Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Herschell Gordon Lewis (Blood Feast, Goldilocks and the Three Bares, Two Thousand Maniacs!) is a name instantly familiar to any fan of exploitation films, given he was a somewhat of an original in the realm of nudie cuties (along with former business partner David F. Friedman), before becoming a pioneer in the world of splatter films. Directed by Lewis, A Taste of Blood (1967) features Bill Rogers (Shanty Tramp, Flesh Feast), Elizabeth Wilkinson (Suburban Roulette), and Lewis regular William Kerwin (Bell, Bare and Beautiful, Two Thousand Maniacs!). Also appearing is Otto Schlessinger (Flesh Feast), Eleanor Vaill (The Girl, the Body, and the Pill), and Lawrence Tobin (Shanty Tramp).

After a slightly bizarre opening credit sequence (with a bouncy, jazzy score) we see a package, labeled `of gravest urgency', being delivered to an office, the name of the recipient being John Stone (Rogers). Stone's secretary Hester (Vaill) signs for it, after which she and the delivery man speculate on its contents...she thinks it's gold, he thinks it's a bomb (no, that would be this movie), while I'm hoping it's the actual script for the film, as so far everyone seems to be winging it, and rather poorly I might add (turns out it's none of the above). Hester delivers the package to Stone's swanky home, where we get to meet Stone, who's quite the fashion statement in a maroon sports coat, white shirt, purple pants and black cravat. We also get to meet his bosomy, blonde, bubble headed wife named Helene (Wilkinson), who's about as interesting as a wooden post. Anyway, after an agonizing (and pointless) ten minute sequence, John finally gets around to opening the package, which contains, among other things, a letter indicating he's the last living heir to a vast estate in London, along with some specific instructions. After following the instructions John begins to change (developing nocturnal habits), Helene gets concerned, family doctor and friend Hank Tyson (Kerwin) gets involved, there's an excessive amount of smoking and drinking going on, John travels to London (where some people die mysteriously) and returns to the states with a what looks to be a coffin, John puts the hypnotic whammy on Helene, there's a list of people marked for death, John visits a bump and grind clip joint after which a skaggy stripper is drained of her hemoglobin, someone named Dr. Howard Helsing (Schlessinger) makes the scene with a dire warning, all eventually leading up to a rather uneventful finale hardly worth the effort.

The one thing that surprised me while watching this film was the general lack of gore, especially in terms of some of Lewis' other films. There is some blood, but not nearly to the extent as seen in Blood Feast (1963), Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964), or The Wizard of Gore (1970). The one thing that annoyed me the most was tedious pacing. So often scene after scene was drawn out unnecessarily, resulting a bloated two-hour run time. While I've never actually made a movie, I've think I've seen enough of them to offer up a few suggestions for those aspiring film directors out there, thoughts that came to mind while watching this feature...

1. Just because you shoot a scene doesn't necessarily mean it should be included in the finished product, especially if it offers nothing in terms of positive, forward flow to the actual story.
2. Lengthy static shots are certainly cheap and easy to set up, but when they comprise nearly ninety percent of your film it's going to result in extreme tedium for the viewer, possibly forcing them to scrape their sinus cavities with a rusty butter knife in an effort to stay awake.
3. Time spent in postproduction is usually time well spent, particularly in terms of editing. If a scene feels like it's running too long, it probably is...
4. Try to throw in some interesting characters or situations once in awhile. It makes it so much more interesting for the audience (in all fairness, Bill Rogers' character was fairly fun to watch).
5. Just because you can direct doesn't mean you can act, especially if you're going to attempt playing the role of an English sailor with a ridiculous cockney accent. I know it's tempting, especially if the budget is tight, but surely you can scrape up a few extra bucks and hire a semi-proficient scrub actor, which can be found a dime a dozen (check the local dinner theaters or community colleges) for a bit role.

The acting is rotten (I lost count of how many times the various performers stepped on each others' lines), the script barely there, and the production values funky (this was actually one of Lewis' more expensive productions), but I expected these elements, and wasn't disappointed. Bill Rogers is actually somewhat entertaining to watch (he kind of reminded me of a bargain basement Robert Quarry, of Count Yorga fame), while Elizabeth Wilkinson, attractive in her own way (whotta rack), comes off the worst, obviously the least talented of the bunch. There's a couple of sequences that stuck out in my mind, the first being when John is in London and he's speaking with an English sailor, played by director Lewis himself, aboard a ship. Lewis spews forth the most rotten cockney accent I've ever heard, and thereby injects some unintentional comedy into the proceedings. In another bit much later in the movie, as Hank visits Dr. Helsing in his hotel room, we witness the extent of the production values present as the room consists of a shabby dresser, a cot for a bed, and a crummy folding chair (seeing as how the man was a prestigious doctor, I thought he could have afforded to stay in something a bit more classier than a flophouse). All in all if you're a Lewis fan, then you'll probably want to catch this one, but if you're looking for some of the trademark Lewis splatter and gore (guts, buckets of blood, etc.), you're better off going with some of his other films. I did appreciate Lewis' attempt to delve into the vampire mythos, perhaps in an effort to try his hand at something slightly different, but the end result confirms the idea that, in general, one should stick with what they know.

