Truly great films often raise questions that the viewer has, at one point in their life, had to ask themselves. Sometimes these are questions of morality, of right and wrong, and other times they are grand existential questions, like “what is my purpose?” or “what is the meaning of life?” How about the age-old question: Is blood really thicker than water? Can the bond between two brothers and the resurrected brain of their serial killer uncle be strong enough to outweigh promising career-centric and romantic aspirations? The answer is yes, for nothing is stronger than the fellowship of three deranged family members on a quest to restore life to an ancient Lumerian goddess – at least, according to Jackie Kong, director of Blood Diner.
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Blood Diner is a raunchy horror comedy that chronicles the exploits of two cannibalistic killers who run an extremely successful vegetarian restaurant. Although its limited theatrical release prevented it from scoring a wide audience, the movie quickly became a staple of the video store horror section, rewarding those who were tempted by its alluring VHS box art with a smorgasbord of gory delights. For horror-hounds who revel in sleazy bad taste, Blood Diner is a bonafide horror comedy masterpiece, brimming with creative energy and ideas from way out of left field. Let’s take a few moments to break down what makes this minor cult classic one of the funniest entries in the horror comedy genre.
Jackie Kong, A Pioneering Woman in Horror
Lightning Pictures
One of the best things about this sleazy horror comedy is the fact that, despite what its content may initially lead you to believe, it was directed by a woman. That woman is Jackie Kong, a trailblazing cult queen who made the movies she wanted to make in a time when filmmaking opportunities for both women and Asian Americans were scarce. Her debut feature was the 1983 sci-fi horror film The Being, which, despite opening to lackluster critical response, would go on to gain a cult following. The Being’s grisly special effects and unique, offbeat tone served as a precursor to the trashy horror comedy that was soon to come in Kong’s biggest and best film Blood Diner. She also directed the comedies Night Patrol and The Underachievers, and now frequents film festival circuits as a speaker, and works as the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Asian American Media Development. Never to turn her back on her horror roots, Kong launched the horror comic book series Spend the Night in 2022, with new issues to follow in 2023.
A Tribute to the Godfather of Gore
Blood Diner began life as a sequel to Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1963 film Blood Feast – one of the first and most influential splatter films of all time – but later in development evolved into a standalone movie. Despite dropping the notion of being a sequel, the influence of Blood Feast remains deeply entrenched in Blood Diner’s DNA; the film is essentially a loose remake of Lewis’ earlier film, with the basic premise of a worker (or workers in the case of Blood Diner) in the restaurant business murdering women to use their body parts in ritual sacrifices to appease an ancient goddess.
With Blood Diner, Kong pokes fun at the inherently misogynistic content of Blood Feast by cranking up the over-the-top violence and tone to the point of parody. The film takes a nuanced approach to the material, striking a one-of-a-kind balance between genuine sleaze and critique of the sleaze from a feminist perspective. The men in Blood Diner may commit terrible atrocities against womankind, but when their goddess Sheetar arrives, they get more than their fair share of comeuppance. To compliment the ironic humor that runs through Kong’s retelling, she injects the film with enough reverence for her splatter-loving forerunner to make the Godfather of Gore proud.
The Ultimate Buddy-Slasher
An aspect of Blood Diner that sets it apart from other horror comedies is its transplanting of the “buddy comedy” format into a horror film setting. Unlike the usual slasher villain concept – a terrifying force of evil who lurks in the shadows and kills seemingly without reason – the slashers of Blood Diner are a pair of handsome and happy-go-lucky brothers. Actors Rick Burks and Carl Crew play the affable Tutman brothers to perfection, bringing both wonderful chemistry and impeccable comedic timing to the roles. Interestingly, the lovable-buddy-killers angle that makes Blood Diner so unique is the very thing that censors were wary of at the time of its release; as Bloody Disgusting explains, “the rating board hated that the murderers were two next-door nice guy types over the typical gruesome killers.” Instead of cutting the film to pieces to get a rating, Kong opted to release the film unrated, meaning less theaters would screen it, and it wouldn’t reach the wide audience it deserved. That said, the horror fans who are in the know are forever indebted to Kong for making that decision; the gloriously unhinged nature of the movie would surely be sacrificed if she had allowed it to be censored. Sheetar would be very displeased indeed.
Boundary-Demolishing Weirdness
Although it’s not particularly well-known outside horror-addict circles, Blood Diner fits right in with the likes of Army of Darkness and Re-Animator as one of the funniest horror comedies ever made. The movie is easily one of the weirdest and most irreverent flicks of the ‘80s, constantly finding new and surprising ways to one-up itself with each subsequent scene. Where else can you see a guy get run over by a van 8 times (and live through most of them), a battered and deep-fried slasher victim, and a punk rock club besieged by an army of zombies while a naked ancient goddess is resurrected on the stage? As Paste Magazine sums it up, “Even in a decade of horror films often defined by sleaze, lowbrow humor and gaudy excess, Blood Diner exists in a league of its own, making it all the more surprising that it hasn’t been more widely discovered and celebrated by bad movie devotees.” In other words, watch it already, for Sheetar’s sake!
