Category: 1960’s

Directed by Edward L. Cahn [Other horror films: Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), The She-Creature (1956), Zombies of Mora Tau (1957), Voodoo Woman (1957), Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), Curse of the Faceless Man (1958), The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), Invisible Invaders (1959)]

I didn’t really grow up on many Disney movies, but the 1991 Beauty and the Beast was one of them, and I deeply love it. The 2017 version with Emma Watson is also quite enjoyable.

This movie is nothing like those.

For one, it’s not a musical. The plot is also significantly altered (unlike other adaptations, the Beast is only a beast at night – during the day, he’s a normal guy), and it occasionally has a darker tone, though I regret to say toward the end, it followed the original story more, leading away from any horror aspects to more a fantastical feeling.

There were some fun things here, though – the king’s father had a curse put on his bloodline by a sorcerer, and to find a way to end the curse, some main characters search through catacombs looking for the hidden tomb, which was a fun sequence. The transformation scenes were good also (he legitimately looked like the Wolfman for a bit), but there were a bit too many, alas.

While no one did particularly poorly here, only two cast members stood out. Eduard Franz (who hasn’t been in many horror films, but was featured strongly in The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake) was a solid character, and I enjoyed almost every scene he was in. Stronger still was Walter Burke (a rather big name, I loved his Irish accent here, despite the film taking place in Italy), who played a sleazy side character who was glorious in every moment he appeared.

I wish they had kept darker elements toward the conclusion, as opposed to dropping much of the suspense about halfway through. The director, Edward Cahn, had done plenty of horror films before this, which are listed above. It is worth noting that this was his final film before his death in 1963.

When Beauty and the Beast had more horror-like moments, I think the movie stood out more. Regardless, I had fun still, and would recommend the movie to fans of the Disney animated film, if only so they can compare the two. It’s a bit light on horror, but is the movie mostly fun, aside from the somewhat played out conclusion? I rather think so.

7/10

Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis [Other horror films: Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), Monster a-Go Go (1965), Color Me Blood Red (1965), A Taste of Blood (1967), The Gruesome Twosome (1967), Something Weird (1967), The Wizard of Gore (1970), The Gore Gore Girls (1972), Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat (2002), The Uh-oh Show (2009), Herschell Gordon Lewis’ BloodMania (2017, segments ‘Gory Story’ and ‘The Night Hag’)]]

H.G. Lewis’ first splatter flick is trashy, stilted, and overall, a rather awful film. And I love every second of it.

The gore isn’t as heavy here as it is in later films of his (such as The Wizard of Gore, a personal favorite of mine), but for the 1960’s, the gore is rather shocking, and it helps that the film’s in color (which wasn’t a given during this tumultuous time period), giving the murder sequences additional good effect.

The story itself feels stagy, and the performances mostly stilted. William Kerwin (Two Thousand Maniacs!, A Taste of Blood, God’s Bloody Acre, The Shadow of Chikara, Whiskey Mountain) was very generic in his role, and had little character. His girlfriend, played by Connie Mason (who was also in Two Thousand Maniacs!), was little better.

Mal Arnold was ridiculous as Faud Ramses, and overly hammy, which was sort of charming. Kudos mostly go to Gene Courtier, though, who gave one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen in a film. These performances led to, as I said, a more stagy feel, which was amplified by the very cheap look of the sets in the film. It wasn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it definitely stuck out.

The first of the ‘Blood Trilogy’ (followed by Two Thousand Maniacs! and Color Me Blood Red in 1964 and 1965), Blood Feast isn’t a great movie, or even a good one. The effects, as gory as they are, look pretty bad, even by contemporary standards. The acting is pretty terrible, and the plot’s paper-thin. Given all of this, though, Blood Feast is still a classic in many ways. It had a lot of heart, and pretty graphic imagery for the time. H.G. Lewis improves with his follow-up to the trilogy, but Blood Feast alone is moderately compelling, if you don’t mind some shoddy film-making.

7.5/10