The godfather of gore himself, Herschell Gordon Lewis, will be hosting a marathon of his films at the International House Philadelphia on Sunday, August 21. “The H.G. Lewis Gore-A-Thon” will feature Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, Color Me Blood Red, and The Gruesome Twosome, before closing out the night with 1967’s The Wizard Of Gore. All the films will be presented in glorious 35mm, the only way Exhumed Films knows how.
Blood Feast is generally credited as the first “gore film.” Lewis’s low-budget shlocker from 1963 was a response to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which Lewis felt cheated the audience by showing the aftermath of murder, but ton the action. The director shot Blood Feast over four days in Miami with a budget of $24,000 and utilized real gore like the a sheep’s tongue used in a scene where a woman gets her tongue ripped out. Some theaters even handed out vomit bags to audience members. Allmovie said of the film, “this is one of the important releases in film history, ushering in a new acceptance of explicit violence that was obviously just waiting to be exploited.” Lewis, a former teacher, continued to crank out drive-in fare over the next ten years, returning to the Blood Feast cinematic universe with 2002’s Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat.
The 87-year-old splatter director will be appearing at the event, signing autographs and participating in a Q & A with the fans, as well as an H.G. Lewis sing-along, which apparently has to be heard to be believed. Tickets are available through Ticketfly, and all proceeds will go directly to the purchase of 35mm film prints to facilitate future screenings. Details on the event can be found at Exhumed Films’ Facebook event page.