Arrow Video, with
domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group,
will be serving up a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition of filmmaker Herschell
Gordon Lewis’ 1963 Epicurean delight, Blood Feast on Oct. 10.
As Halloween of 1963
approached a small film production company was about to make history with the
release of Blood Feast, the first “gore-fest” film from fledgling
filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis.
Lewis was an academic,
complete with a Masters Degree from Northwestern University, but advertising
and television commercial production were the gateway to a career in
filmmaking. His “graduate film school”
education came in the form of a series of early 1960s sexploitation films — Living
Venus, Nature’s Playmates, Daughter of the Sun, etc. — and then a
four-day production shoot for Blood Feast, which is any by
standard cheap and threadbare.
But Blood Feast did have one
thing going for it … blood and gore (by the buckets). It delivered exactly what was promised.
Herschell Gordon Lewis
stature as the “Godfather of Gore” would be secured within the next two years
with the release of Two Thousand Maniacs! in 1964 and Color Me Blood Red the
following year. But it all began with Blood
Feast!
Bonus goodies include the
feature presentation of Scum of the Earth (a 1963 teenage
exploitation film), commentary featuring Herschell Gordon Lewis and producer David
F. Friedman moderated by Mike Grady, a vintage interview session with the late Herschell
Gordon Lewis titled “Herschell’s History,” Outtakes and more.
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