Blood Feast (1972 film)

Plot

A playboy serial killer (Hugo Stiglitz) seduces beautiful women under false pretenses, inviting them to his ranch/castle, to proceed to kill them in gruesome ways. He uses the flesh of the women to feed a plethora of cats that he keeps in a pit, and keeps their heads as trophies, pickled inside glass jars. However, one brave woman he attempts to kill escapes. He gives chase, but gets a minor face injury during a struggle with her. Furthermore, the cats escape from the pit through a hole in a fence (after the woman to throws a spear at him but misses), and sensing the injury, they attack and devour Stiglitz. Finally, the woman successfully escapes in her car unharmed, never to return from that place again.

Fan reception

Blood Feast supports little fan base, but has made a home for itself amongst exploitation film fans. The film caused mild controversy due to its seemingly cruel treatment to the cats. One scene depicts Hugo violently grabbing a large white cat and tossing him over a high wall into its pen. The camera does not cut away, thus indicating that the real cat was thrown.

Critical reception

Shock Cinema Magazine reckoned it possibly "the worst film ever made about killer felines", very silly with little entertainment value and bad acting, although still better than Cardona's later films. The Terror Trap gave it 2 stars, calling it "rather unimpressive", "mild", "drab", and "uninspired". Tars Tarkas suggested that cats are intrinsically not very scary, even when there's a thousand of them, rating the film 2/10. Aggressions Animales reckoned it one of René Cardona Jr.s worst films, and said that aside from a few of its ideas, there was nothing interesting.

Technical details

Blood Feast is in color and was released in the US in 1974 with an 'R' rating by the MPAA. Unedited it runs 93 minutes; the American version, however, runs 63 minutes. The movie was filmed in Spanish, but has English dubs.