"The Godfather of Gore!", Herschell Gordon Lewis is known for creating the "splatter film" subgenre of horror and a range of exploitation films. Hershall's Blood Feast was produced in 1963 and is considered to be the first "gore" film ever made.  He followed up his success with Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965). The full-color gore on display in these films caused a sensation, with horror film-makers throughout the world becoming eager to emulate with similarly shocking visual effects.

His other credits include: A Taste of Blood (1967), The Gruesome Twosome (1967), The Wizard of Gore (1971), The Gore Gore Girls (1975), Year of the Yahoo! (1974), This Stuff’ll Kill Ya! (1973), Miss Nymphet's Zap-ln (1972), The Ecstasies of Women (1970), Linda and Abilene (1969), How to Make a Doll (1968), Just for the Hell of It (1968), The Girl, the Body, and the Pill (1967), The Gruesome Twosome (1967), The Magic Land. of Mother Goose (1967), Something Weird (1967), Suburban Roulette (1967), Alley Tramp (1966) , Jimmy, the Boy Wonder (1966) , Color Me Blood Red (1965) , Monster a Go-Go (1965), Sin, Suffer, Repent (1965), She-Devils on Wheels (1968) , Blast-Off Girls (1967), Boin-n-g (1963) , Scum of the Earth (1963), Daughter of the Sun (1962), Nature’s Playmates (1962), The Adventures Of Lucky Pierre (1962), Living Venus (1961) , Moonshine Mountain (1964), Bell, Bare, and Beautiful (1963) , Blood Feast 2 (2002) and more!