special effects guy. Now, although the blood is too red, there was some great work with exposed bone and brain matter that was quite impressive for 1963, which obviously made certain it was added to the video nasty list. Even though the camera work is straight on and dull, the color is pretty damn amazing for a low budget movie of the time.
And that’s the half-star: color and some special effects. Otherwise, this is one for the trash bin.
1/2 out of 5 stars