Take Me to the Mardi Gras Massacre

Scanning Severin's site for any Black Friday deals and I noticed that Jack Weis' Mardi Gras Massacre (1978) was finally available to order again after it being mysteriously withdrawn earlier this year. Also noticed UK label 88 Films had the film back in its forthocoming releases section, too.  Guessing it might have been music rights issues since it featured uncredited use of songs by both Dennis Coffey and The Mike Theodore Orchestra.

The film itself achieved notoriety with its inclusion in the hallowed video nasty list. That was about the best advertising the film could receive, since despite it being a hilariously bad rehash of H.G. Lewis' splatterfest Blood Feast (1963), it would arouse the curiousity of inquisitive horror fans over the years. Times change and Mardis Gras Massacre was finally granted an 18 certificate by the British Board of Film Classifation (BBFC) in 2022. 

If only the film lived up to all the glorious expectations I pictured of folks in fancy dress costumes being graphically butchered by some masked maniac in a back street off a New Orleans boulevard, like the film's eye-grabbing poster art suggested. Instead we got scenes like this:

Mardi Gras Massacre (Bar scene)

(Jack Weis, 1978)

 

Instant cop.