A Taste of Blood: The Films of Herschell Gordon Lewis

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• By Christopher Wayne Curry

Synopsis

The incredibly popular, violent horror films of recent decades, such as "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Friday the 13th", and "Nightmare on Elm Street", owe much of their existence to the undisputed Godfather of Gore - Herschell Gordon Lewis. In 1963 Lewis, with his monumental splatter movie "Blood Feast", single-handedly changed the face of horror cinema forever.

As well as virtually inventing the gore genre, Lewis also produced a number of nudie and roughie movies, as well as sampling the full gamut of exploitation subjects ranging from wife-swapping and ESP to rock 'n' roll and LSD. A Taste of Blood details all these, plus gore classics such as "2,000 Maniacs", "Gore-Gore Girls" and "Color Me Blood Red", placing them in context amid the roots and developments of the exploitation films.

A Taste of Blood is a definitive study which not only chronicles Lewis' career as the master of exploitation but also contains interviews with him and many of his former collaborators, including David F Friedman, Bill Rogers, Daniel Krogh, Mal Arnold and Hedda Lubin. These are interwoven with commentary, extremely rare photographs, production stills, posters, and a thorough synopsis of each of Lewis' three dozen influential films. Also included is a stunning 8-page colour section of graphic screen gore. (Amazon)