After much deliberation, I've decided to begin with the two films on the list that I want to see the least: Herschell Gordon Lewis' 1963 groundbreaker Blood Feast and John Alan Schwartz's 1978 pseudodocumentary Faces Of Death.
The former was the first American "gore" film, which means that it was the first (successful) film that was made behind the idea of "I could sell a metric shitload of tickets if I made a movie that had people being ripped apart in it". It is the oldest of the 72, one of four Nastys produced in the 1960s, making it a logical place to start. I'm hoping to be able to include a trailer. Let's see...
Faces Of Death is the only one on the list I just flat-out do not want to see. I can take gruesome, disturbing, gory...I'm writing an internet column about the Video Nastys, consarn it! It's the "Mondo" documentary idea that makes my stomach churn. For those who don't know, a Mondo movie shows you shocking documentary footage from around the world for the express purpose of shocking "civilized" folk. All the footage in Faces Of Death was purportedly real, but that's been shown to be mostly false, and the genuine footage is mostly confined to animal cruelty. The footage of actual human death is therefore minimal, but at this juncture I am unsure just how much and what it will consist of. Here's a trailer for a rerelease three years ago...
With these two less-than-appetizing films out of the way, I will breathe much easier...but not too easy. The remaining seventy films will be digested in a recognizable but offbeat order yet to be determined...and there's more than enough real footage of evil acts, depraved stories from Beyond the realms of good taste, and shameless exploitation profiteering Beyond these two nuisances...the iceberg's tip we have yet to encounter, this be only a light dusting of snow. Are you all ready? I sure am. Cuz my name's Justin. JustinCase.
Fascinating. Probably the only two on the list I've actually seen. I saw Blood Feast in the early 70's under the name Blood Feast of 1,000 Maniacs. Pretty disgusting and very gory. Faces of Death was a cult selection from the video store one night. There are a couple of scenes I still can't get out of my head.
ReplyDeleteWhile I've never seen that listed as an alternate title for Blood Feast, it's certainly possible, as exploitation films of the day were often retitled (some with as many as 21 different titles). I should mention that one of H.G. Lewis subsequent gore features was titled 2,000 Maniacs. Perhaps that wonderful relic of yesteryear the double feature?
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