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March 2010
cast: John McConnell, Melissa Morgan, Toni Wynne, Mark McLachlan, and Chris Mauer
director: Herschell Gordon Lewis
99 minutes (18) 2002
widescreen ratio 1.85:1
Arrow DVD Region 2 retail
RATING: 3/10
review by James A. Stewart
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Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat
In 1963, director H.G. Lewis (The Gore Gore Girls) gave the world Blood Feast, a film of such macabre ministration that it caused
furore and much tutting amongst those who felt that gore on a gratuitous level was simply uncouth. Still, it made Lewis a cult figure in the industry
and a fair few bob as well.
In Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat, Lewis, in his first release for over 30 years, turns the gore up a notch, representing not only the fact
that folk have stronger stomachs, but also that time has moved on and the outcry at the original film was simply in perspective. Some have said
that were Blood Feast be released today it would be called 'Carry On Cutting', but screeds of blood does not make a good film.
The movie picks up on some strands from the original as the grandson of Fuad Ramses, the gore getter in the first movie, inherits the family business.
If you don't know the plot, Fuad Ramses was known as The Butcher. His grandson, imaginatively named Fuad Ramses III, becomes possessed and thereafter
loads of blood flows. There is no plot really, just a series of scenes to either elongate the killing process or to show tits and arse for the sake
of showing tits and arse. Exploitative horror is just that; there is no need for grandiose plotlines or subtle twists.
Where Blood Feast 2 fails is in its approach to the genre is that it falls into the false sense of security that is to think blood outweighs
artistic intent. This is a general rule for most gore shockers but there is a balance and, in its pursuit of imaginative and arty deaths, Blood
Feast 2 goes too far. Scenes drag on, especially those involving spurious amounts of splatter, but they lose their shock value after so long.
I found myself more bored than anything else.
There are, as you would expect, stereotypes abound. The amply busted blondies, the kiddy-fiddling priest, and some of the most over-the-top acting
I have seen in a long while. It is clear H.G. Lewis had a lot of fun making this film, the man is in his eighties, and would have revelled in the
realistic looking intestines and blood - indeed, the gore was more realistic than most of chests in the film - but regardless, this is a pretty
poor movie saved only by some surprisingly funny scenes that served to draw attention to the more pointless parts throughout.
DVD extras include some deleted scenes and an on-the-set piece with Lewis.
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