Blood Feast Remake Delayed Again and Gets R Rating

Blood Feast: The acclaimed remake gets delayed, gets more screens and gets saddled with an R rating

We announced earlier that the official, long-awaited remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis‘ Blood Feast was to hit theaters across the United States and Canada this summer via Hannover House and Crimson Forest Entertainment Group on June 23rd, a nationwide theatrical release of the film that represented a substantial expansion of the film’s previously-planned, limited opening of April 28th. Today, we learned that the horror film has been moved again, this time to July 28th. The good news is that Blood Feast will now expand via Regal Entertainment to over 500 US markets on over 7300 screens in the US and via Cineplex Entertainment to over 160 locations in Canada.

The bad news is that to achieve this wider release, the super-gory flick had to be “modestly edited” to get an MPAA approved R rating.

“Some markets are unable to screen an unrated film,” said Hannover House CEO, Eric Parkinson. “The decision to seek the MPAA rating for Blood Feast was tailored after a similar development impacted the Lionsgate release of Saw a few years back. The film has been very modestly edited to conform to the film ratings standard that should make it accessible to a larger audience.”

“On the one hand I felt bad that a already announced date was shifted again and again,” says Director Marcel Walz.

“But in fact it was the best that could happen to Blood Feast and horror fans in North America.”

Hannover and Crimson will promote the film’s release through horror-related media and websites, as well as national cable TV ads and in-theatre promotions. An October 31st home video release (presumably uncut and unrated) is anticipated, with a subscription video-on-demand window available for January.

Blood Feast is directed by acclaimed German director Walz, and features an impressive cast – including an appearance by the 90-year-old Herschell Gordon Lewis, filmed shortly before his death late last year. Other cast members include Robert Rusler (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2), Caroline Williams (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), the amazing Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6) and Sophie Monk (The Hills Run Red and the new Bachelorette). As with the original film, Blood Feast tells the tale of caterer Fuad Ramses (played rather brilliantly by Rusler), who imagines an Egyptian Goddess (the ethereal Katz) is commanding him to turn to cannibalism to sate her unholy desires. Much perversity, black humor and baroque, torture-centric violence ensues. But unlike the original film, this incarnation Blood Feast is no mere camp splatter opus, rather it’s a richly detailed and operatic bit of Eurohorror with some great performances driving it.