Mardi Gras Massacre

Remember the video nasty called Blood Feast. it was banned in Britain, and finally let in in 2005. This film is a cheesy remake of the Herschell Gordon Lewis classic. It was banned and never let in. Instead of an Egyptian goddess, this guy here (William Metzo) is making sacrifices to some Aztec goddess. He takes a prostitute (Laura Misch Owens) home, oils her up, and performs his ritual, which includes removing her heart. The cop (Curt Dawson) is too busy getting prostitutes (Gwen Arment) in bed himself to solve the crime. I really don't get this police sergeant strolling though the city with his arm around the prostitute. While he is in bed, another girl gives her heart to the slasher. This doesn't make the police chief too happy as Mardi Gras is about to start and they need to get Jaws out of the water. Sorry, wrong film. Cheesy dialog, hairy men in wife-beaters, incompetent cops, and a score that belongs in a porno film: all the elements of a good grade Z grindhouse film.

Not exactly a straight slasher as many believe but it's surely as cheesy, and unintentionally funny as any slasher from the 80's. "Mardi Gras Massacre" could be considered as a toned down exploitation low budget. The plot asks for brutality, violence, sleaze but the truth is that the execution of the idea isn't as half as good as it should. Poor New Orleans, really. Not because of the recent tragedies, but, because this movie has generated a bad fame for the Mardi Gras celebration. Of course, only among in the Horror movies world. The ritual method is repeated in all the death scenes. So we don't get originality or probably there wasn't enough budget to at least create three different gore scenes. It's okay but even ultra low budget slashers have at least two different killing methods! Anyways, "Mardi Gras Massacre" has generated some kind of cult over the years but sincerely, this isn't a must see. The movie should only be watched by b-movie lovers or morbid fans of low budget cheese and sleaze!

A wealthy weirdo (William Metzo) trawls the seedy strip clubs and brothels of New Orleans, searching for the city's most evil women; those considered wicked enough are taken to his apartment where, instead of partaking in sordid sexual acts, they are sacrificed to an ancient Aztec goddess. Tough cop Sgt Mike Abraham (Curt Dawson) is on the case, but falls for hooker with a heart Sherry (Gwen Arment), who inevitably winds up chained in the killer's apartment awaiting her turn on the sacrificial altar. Mardi Gras Massacre is what H. G. Lewis' s Blood Feast might have looked like had it been made 15 years later, during the disco explosion of the late seventies: it's cheap, sleazy, and features enthusiastic scenes of splatter—Lewis trademarks one and all—but it also features a funky soundtrack, frequent full-frontal female nudity, not one but two hilariously naff montage sequences, bushy beards and 'taches aplenty (on the men, that is; the women sport their excessive hair elsewhere!), a jive talking pimp, and a hilarious dance-floor scene in which Sherry becomes lost in music before getting into a cat-fight (don't forget to look out for the 'disco-tranny' and 'fat girl in a big sweater' who are also getting' their groove on). Thanks to these outrageously trashy elements, I found Mardi Gras Massacre to be very entertaining nonsense, although it's clear that the film is not everyone's idea of a good time: this sucker found itself a place on the Official UK DPP 'Video Nasties' list during the '80s, most likely due to the graphically violent murders, which show each victim bound naked to a table and rubbed liberally with oil before being savagely cut open with a big knife. As a card-carrying gore-hound, I naturally welcome such gratuitous on-screen nastiness, but regrettably, director Jack Reis is almost as ritualistic with his handling of these scenes as his well-heeled whack-job is in offing his wayward women: each death is shot in precisely the same manner, and they soon become rather dull and predictable. Had a little more imagination been applied to the execution of these key moments, then I would have happily raised my rating of 7/10 to an 8.

I almost admire this. It KNEW it stunk from the git-go. So they piled everything they could think of into the film so we wouldn't realize it. They almost got away with it. Almost. Witch Doctor/Lunatic kills people during Mardi Gras. Mystery and terror ensue. In that order. The Mardi Gras setting gave it excuses to show all types of weirdness. This is the films' success. Hot women, bikers, street performers making asses of themselves, it's a grindhouse fan's feast. The mystery itself was bare bones, the extras made it watchable. All one did was predict the next one to get pierced. Worth a look just for the party scenes...and the women.

