Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat

I had waited and waited for this movie to come out, back when it was being hyped up in '99 (then as Blood Feast 2000), and heard absolutely nothing about this movie. Then on Halloween eve, I saw the double dvd in the video shop for $30, and I snatched it off of the shelf like a 5 year old snatches a lollypop out of his little brother's hand. I was so excited to see a new H.G. Lewis film (who has been one of my admitted "heroes"). All in all, I wasn't disappointed...but I do agree with the other reviewers that say it does tend to drag on a little long. But the blood and gore effects...oh man! I was in absolute gorehound heaven! I think Joe Castro needed to work on a movie like this to up his fx career a little bit, because usually his effects are pretty decent, but I talk about him to other horror fanatics, and they say, "who's that?". But he REALLY outdid himself on this movie, because there's a couple scenes that would make Dahmer himself a little queasy, including one of THE best throat-slashing scenes I have ever witnessed on film. I honestly think that after this movie, Joe Castro could very well become the new Tom Savini (if you will) of the blood'n'guts video scene.

And another thing...alot of reviewers have said that this is very cheap, exploitive, bad, and somewhat grueling to sit through...but come on, people! this is Herschell Gordon Lewis! that's what the man is KNOWN for, for crying out loud! The overall sleaziness and exploitive nature of this film are his M.O.! And this definately has all the sleazy overtones and feel of his past films from the 60's and 70's.

But anyway, you can tell that the killing scenes are the primary focus of this movie. Each one goes on for an excessive amount of time, until you find yourself saying "Come on, dude! she's dead already!" But then again, that's the point of exploitive horror. And H.G. Lewis has definately proven that he is still "the man" when it comes to his style of film-making. If you're looking for an over-the-top gorefest, then you should really check this one out...

H.G. Lewis (the wizard of gore) made this film as a sequel to his classic "Blood Feast." Before this film came out, I though good old H.G. was in retirement somewhere just biding his time. I'm glad that I was wrong. Most of H.G.'s older films were pretty shocking in their day, but are merely campy by today's standards. Blood Feast 2 plays off of the campiness of his films, but doesn't become annoying like so many other films would.

The plot is that Fuad Ramses III opens up a catering business in his grandfather's old shop (the villain in Blood Feast). He becomes possessed by the evil goddess Ishtar. He is hired by a bitchy socialite to cater her daughters wedding. Ramses begins butchering the bride's maids to fulfill his contract.

Most of the humor is tongue in cheek and a little juvenile, but it fits the overall mood of the film rather well.

For H.G. Lewis fans (those who haven't seen it) it is well worth the price of renting it.

All cinematic values & qualities aside, you at least have to show respect for Herschell Gordon Lewis. The man was born in 1926! My grandpa was born in 1926! A lot of people's grandfathers were born in 1926! Can you imagine YOUR grandpa directing a movie that constantly features engrossing decapitations, disembowelment, brain removals (through the ear!), gauging eyeballs and lesbian lingerie parties? I wish my gramps was the Godfather of cinematic gore instead of a random guy who keeps nagging about the devastating years of World War II… At the ago of 76, H.G. Lewis suddenly made his one-time comeback with the nearly 40 years overdue sequel to "Blood Feast"; THE gore-movie that inspired all independent horror directors forevermore. The only characteristic proving Lewis actually is an elderly man is the fact that he doesn't evolve with the times. Lewis' filming style is exactly the same as it was forty years ago, meaning not the slightest attempt to tell a decent story, crude & vulgar humor, hideous music, amateurish editing, depthless characters and make-up effects that are ultimately gross but not the least bit shocking or convincing. So basically, yes, "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat" is quite an awful film, but not a horror freak in this world is likely to spread negative comments about it. And besides, regardless of all the ineptitude, this undeniably remains a hugely entertaining and often downright hilarious horror film experience! The plot of the sequel is pretty much identical to that of the original. Fuad Ramses III reopens his infamous grandfather's small town catering business and promptly accepts an assignment to cater at the wedding of a local beauty and a dim-witted cop. But Fuad worships the same Egyptian (Babylonian?) Goddess as his grandpa and thus all the sexy bridesmaids' intestines end up on the catering menu during his ongoing search for the ultimate human sacrifice. That concludes the description of the story … or were you expecting something deep & thought provoking, perhaps? There's really no point in "defending" this movie… Either you already were a big fan of H.G. Lewis' oeuvre and decided to LOVE the sequel even before watching it or you never cared for his previous gore films to begin with and, in case of the latter, there's absolutely no reason to seek out this belated effort, neither. For the die-hard fans there are a handful of great surprises, like a delicious cameo of trash-director John Waters (as a gay-paedophilic priest!), purely gratuitous nudity, infantile textbook lesbianism ("Hey girls, let's all get together and try on our sexiest lingerie!"), hilarious dialogs ("I was dropping more hints than mariner soldiers drop soap in the shower") and random stupidity (some guy's corpse lying around everywhere). Thank you very much for this film, Mr. Lewis. I hope you enjoy your well-deserved retirement and live to be hundred years old.

The so called follow up of the first slasher/gore attempt Blood Feast. Everone who has seen that one will remember the score and the extreme red color of the bloodletting. Well, this one has it too but it delivers so much more. It has a lot of black humor but also a lot of gore, and it's so much fun to watch those scene's. a slasher shouldn't be one without some nudity. Men, did he added some, it's all over the top but it works and never gets bored. Even the score is over the top. you will have your cheers and you will have your laughs by watching this well made follow up. I just can't tell more but if you're not in the mood, watch this one it surely will deliver all you can eat.

Blood Feast 2 (2002)

*** (out of 4)

Thirty-nine years after the original film comes this sequel that has the grandson (J.P. Delahoussaye) of the famous killer moving back into the small town to butcher more women and serve them as food at a wedding. Even though I'm a fan of the director and the original film I held off watching this one expecting something really horrible. I mean, Lewis hadnt made a film in thirty-years so how in the world would he come back with anything good? Well, he did somehow but I'm sure those expecting something like his older films are going to be disappointed because this is a very polished and rather good looking film unlike previous ones, which were usually low budget and ugly. There's no doubt that this film has a sense of humor, which really comes across with the two detectives played by John McConnell and Mark McLachlan. These two men do a great job together and their comic timing with one another really makes for some great laughs. There's an entire running joke about McConnell constantly eating, which works very well. Delahoussaye is also very good in his role as the maniac. We've also got several hot girls getting naked, which is something the early Lewis films couldn't show. John Waters even shows up as a pedophile priest. Then there's the gore, which is certainly over the top but the one thing people will be coming for. Lewis gets credit for bringing gore to movies but all of his previous movie's gore put together can't top one single sequence here. We have eyes being ripped out, guts pull out, scalpings and various other things including one woman having her face ripped off while she is alive. If you're a gore hound then there's plenty of stuff on hand here. The one negative is that the film runs 99-minutes, which is way too long as some more editing would have helped the film.