Blood Feast

The Birth Of Gore


In 1963, a monumental film was premiered at a drive-in in Peoria, Illinois. This film would break new ground, and become a cult classic.

When I had the chance to watch "Blood Feast," about 45 years later, I was amazed to find out that the very first gore movie premiered in Peoria, about 20 minutes from my home. There's an old saying: "Will it play in Peoria?" "Blood Feast" played in Peoria phenomenally well, due to word of mouth.

What was all the chat about? Explicit Gore. And lots of it. There had never been anything like this, in all of it's full-color glory. By today's standards, "Blood Feast" is unrealistic and tame. But I still enjoyed the film because of the b-movie charm and the buckets of bright red fake blood. There was plenty of over-the-top acting, gooey gross carnage, and the chief of police was reading his lines off of his hand!

Writer/director Herschell Gordon Lewis would go on to make many more bloody, campy, gooey movies (including "The Wizard of Gore" and "The Gore Gore Girls"), but none of them would have the same impact as "Blood Feast."