Blood Feast (1972 film)

Blood Feast (Spanish: La noche de los mil gatos, lit. Night of a Thousand Cats) is a 1972 Mexican exploitation horror film written and directed by René Cardona Jr. It was released in the United States in 1974.[1]

This article is about the 1972 Mexican horror film by René Cardona Jr.. For the 1963 film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, see Blood Feast.

Blood Feast
Promotional poster
SpanishLa noche de los mil gatos
LiterallyNight of a Thousand Cats
Directed byRené Cardona Jr.
Written byRené Cardona Jr.
Mario Zacarias
Produced byRené Cardona Jr.
Mario Zacarias
Starring
Release dates
  • 3 August 1972 (1972-08-03) (Mexico)
  • 1 November 1974 (1974-11-01) (U.S.)
Running time
93 minutes (original version)
63 minutes (U.S. cut)
CountryMexico
LanguagesSpanish
English
Budget$1,500

Plot

Hugo, a playboy serial killer (Hugo Stiglitz), stalks beautiful women in his helicopter, seducing them under false pretenses and inviting them to his castle estate. There, he kills them in various gruesome ways with the help of his groundskeeper, Dorgo. He then uses their flesh to feed a plethora of cats that he keeps in a fenced-in pit and preserves their pickled heads as trophies inside glass jars. A doctor who stops by the castle and eventually even his groundskeeper also become meals for the cats. Eventually, one brave woman lacks fear of death, and she miraculously escapes his clutches, accidentally making a hole in the fence around the cat pit (which eventually allows the cats to escape). During the fight, Hugo gets hit in the face. Sensing his injury, the cats gang up, descend upon Hugo, and finish him off, allowing the woman to escape unharmed.[1]

Cast

Release

The film was released under the title Night of a Thousand Cats in Tampa, Florida on 1 November 1974.[2]

Critical response

Shock Cinema Magazine deemed Blood Feast possibly "the worst film ever made about killer felines", and said it was very silly with little entertainment value and bad acting, although still better than Cardona's later films.[3] The Terror Trap gave it 2 stars, calling it "rather unimpressive", "mild", "drab", and "uninspired".[4] Tars Tarkas suggested that cats are intrinsically not very scary, even when there's a thousand of them, rating the film 2/10.[5] Aggressions Animales reckoned it one of René Cardona Jr's worst films, and said that aside from a few of its ideas, there was nothing interesting.[6]

Home media

VCI Entertainment issued a double-feature Blu-ray in June 2022 which also features Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1972).[7]

Technical details

Blood Feast was shot in color. It was released in the US in 1974 with an 'R' rating by the MPAA. Unedited, it runs 93 minutes; the American version, however, runs 63 minutes. The movie was filmed in Spanish, but has been dubbed in English.[1]

Legacy

Blood Feast has a very small fan base, but has made a home for itself among exploitation film fans. At its release, the film caused mild controversy due to its seemingly cruel treatment of cats. One scene depicts Hugo violently grabbing a large white cat and tossing it over a high wall into its pen. The camera does not cut away, indicating that the real cat was thrown.

References
  1. "Blood Feast Review". FilmBizarro.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  2. "Theatre Time Clock". Tampa Bay Times. 1 November 1974. p. 9-D – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Steven Puchalski, "The Night of a Thousand Cats", Shock Cinema, 1990
  4. "The Night of a Thousand Cats", The Terror Trap
  5. "The Night of a 1000 Cats", Tars Tarkas
  6. "La Noche De Los Mil Gatos" (Review), Aggressions Animales, 5 December 2009
  7. "Bloody 70's Horror Double Feature: Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary + Rene Cardona's Blood Feast Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022.
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