The picture, presented in fullscreen (1.33:1) on this Something Weird Video special edition DVD release, looks clean and sharp, up until about the hour and fifteen minute mark, as after that it deteriorates slightly. At this point the picture quality varies and features some vertical lines, but nothing overly annoying. As far as the Dolby Digital mono audio, it's generally decent (albeit soft), but there is some slight noise along with the occasional pop. Extras include an audio commentary track with director Herschell Gordon Lewis, an extremely worn out theatrical trailer for the film, a rough looking archival silent, black and white nudie short titled `Nightmare at Elm Manor' (4:56), which contained more nekkidness in five minutes than was included in the actual, two hour feature film on this DVD, and a Herschell Gordon Lewis gallery of exploitation art. All in all a solid release of a mediocre film.

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In 1963 Herschell Gordon Lewis, an independent filmmaker known for making cutie pictures, changed forever the face of American cinema when he released "Blood Feast." This film, about as low budget as you could possibly get even in the 1960s, kicked off the era of the gore film. While it would be quite some time before Hollywood caught on to the fact that certain elements of the movie audience hungered for films containing nauseating scenes of explicit violence, H.G. Lewis took one look at the receipts for "Blood Feast" and decided he better make another movie similar to this one. A series of gruesome zero budget shockers followed, films like "The Gruesome Twosome," "The Gore-Gore Girls," "2000 Maniacs," "The Wizard of Gore," and his nearly two hour epic take on the Dracula legend, "A Taste of Blood." Lewis retired after 1972 in order to concentrate on a career in advertising, an endeavor he found much more profitable than his work in the film business. It wasn't until 2002 that the director returned to form with "Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat," a movie which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Godfather of Gore still has what it takes to shock an audience.

"A Taste of Blood" is the story of John and Helene Stone (the patrician Bill Rogers and the amazingly pretty Elizabeth Wilkinson respectively), two happily married lovebirds caught in a nightmare when two bottles of suspicious looking plum brandy arrive in the mail. Addressed to John, the liquor is a gift to the last surviving descendent of the Alucard dynasty. Stone is mystified until he remembers that his mother did have some mysterious relatives in Europe of whom he knew little about. A letter accompanying the bottles states that John must drink a toast to his deceased relatives, but otherwise gives little indication of what should follow. Stone, despite some misgivings from his mouthy secretary and his wife, quaffs down a healthy draught of the brandy and promptly forgets about the mystery behind the package. Forgets, that is, until he becomes aware he has a nagging craving for the liquor. Unbeknownst to John, the brandy is actually the blood of his esteemed but tragically murdered relation Count Dracula. The purpose of the brandy is to transmogrify Stone into a bloodthirsty vampire. Things will never be the same at the Stone mansion, which, by the way, sports some of the chintziest '60's décor you will ever see in a film.

Helene Stone soon notices her husband stays up all night "working" in his den, ignores her needs, and no longer goes to his office in the city. Moreover, she notices John's ice cold touch and involuntarily recoils whenever she sees him. Worried about her husband, Helene turns to her former boyfriend and now loyal family friend Doctor Hank Tyson (Lewis regular Bill Kerwin) in an effort to discover what ails her significant other. Doc Tyson shrugs the concerns off at first, citing a list of rather mundane reasons why John Stone might suddenly change his routine. As Helene and Tyson commiserate, Stone journeys to Europe to carry out a grim mission against the descendants of the people responsible for his ancestor's death. It isn't long after this interlude that Doctor Howard Helsing pops into the Stone house, ranting about the dangers facing John and Helene. It turns out that Helsing learned all about Stone's European adventures and fears for his own life at the hands of the vicious vampire. He convinces Tyson that Helene is in serious danger, which of course she is, and the movie concludes with Stone facing down his foes.

"A Taste of Blood" is not your typical Herschell Gordon Lewis film. First, the gore scenes are nearly nonexistent. Oh sure, a few scenes contain a splash of sauce, specifically when Stone works over an entertainer named "Vivacious" Vivian, but this movie is relatively bloodless overall. That's disappointing for Lewis fans, but several other elements of the film make up for the prudish violence. For one thing, the acting in this Lewis movie is vastly superior to any of his other films. Comparing the chops on display in "A Taste of Blood" with a movie like "The Wizard of Gore" is like comparing a Royal Shakespearean with a chap working in Summer Stock. Don't get me wrong: no one here will win any awards for their performances, and a viewer can easily find several examples of overacting in different parts of the film, but it is definitely a surprise to see decent acting in a Lewis production. Additionally, the plot makes sense and moves in a linear fashion. A few breaks in logic occasionally occur, like the police suddenly arriving on the scene and naming John Stone as a suspect in a murder, but the movie ultimately flows well.

Still, this is an H.G. Lewis film. Many of the sets look amazingly cheap. Check out the British "Lord" who lives in a house with cheesy wallpaper and a single flintlock pistol hanging on the wall, the gaudy décor in the Stone house, and the laughable attempt to make it look as though Stone actually went to England if you want to guffaw. The DVD from Something Weird Video is a mixed bag. You do get a black and white cutie short called "Nightmare at Elm Manor," poster art, a commentary, and a trailer as extras. The film, however, looks like technicians pieced it together from different prints with decidedly mixed results in terms of picture quality. Still, Lewis fans should watch this one in due course. "A Taste of Blood" is a far from Lewis's best efforts, but it is just as far from his worst as well.