#The 20 Best ’60s Horror Movies Ranked

“Blood Feast,” is included more as a curio and cinematic landmark than through its quality as a movie. The acting is risible, the plot ludicrous and gossamer-thin, and it was seemingly directed by randomly pointing a camera at actors and scenes, with scant regard for cinematic intricacies such as adequate lighting or being in focus.

And yet for all its faults, “Blood Feast” has achieved a certain notoriety in horror history by being among the first of its genre to feature extensive gore. Writer/director Herschell Gordon Lewis (“The Godfather of Gore”) -– no stranger to using gimmickry to put bottoms on cinema seats -– slathers the screen with thick, lurid red, visceral grue.

Ramses is a caterer in Miami. Everybody needs a hobby, and Ramses’ is murdering young women and using their body parts to rejuvenate the Egyptian Goddess Ishtar. Lewis delights in showing the full effect of Ramses’ handiwork –- all the eye gouging and entrail stripping is presented on screen with gleeful delight, albeit with all the directorial flair of waving a camera around in an abattoir.

Still, all credit to it for being the first splatter movie, and for making this list. And probably the first time that “Blood Feast” has ever been close to a chart which wasn’t about the worst horror films ever made.