Flesh Feast (1970)

Too many fans seem to be blown away

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Blistering performances.

Co-produced by and starring Veronica Lake, the 40s platinum blonde famous for her peek-a-boo hair style, Flesh Feast revolves around an experiment that uses flesh-eating maggots to eat away old flesh and rejuvenate new, the first patient being the second in command of the Third Reich, and the next in line none other than Hitler himself.With such a schlocky premise and a suitably lurid title (displayed in a dripping blood-red font), things look set for a gloriously trashy movie, hopefully loaded with gruesome H.G. Lewis style splatter.Unfortunately, although there are one or two grisly moments (the sawing off of a leg from a cadaver, and pieces of a putrefying corpse hanging in the laboratory), Flesh Feast fails to live up to its potential as an outrageously camp gorefest, the majority of the running time devoted to dialogue heavy scenes with stilted performances from all involved.The finale, in which Dr. Elaine Frederick (Lake) reveals herself to be the daughter of a concentration camp prisoner and places loads of flesh eating maggots onto a screaming Hitler's face, would have been the ideal opportunity for some icky effects, but director Brad F. Grinter prefers to leave his film on a freeze frame of Der Fuhrer's face before things get too messy.Overall, a disappointing effort, and a sad swansong for Lake.

Brad Grinter's other claim to fame was BLOOD FREAK, about a bloodthirsty turkey-monster. Chris Martell previously appeared in THE GRUESOME TWOSOME, then co-starred with Phil Philbin in SCREAM BABY SCREAM. Apparently those films weren't bad enough so these guys collaborated on this Grade-Z stinker, co-produced by none other than Veronica Lake. Veronica plays a crazed plastic surgeon who uses hungry maggots for dermabrasion. She's also seeking revenge on a "mystery patient" whose identity is revealed at the end. (HINT: This mystery patient ruled Germany during World War II.) This grungy premise, which should have grossed out drive-in audiences everywhere, is undermined by insane dialog, risible acting and hysterical production gaffes. A lab assistant cuts through a corpse's tendon and a noise like wood being sawed is heard on the soundtrack. Another character blunders into a room festooned with pale body parts hanging from the ceiling; she actually has to bump into a hacked-up torso before noticing anything wrong. I've read about a scene where Lake spouts a patriotic wartime speech directly into the camera; thankfully, it's been cut from every video version I've seen. Veronica was a diner waitress prior to doing this picture. After waiting on the public, she probably considered working with maggots a pleasant chore by comparison.

Flesh Feast starts at Miami Airport, ace reporter Dan Carter (Harry Kerwin, he is also credited as production designer) phones his mate Ed Casey (Phil Philbin) to let him know that he has just returned from South America where he has been investigating Carl Schuman (Doug Foster) & that he was onto a big story but while still talking on the phone he is stabbed in the back & killed. Schuman meets Dr. Elaine Frederick (Veronica Lake, she also executive produced) who has recently been released from a mental institution, together they discuss their grisly plans. The news of Cater's death has reached Casey & he decides to take the story up himself & do some investigating, well actually he gets his secretary Viginia Day (Marth Mischon) to do most of the investigating & just report back to him, lazy bugger. Virginia informs Casey that they have someone on the inside named Kristine (Heather Hughes) since Dr. Frederick rents her spare rooms out to nurses, Kristine reports back to Casey about Schuman & Dr. Frederick's grotesque youth restoration experiments involving human flesh & specially cultivated maggots...Co written, co-produced & directed by Brad F. Grinter Flesh Feast is a pretty poor film on all accounts. First lets start with the script by Grinter & Thomas Casey who was also responsible for the cinematography (you get the feeling that most of the cast & crew had more than one job), basically it's terrible. The character's are one dimensional idiots & have no personality, I didn't like anyone in this film. For what it's worth I quite like some of the ideas here, the flesh-eating maggots, the basement laboratory, stealing bodies from a hospital & that unforgettable 'twist' ending that's almost worth sitting through the rest of the film for on it's own. Unfortunately the dialogue is so badly written, stiff & unnatural sounding it's untrue, I mean there is one scene in which a nurse says that they "won't let us out of the house" which is fine except for the fact that she is speaking OUTSIDE in the garden to someone. No thought has been put into the story as no explanation is ever given for why flesh-eating maggots are able to restore youth, in fact at one point near the end when questioned about this very thing Dr. Frederick claims there is no time to explain at that point which to me sounds like the people who wrote this didn't have a clue either! Even at an extremely short 68 minutes long Flesh Feast is very slow & dull, the poor editing doesn't help with scenes & shots lasting for far too long, for example there is a scene in which an Ambulance pulls up outside a Hospital, drives up to the doors, the guy gets out, he walks to the back doors & opens them etc. etc. did we really need to see every single detail? There is also another sequence in which Dr. Frederick enters room & puts some gloves on, then she takes them off walks into the opposite room & puts another pair on! I personally think that Grinter probably didn't shoot enough material so he stretches every scene out as much as he can to make the run time up. I do like that bizarre ending though, I really do. Technically Flesh feast is complete crap, I'm not sure what the budget was on this but it must have been small, very small. Just about the entire film takes place in one house, Dr. Frederick's laboratory consists of a table, some plastic beakers & test tubes, some ancient looking electronic medical equipment & a strange screen with funny colours on it (don't ask). The cinematography is poor, the music sucks & the entire film looks dubbed, badly dubbed too. The exploitation elements are also disappointing, there are a few maggot shots but they don't actually do anything other than wriggle a bit, there is a brief scene where a dead body has it's leg sawn off & a OK looking dismembered corpse & limbs hanging on hooks. The acting is awful from everyone concerned, & I mean really bad which makes the rubbishy dialogue even worse. Do yourself a favour & avoid Flesh Feast, yes there are one or two unintentionally funny moments & that ending is, well unique to say the least but for the most part this is real amateur film-making that quickly becomes painful to watch. I doubt most people will make it through this is one sitting, I can tolerate just about anything but even I considered switching it off. Definitely one to avoid, you'll be pleased you did & if you really have to see it don't say you weren't warned!

This is a legendary, seedy and satisfying horror movie. The camera work and special effects are outstanding considering the production date of this scary masterpiece. The story line could have been ironed out allot more before production, but who would have ever dreamt up a movie about flesh eating maggots? I recommend you watch this film before making any purchase, but I'm sure you will not be disappointed.