Over 20 years ago, while attending a World SubGenius Convention in Chicago, I first met a man named Daniel Krogh. Dan had been a cameraman and general assistant to a local filmmaker named Herschell Gordon Lewis, and brought along some 16mm prints from his personal collection. As the hours flew by, we were treated to a marathon screening of BLOOD FEAST, 2000 MANIACS, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT, GRUESOME TWOSOME and THE GORE GORE GIRLS. In those years in between the early 1970s wave of extreme horror movies and the home video boom of the 1980s, it was impossible to see these movies, and the evening was memorable to say the least. (Later on I ambled down to some parties at the World Science Fiction Convention where I foolishly drank some suspicious blue punch out of a sink, but that's another story.)
H.G. Lewis and his producing partner David Friedman hit on a goldmine when they got the idea of beating the major studios by providing bloody footage in their films that no self-respecting executive would dare greenlight. Retiring to live on the millions he earned as an expert in direct mail marketing, Lewis claimed for decades that he'd only return to the director's chair if someone came up with a million dollar budget to make BLOOD FEAST 2. Well, a million bucks is apparently not as much money as it used to be, and producer Jacky Lee Morgan was able to strike a deal with the man dubbed the Godfather of Gore for this 40-years-later official sequel.
Fuad Ramses III (J.P. Delahoussaye) inherits the catering business from his long dead grandfather, and soon comes under the evil influence of a statue of the dark goddess "Ishtar" locked in a back room. When the snooty Mrs. Lampley (Chris Mauer) drops in to hire Fuad to cater the upcoming wedding reception of her daughter Tiffani (Toni Wynne), he and his goddess take it as the perfect opportunity to prepare a special blood feast. When Fuad starts preying on Tiffani's bridesmaids for raw material (amusingly clad in oven mittens), Tiffani's fiancée Detective Myers (Mark McLachlan of CROCODILE) leaps to the conclusion that Ramses has taken up the family business, but it takes nearly a full 90 minutes of running time before Myers' partner Loomis (John McConnell, by far the production's most natural and experienced actor) begins to agree with him. By the time the wedding takes place with director John Waters fulfilling a lifelong dream by appearing as the pedophilic reverend the supply of bridesmaids has run out, but it's time for the blood feast to begin.
Times have changed tremendously since Lewis last shot a feature, and grue beyond the grasp of his shoestring budgets regularly gets an R rating from the MPAA. Can Herschell compete in the era of FREDDY VS. JASON and CSI? Herschell's endearingly leaden point & shoot directorial style is still in place, but unfortunately, this kind of low budget black comedy horror piece is all too common these days, offering little beyond a few chuckles, some mildly repellent violence, and plenty of cheerfully gratuitous nudity. In addition, there's a fine soundtrack of Cramps-like tunes provided by Southern Culture on the Skids. Lewis' trump card a willingness to dwell on the entrails a few beats beyond the point where any other filmmaker would cut away has been surpassed long ago. BF2 functions better as a silly comedy than a horror film, with the cast scoring laughs with gags like the detective and his bride going after the killer in full wedding attire. Lewis holds his own in the gore department, delivering sickening sights rivaling those in his GORE GORE GIRLS, but why he'd agree to such an undistinguished comeback is open to speculation. The best clue is probably to look at it as a marketing decision hopefully bringing his name back into the limelight this way will bring him opportunities to engage in more personally rewarding projects, such as his long-planned GRIM FAIRY TALES.
Shriek Show offers the film in both an uncut and (why bother?) R-rated edition, as well as this Special Edition which includes a second disc of extras inserted in the case in a paper sleeve. Included on the main disc is a gallery of production photos and trailers for BF2 and other Shriek Show titles. On the extra disc there's a 12-minute behind-the-scenes reel featuring a lot of disgruntled pierced and tattooed crew members suffering in the Florida heat, a "Behind the Gore" reel with f/x men Joe Castro and Johnathan Thornton, 4-minutes focusing on the director at work, and a deleted scenes section actually offers several extended versions of included scenes. There's also an Easter egg that rescues 3 minutes of T&A from the cutting room floor.
Brian Thomas is the author of the massive new book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS, available now!
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