Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat

Herschell Gordon Lewis carved (pun intended) his reputation as 'Godfather of Gore' in the 1960s with a series of extremely bloody films such as Blood Feast, Color Me Blood Red and The Wizard of Gore.  These movies helped redefine the ratings system, which had never previously concerned itself with gore, only rating films due to the amount of sex/nudity and expletives.  Lewis changed all that by not only showing gore, but revelling in it and making bloodletting and dismemberment central themes to his films.  Blood Feast, released in 1963, revolved around a crippled caterer, Fuad Ramses, who is possessed by the Godess Ishtar and compelled to prepare her the titular meal by carving up the members of the wedding party who hired him to provide food for the party.
 
Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat is similar to Evil Dead 2 in that it's as much a remake as a sequel and made with more money and crew - though that's not saying an awful lot given the no-to-low budget nature of the original where Lewis did much more than just direct. 
 

The film opens with Fuad Ramses III reopening his grandfather's old premises after inheriting it with no knowledge of its grizzly history.  An immediate visit from local wannabe hardass Detective Mike Myers (a Patrick Bateman-alike Mark McLachlan) fills him in on what happened and that business is likely to be slow because small towns have long memories.  Ramses laughs off the detective and sends him packing by pointing out the stupidity of saying he'll be back if 'any women turn up missing'.
 
As illustrated in the prologue, where a couple of bums are inspired by a mysterious red light to brutally murder one another, Ishtar is still very active and powerful and when Fuad discovers his grandfather's statue of Ishtar and takes one look into those glowing red eyes, you know history is going to repeat itself.  Fortunately, a wedding is also on the horizon and he is commissioned to cater.
 
Cue bloody murders, plenty of evisceration and wooden acting - this is a film with schlock guru David F. Friedman as the executive producer and H.G. Lewis as director so Olivier-esque thespian talents are hardly to he expected!  Unlike the first, this isn't written by Lewis, penned by first time screenwriter W. Boyd Ford who attempts to inject humour into proceedings by having the characters as ridiculous as possible, some excruciatingly bad dialogue and gratuitous nudity.  You kind of know what film you are watching when the detectives are useless - either hard headed and easily nauseous or gluttonous and lazy - the girls are disposable eye candy with names like Misti Morning, Laci Hundees and Trixi Treeter.  You get a fantastic cameo from John Waters (no stranger to sleaze) at the end as a paedophilic priest which, by itself, had me laughing!
 
It's not just the characters that are ridiculous, but the whole situation is utterly barmy and the film plays on this with some unbelievable scenes, such as the detectives searching Ramses' premises but missing the corpse they step over when entering and leaving the shrine to Ishtar!
 
It is amusing and it doesn't skimp on the gore which is a whole lot more realistic than it was four decades ago but is still some way short of that provided in bigger budget films.  Everything about Blood Feast 2 screams cheap and inexperienced but, despite everything that is wrong with the film, I actually enjoyed it and could see myself watching it again after revisiting the original.
 

The Disc

 
Extra Features
Arrow Video have assembled a decent selection of which the shining light is obviously Gore Gourmet, a 20+ minute piece about Blood Feast, Herschell Gordon Lewis and their significance in American horror cinema.  This is a fascinating little documentary with contributions from the man himself, Fangoria editor Antony Timpone and the writer/director of The Toxic Avenger, Lloyd Kaufman.
 
The rest of the extras include a closer look at the gore effects, some interviews with minor people on set and some deleted/extended scenes.
 
As with other releases from Arrow Video, this comes with a reversible sleeve that gives you the choice of the movie's original UK rental video artwork or a newly commissioned piece of artwork, plus a poster of the same and a collector's booklet.  I haven't seen the finished product, so can't comment.
 
The Picture
The bad news is the letterboxed 1.78:1 picture, which should really be anamorphic.  The good news is the quality which is very high.  The film is cheap yet the colours are vibrant and contrast deep and the gore effects maintain the slightly squidgy and unconvincing nature of the original film and trash in general - Saw this is not!
 
The Sound
A perfectly serviceable Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track with clear dialogue and decent sound effects, so nothing lacking in this department.
 
Final Thoughts
Blood Feast 2 is the sort of film where, if you go in with low expectations, you won't be disappointed.  It's not as good or enjoyable as Lewis' original but is complete nonsense and checks the boxes for gore and nudity which is what I was expecting - it did what I wanted, no more, no less and is an entertaining 93 minutes.