I don't usually go out of my way to put down a film, but it surprised me when I saw that this one got an average of 3.5 stars. Don't be led astray, this movie is not worth any amount of money you might pay for it. Unless you are looking for a movie with super cheesy lines, bad acting and sadistic, gory torture/murder scenes don't rent this movie. I rented this movie once. Soon afterwards I lost my job because I forgot to go, got dumped by my girlfriend because I forgot her name, my dog died because I forgot to feed her and my family disowned me as an act of mercy. This is how much stupider I became after watching this movie. Please, take me as an example and save yourself. Thank you for your time.

A deranged killer cultist (woodenly played by William Metzo) picks up hookers in New Orleans and sacrifices them to an Aztec god by pulling out their hearts. Man, does this gloriously ghastly cinematic abomination possess all right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four-star schlockfest: hilariously horrible acting from a lame no-name cast (Gwen Arment cops the top thespic dishonors for her wince-worthy turn as jaded streetwalker Sherry), hopelessly all-thumbs (mis)direction by Jack Weis (who also wrote the wafer-thin script), tacky gore, a plodding pace, slipshod editing, crude cinematography, a complete dearth of tension and creepy atmosphere, and plenty of needless filler in between the killings all add up to create one of the single most spectacularly shoddy celluloid stinkers to ever ooze its lurid way across the big screen. Foxy brunette "Playboy" Playmate Laura Misch Owens, who was almost invariably cast as whores in the handful of movies she popped up in, appears here as -- big surprise! -- evil prostitute first victim Shirley Anderson. The tasty abundant gratuitous female nudity and seamy Big Easy red light district milieu keep things nice'n'sleazy throughout. The get-down groovy disco soundtrack hits the funky-throbbing spot. A total cruddy riot.

As much as I think this film is a pile of crap, there's 'something' about it that I like. I think it's the grainy, dirty feel to it, which isn't something many horror films have. This cannot save it though, because whichever way you look at it, it gets rather tedious after the first few deaths. Don't get me wrong - they are quite bloody in a Herschell Gordon Lewis kind of way. I even thought the weird sounds that are played when the killings occur added to the grainy atmosphere. It's just that you get sick of seeing the same thing over and over. Also there's too much tedious bumbling from the police and a dull sub-plot. I thought the ending was rather cool though, when he drives the car into the water and all they find is his mask. Mind you most people would have fallen asleep by this point. Overall I would say Mardi Gras Massacre is worth the once over if you're a horror completist - just don't expect too much!

Blood Feast will always have cult value for the fact that it was directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, and for the fact that it is the oldest film to be featured on the DPP Video Nasty list. Whether or not it needed a seventies update, however, is up for debate; but it got one, so I guess someone thought it did. Mardi Gras Massacre puts more focus on nudity than HG's classic did, and the gore is a lot more realistic; but despite the script which contains some real inept lines of dialogue, Jack Weis' film just doesn't have the camp class of the earlier schlock-fest, and overall the film just isn't as good. The plot once again follows a deranged psycho who is going round killing various women in order to sacrifice them to some god or other. We follow the psychopath as he goes about his macabre business, and also a rather ineffective police investigation into the whole affair. The acting and dialogue are continually ridiculous...perhaps not quite to HG Lewis' standards, but certainly below the level of most B-movie pictures. Many films on the DPP list didn't deserve to be there; and there's nothing in this film that warranted it's banning either. The gore is fairly plentiful and is often fused with 'scenes of a sexual nature', but it's nothing that the average adult couldn't endure. The music is note for being particularly stupid, and also for featuring far too often. The music, like a lot of the scenes in the movie, seems a lot like filler. Blood Feast didn't have a lot of plot to go on either, but at least it didn't stretch its running time out to over ninety minutes. Mardi Gras Massacre could easily have been cut down by twenty minutes without losing a thing. There are certainly a few good scenes in this film; the opening murder being a highlight, but even so; it has to be said that Mardi Gras Massacre is severely lacking. There is a lot of rubbish on the Video Nasty list; but despite that, if I were to line them all up in terms of quality - this would be nearer to the bottom. Not particularly recommended.

