Color Me Blood Red
Who needs red paint when human arterial fluid is so much more readily available? This question is addressed rather directly in Lewis' film, albeit in his usual, quirky manner. A financially-successful painter has his creativity questioned by an art critic and tries to prove him wrong. He stumbles upon blood as a new form of coloring in a really forced way and goes down a slow path to murder and insanity. In a 'what a weird coincidence' bit, a group of teens wander into the area where the painter is working, having run out of blood from the last painting. One of those teens is the daughter of a rich woman who is the fan of the painter and who tries to buy the first of his new paintings. Even the murder of two of their friends does not discourage them from going back the next night to linger about. First off, the movie is far more focused on character development and acting than Feast was. What this does is make the deaths have more impact than your usual 'big guy kills horny teenager' scene. In addition, the characters are more nuanced and the space between killings is longer. One could argue that this has more to do with the low-budget nature of the film than daring film-making, but that is up to you. Many of the genre conventions are still there, like the stiff authority figures and fun-loving teen with 'I am going to die' practically written on their foreheads. Some things never change. The murders are very vivid and show a more professional touch than the 'throw blood everywhere' approach of Feast. As a real film, it is superior to Blood Feast. For splatter fans, it is less of what you want to see. Bear that in mind, true believers.
Taste of Blood
Brandy is good. Brandy that turns you into a vampire is slightly less good. A rich businessman is delivered a mysterious box from Transylvania with the liquid in it. As time and his level of consumption passes, the man becomes more reclusive and his mood changes dramatically. Around the same time, some mysterious and violent murders are taking place. I wonder if there is any connection between these two things, huh? There is also an interesting subplot with the wife of our protagonist/antagonist having a possible affair with his friend- played by the star of the previous Lewis film 2,000 Maniacs"- which further drives the suspicious nature of him. Lewis' take on the vampire genre is very interesting, albeit flawed. "Taste" is longer than his usual film, - which are around eighty minutes - clocking in at around two hours. The result is more banal dialogue and some scenes running longer than they probably should. There is some creativity in the story though, such as the antagonist's ironic killing method. The story is interesting and the acting is pretty good. As far as H.G. Lewis films go, the acting would make Uta Hagen proud by comparison. Feel free to Google that name if you have to. In the realm of vampire films, you can definitely do worse. Say what you will, but at least it does not have vampires as aliens, vampires that explode or Dracula being killed by a thorn bush. Oh, the humanity! Check this one out for an interesting time.
In summary, if you like blood, people being covered in blood or lingering shots of people covered in blood, Herschell-Gordon Lewis is for you. If you do not, I recommend the works of Jim Henson, save for Labyrinth. Seriously though, Lewis is popular among cult film fans, both for his gore films and his genre works. Who else could make a movie about a woman who takes LSD to give herself psychic powers? How about the story of a small, Southern town that reappears every hundred years to enact revenge on the damn Yankees of the world? Say what you will about the man, but he knew what sold. Lest we forget that the most financially successful film of all time- when adjusted for inflation and compared to production costs- is a roadhouse film about teen pregnancy from the '50s. See, you just learned something. You're welcome.
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