Feast of Flesh

Directed by Mike Watt

2007 - 120 Minutes

DVD Provided by Bloody Earth Films (www.bloodyearthfilms.com)

Review by Douglas A. Waltz

A FEAST OF FLESH begins with a young woman being saved from a vicious rape by what appears to be a vampire. She is taken to a local brothel called Bethany House. It is there that she meets Madame Elizabeth LeFanau (Amy Lynn Best) who explains what is expected of her while she stays there. It seems that all the ladies of the night at Bethany House live up to their names. They are vampires. There is an uneasy truce between the ladies of Bethany House and a man called Sheridan (director, Mike Watt). The rules are simple. The ladies of the night don't hunt for locals and Sheridan and his men don't show up at the brothel armed to the teeth and looking to kick vampire butt.

Unfortunately, a young man by the name of Seth used to be the new young charge's boyfriend and he finds out that she is there from his friend John. John and a couple of friends were at the brothel because they managed to win an invite to the place in a poker game. John's friends aren't quite as lucky as he is. The prostitutes break the truce again without even knowing it. Usually, they satisfy their hunger by meeting men via the internet. Now local blood has been spilled and Sheridan and his men are ready to stamp out the residents of Bethany House for good. Seth gets invited along and hopes he can get their in time to save his girlfriend.

I have always been a fan of Happy Cloud Pictures. THE RESSURECTION GAME is the perfect blend of zombies, apocalyptic action and sci fi that would have made Phillip K. Dick proud. SEVERE INJURIES took the basic premise of a slasher spoof and stood it on its ear. Both films are slick, smart and funny albeit SEVERE INJURIES is funnier because it's supposed to be.

Now, with A FEAST OF FLESH, the folks at Happy Cloud have embraced the hot vampire chick sub genre and made it their own. From the concept of a brothel full of vampires living in uneasy peace with a town ran by a gun wielding, Irish maniac to whatever you believe in being strong enough to defeat a vampire. Don't get that last one? Let me explain. One of Sheridan's men, Tom (played by Bill Holman, always a treat to see onscreen) explains to Seth that whatever you believe in the most will act as a repellent towards a vampire. He then whips out a twenty dollar bill and later uses it rather effectively in battle. A nice spin on an old tradition.

The big showdown is perhaps the biggest treat, along with the many acres of gorgeous female flesh on display. A special kudos must go to actress Rachelle Williams as one of the ladies of the night. She barrels into a fight with the townies and hands them their respective asses with some wicked martial arts and then lets loose with a scream that threatens to shake the film itself.

Now, the first time I saw this at Genghis Con II: The Wrath Of Con last year at a special screening. Mike mentioned that this was a rough cut and that things weren't just right. Everything looked fantastic as I have come to expect from the Happy Cloud crew. Now we get a DVD release with a commentary by Mike and Amy, A Making of reel, a gag reel and a short film called FEAST OF SOULS that I saw a couple of years back that is definitely creepy and a good addition to this presentation. Also, in its original form A FEAST OF FLESH was called ABBATOIR, a name I definitely like more, but what are you gonna do?

Think you've seen everything there is top see when it comes to micro budget, scantily clad, blood covered vampire prostitutes? Not even close. First you will have to see A FEAST OF FLESH. Then you can safely make that claim.