This inept gore movie is often compared to Herschell Gordon Lewis' "Blood Feast", but it is not quite as bad nor nearly as unintentionally funny as that anti-classic. However, it is very hard to take seriously and didn't really deserve its famous inclusion on Britain's "video nasty" list. The very repetitive plot involves an Aztec high priest picking up surprisingly attractive New Orleans prostitutes, tying them naked to a makeshift altar, and cutting their hearts out with a stone dagger. This is intercut with a few expository scenes of the local police stumbling ineffectually around, and some canned footage of the Mardi Gras celebration to (barely) justify the title. I might point out that the influence of the Aztecs never quite reached New Orleans (it should have been a Haitian voodoo priest but I suppose THAT would have been culturally insensitive). Also, the real-life Aztecs generally preferred to sacrifice MALE warriors from other Indian tribes, and besides anybody that knows anything about making sacrifices to the dark gods knows that they prefer virgins, not prostitutes. Obviously, this movie is pretty damn ridiculous and hardly compares to bargain-basement realism of other "nasties" like "Maniac" or "I Spit on Your Grave". It does mix full-frontal nudity and a lot of gore, but even in that respect it's not as disturbing as such films as "Bloodsucking Freaks" and "The Gore Gore Girls" (although it does lack the black humor of those films). The film has been accused of misogyny (probably based on throw-away dialogue and ad-lines about "cutting out the part with which the women do evil"). But as I've often said, just because you enjoy seeing naked women tied to fake sacrificial altars doesn't necessarily make you a misogynist, and NOBODY is going to mistake the unconvincing plastic dummy that they use for heart-ectomies with a real woman (real women have rib cages). Far from encouraging "sexual sadism" as censors have claimed, it might turn normal people on with the nudity but will have them laughing their asses off at the inept special effects. This is a movie very undeserving of its reputation--either good or bad.

Anyone who has read my past reviews here can tell you I'm curious about the films caught up in the whole Video Nasties phenomenon. Most of the titles that were so deprecated by conservatives in the early eighties, considered for a long period of time hazardous to contemporary society, are now available legally in the UK. Some of those titles remain in oblivion to this day, notoriety surrounding a few too 'unsettling' for British consumption (The Last House on the Left uncut, Island of Death.etc.) and others have found comfort in oblivion and might never return (Forest of Fear, Don't Go in the Woods, Unhinged.etc.) One of those 'seek and you shall find' obscurities is the Harshall Gorden Lewis wannabe, Mardi Gras Massacre. Please forgive me for not reviewing this film too seriously, if you've seen it you'll find that that is a true impossibility because this film is just too abysmal. A very suspicious, deep-voiced 'gentleman' searches thorough the seediest clubs in town, picking up the local untraceable prostitutes, referred to here as 'evil women', this is definitely not a film for feminist groups. He takes the first victim back to his hotel room and ties her up on a formidable altar-like table. Meanwhile this creepy fellow ventures off to slip on some suitable sacrificing wardrobe. The aforementioned 'evil woman' enjoys it when he returns to massage oils into her naked body and as you begin to ponder that this film should've belonged in the softporn section, the bloke, who remains nameless throughout, whips out a huge knife and eviscerates her. This is quite a huge blow to the viewer's system at this early point in the film: very nasty, graphic and gruesome. The film plods along for another eighty minutes and the routine loses its impact by the fifth time. Unfortunately a boring subplot concerning a blossoming relationship between the intellectually challenged cop in charge of the case and a middle-aged prostitute can't save this tripe. One even guesses that the lady-friend will soon turn up on the 'suspicious fellow's 'evil women' list for the torture chamber. Will the inept cop get to her in time? I won't spill the beans as I'd hate for you to fall asleep during this mess. If you make you're bed, you should sleep in it. If you're interested in Mardi Grass Massacre and are a Video Nasties completist then you should see it as it still remains banned here in the UK, but I'll warn you this might be more of a blessing than a bad thing. I've seen it more than once, but why I put myself through such torture I have no idea.