As a thirteen-year-old there wasn’t much more exciting for me than spending the night at friend’s house and getting to rent whatever the heck we wanted to because his parents didn’t care. I wasn’t overly sheltered as a child when it came to R-rated films, but most hardcore horror movies were off-limits, probably due to the likelihood of both nudity (in the movie) and nightmares (in my head). Therefore, the opportunity to rent whatever I wanted was one of the more exciting times of my young life. Even though this is how I discovered movies like THE SHINING and EVIL DEAD 2, a vast majority were terrible, and worst of all, most were devoid of gore and gratuitous nudity.
What am I going on about? Well, if instead of going to Blockbuster to rent a horror movie I instead was giving a couple hundred thousand dollars to make a movie, the result probably would have been very close to BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL U CAN EAT.
Directed by gore legend Herschell Gordon Lewis and written by the cast driver of BUG and WAITING (no, really, the driver), BF2 is a sequel thirty nine years in the making that was released thirty years after Gordon Lewis’ previous directorial effort. His prior films are unseen by me, and perhaps this is cause for a notch to be taken from my Horror Card, but if it is any consolation I now plan to check out more of his work, because BF2 is delirious fun.
With all the production qualities of an impressive high school project…in the year 1995, BF2 transcends its budget despite looking and sounding like it was shot on VHS. It helps that no attempt whatsoever is made to ground the film in reality or remove tongue from cheek. Bad acting and nonsensical characters can more easily be forgiven when the filmmakers don’t even know how to spell “logic,” and make no apologies for it.
Instead of getting bogged down in exposition and terrible dialogue, like so many of its ilk, BF2 briefly sketches the characters and quickly gets to the good stuff. Surprisingly, the “good stuff” consists of not only the nudity and gore, but the writing as well. Not that the writing excels in the classical sense, but it somehow manages to be clever and dumb at the same time, with the clever outweighing the dumb for most of the running time. A perfect example of the clever/dumb formula: as two detectives are considering breaking into a home, one of them says something like “I’m always up for a little B and E,” to which the other guy responds “bacon and eggs?” That’s funny.
No? Well then screw you.
Not to be outdone by the comedy, BF2 proudly presents much gratuitous nudity (meet Trixi, Candi, Laci, Brandi, AND Bambi), and over-the-top gore (see: hand and arm of conscious person go through meat grinder, multiple disembowelments, body parts served as appetizers at wedding reception, and a variety of other delights). Somehow all of this depravity comes across as innocent fun, probably due the fact it is more of a farce than a horror movie.
You may have noticed I have made no attempt to describe the plot. Trust me, it is of no consequence, and if you are truly concerned that the story just might not grab, you then don’t even consider watching this. If, on the other hand, it is perversion and insanity and a lack of morality you seek, then BLOOD FEAST 2 is for you. Thirteen-year-old Brian K. fucking loves it (and his parents are going to be pissed if they find out he watched it).
Tags: BLOOD FEAST 2, cannibalism, gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Netflix Watch Instantly, nudity, Review
If you see no other HG Lewis film, see The Gore Gore Girls. It’s just ridiculous. Hilariously over the top. Full of weird gags, sousa music, and the kind of gore you’d expect from the title.
Yeah, I had my eye on Gore Girls. I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks.
Yeah i always found it weird, that pg-13 films can show death and destruction. but everyone is going to see tits in their life( i hope)and that automatically gets an R-rating. maybe its offtopic. But i dont know. id rather have my kids watch horror then some movie the commando where hes mowing people down expessionless. my thoughts peace.
Two Voices | Two Guys
Thanks for reading, stresalvation. I think maybe it has something to do with parents putting faith in their children to understand the violence is not real, but nudity can’t help but be “real.” It’s completely out of whack, I agree.