Cover Art

Credits

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis Starring: Thomas Wood, Mal Arnold, Connie Mason, Lyn Bolton, Scott H. Hall Screenplay: A. Louise Downe Country: USA

The opening pre-credit sequence features a blonde in a bath who is immediately sliced and diced by a bug-eyed guy (Mal Arnold) who only stops to lovingly admire her innards as they cling to edge of his weapon. A timpani and organ score thumps and swells as the camera bumps around the bathroom when it's not locked down onto the shot of a radio issuing a murder report or the end of a lopped limb. Cut to luminous blood red credits that drip over the top of a model of a sphinx, the first piece of tacky egyptology on display and the key to tracking down the culprit behind the body count of seven women that has accumulated in a two week period and completely baffled the local Police Department. With no clue or clues the head of the Homicide Bureau just orders a warning to be broadcast over the radio every half hour. Next up we're in the shop of Fuad Ramses Exotic Catering as the fiend from the bathroom extols the virtues of having an original Egyptian feast to a snobbish customer organising a party for her daughter (Connie Mason) who just so happens to regularly attend an Egyptology lecture series that is also frequented by the lead detective (Thomas Wood). After some hypnotic persuasion Fuad's new customer leaves him to wring his hands and limp behind the scenes to a makeshift altar he has devoted to the Goddess Ishtar to whom he pleads undying allegiance. A newspaper headline announces, "Legs Cut Off!", as we check back with the still clueless Chief of Police who's bawling out his main detective in his cavernous sounding office. Meanwhile Fuad continues the body count by ambushing a couple on a beach. Fuad messily removes and fondles the girls brain without spilling a drop of blood on his pristine suit. Lewis throws a live snake into a splatter shot for no real reason while the boyfriend goes hysterical. The cops arrive and notice that the killer has taken one body part from each murder victim. Fuad goes home to start cooking but needs some seasoning. He's soon out and about again this time following a drunk couple back to a motel room where he busts in and rips out the female's tongue with his bare hands. Later, Connie comments to her mum that, "Murders take the joy out of everything." At the latest Egyptology class the lecturer introduces the topic of Ishtar which instigates a cheapjack flashback to ancient Egypt and the cult of the Blood Feast which lasted for 400 years but still exists today! After a bloody sacrificial chest stabbing Connie hooks up with the still clueless Thomas Wood for a date but as they settle down at the local make-out spot a special radio newsbreak sends our detective back to work. Soon he's at a hospital bedside attempting to interview a dying woman with half a face who actually expires but not before she can drop the word, "Etar". Meanwhile, Fuad stalks Connie's friend Trudy who had ordered one of his books, eventually abducting her and taking her back to his warehouse office where he whips her until she bleeds so he can collect her blood. Despite her friend having gone missing Connie's party goes ahead. Fuad convinces Connie to lie down on a kitchen bench and recite a prayer to Ishtar. Connie's mum disturbs the proceedings causing Fuad to go on the run. At the same time our amateur Egyptologist detective finally puts two and two together and races in the front door as Fuad leaves out the back. A chase leads to the local tip where the limping Fuad throws his trusty machete at the police before he hitches a ride in a garbage truck only to be accidentally crushed. Thomas Wood then steps in to summarise the situation to a colleague before they light up and blithely walk away from the death scene leaving the garbage man scratching his head. And so in a Miami tip Lewis brings his tale of blood and Egyptian catering to an typically trashy and satisfying ending.