Blood Spattered Bride 1972 (Facts, Review of Vicente Aranda's Film)

Last week I remembered a weird scene from a film that I had watched a few years ago: a man finds a beautiful naked woman buried in sand on a beach. She appears to be alive, he takes her home, and it doesn't turn into anything good.

After an online research, I managed to find out the name of the movie. I watched and loved it. And in this article I will tell you why you might love it too.

 

General Information

It's The Blood Spattered Bride / La novia ensangrentada / La Mariée sanglante - a Spanish horror film, exploiting the widespread (and maybe even overused) within the genre lesbian vampire story about Carmilla/Mircalla/Millarca Karnstein, originally invented by an Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu in 1872 - twenty five years before Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Trailer:

 

Plot Summary

A newly married couple, right after their wedding, is coming to the husband's old family mansion to settle there. They seem to be happy together at first, but the wife is worrying too much about the forthcoming consummation: she has frightening visions about her husband being cruel to her. During the consummation she is nervous, but the next day everything seems to be fine.

However, then a few episodes happen, when the husband shows his sadistic side and really frightens and even hurts the poor girl.

Along with these events, the wife learns the husband's family story about the wife of his ancestor who cruelly murdered her husband - Mircalla Karnstein. Moreover, Mircalla visits her in nightmares, and then in reality. She seduces the girl, little by little changing her feelings for the husband from love to hatred, convincing her to attempt murdering him, turning her into a cruel, bloodthirsty maniac.

 

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Maribel Martín as Susan - the young wife

Alexandra Bastedo as Carmilla/Mircalla Karnstein

What I Liked in the Film

Despite I had seen a couple of other films, telling the same Carmilla/Mircalla/Millarca Karntein story, and other lesbian vampire-exploitation films that are not directly based on it, but still look pretty much the same, this movie was still interesting to watch.

The events are developing gradually, and, apart from the regular vampire story, there is some interesting deepening into psychoanalysis. The young wife has a fear of losing her virginity (even to her own beloved husband) or probably even the general phobia of sexual intercourse. And the vampire uses this issue to turn the girl against her spouse.

Also, traditionally, the picture was shot in a beautiful mansion and nice environs.

Interestingly, the story looks very similar to Jean Rollin's The Shiver of the Vampires (Le Frisson des Vampires), 1971. Just like in The Blood Spattered Bride, there are also newlyweds in the old mansion belonging to one of the spouses' family, and the young wife, being seduced by a female vampire who changes the girl's feelings to her husband.

Probably, The Shiver of the Vampires was partially inspired by the Carmilla Karnstein story, despite her name wasn't mentioned directly and the plots don't match exactly. I'm not going to compare these films though - they have a significantly different feel, so it's worth to see them both.

 

Exploitation Elements & Censorship

Decades ago, for the American (and likely others) home video and cinema releases, around 13 minutes of the film were cut away, so the story became almost incomprehensible and maybe even boring. Fortunately, I watched the modern DVD release of Actus Films, where everything or almost all seemed to be kept.

Along with a weird theatrical trailer, the release additionally featured an alternative, censored sexual scene for French theaters, that was partially modified with a black-and-white filter to show less nudity.

Of course, there is some nudity in the film, but sexual interaction, even kissing between the women isn't shown. There is a plenty of bloody violence as well. But the film doesn't really look like a regular cheap B-movie oversaturated with sloppy exploitation elements.

In general, it's very well-made, including the acting. But if we go nitpicking, the artificial blood could have been made a bit more liquid, and sometimes the night scenes are confusing: one piece is filmed in the dark, and the next one - clearly during the day, while everything together is meant to be happening early in the morning or in the evening during twilight.

Carmilla Karnstein (Alexandra Bastedo) is biting Susan (Maribel Martín)

Susan on her killing spree

The Blood Spattered Bride is on the more sophisticated side of exploitation films. It shoud be watched not for laugs at cheaply-made ridiculous gore or nude scenes (even though there are some, and they are well-made), but mostly for enjoying the story itself, even despite it's already not that original after other Carmilla-themed works released earlier: Blood and Roses (Et mourir de plaisir), Roger Vadim 1960, Hammer Films' The Vampire Lovers by Roy Ward Baker, 1970 and probably other existing that I don't know about.

Actually, so far it's the most enjoyable ecranisation of the Carmilla story that I have seen.

 

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I created this blog for like-minded people with weird taste for unpopular, obscure, and sleazy films and music. If you feel our tastes are similar, let's be email friends. You can also reach out to me if you need help in finding any rare film or music mentioned in by blog.

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