H.G. Lewis apparently regards this as his best film ... ironic that most critics say it's one of his worst!
shareits a bit on the slow side, definitely not great.
5/10When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
To my knowledge (and I've read numerous interviews with the Godfather of Gore over the years), Lewis has never said that "A Taste of Blood" was his best film--just that it had the highest production values. He has always regarded "Two Thousand Maniacs!" as his finest work. Anyhoo, he's absolutely right about "Taste". It's a good-looking film; downright elegant for a Lewis picture, in fact. And, while the gore effects are restrained, there's that one beautifully gruesome scene in which Bill Rogers--in the ghastly glow of a blue gel spot--bites the burlesque dancer's throat out. (I swear that you can see the wound pulsing as Rogers pulls away!) It's a very effective moment in the Lewis oeuvre, and one that was achieved without going overboard: it's just enough.
By the way, has anyone listened to Lewis's commentary on the DVD? It's great. The late Dave Friedman (who was no longer working with Lewis by the time "A Taste of Blood" was made) walks in about halfway through and it's genuinely touching to hear the camaraderie that still existed between the two men.
See "Incredibly Strange Films" (Re-Search Publications, 1986) where Lewis says he thinks Taste of Blood is his "best" film ... although elsewhere the book describes 2000 Maniacs as his "favorite" film. Go figure.
shareI haven't read "Incredibly Strange Films", I'll admit--though I've been sorely tempted to shell out the bucks for it because of the subject matter, and the excellence of RE/Search's product in general. I do remember Lewis saying on "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that "A Taste of Blood" was a misstep because it didn't have enough gore to qualify as a bona fide Herschell Gordon Lewis movie, and not quite enough production value to qualify as a major independent. ("Neither fish nor fowl" was his ultimate pronouncement, I believe.) I dig it, though, even if it was primarily an experiment--it has the look and feel that you can only get from Lewis, and to me that's where the true magic of his films resides (rather than in the gore effects).
share