A young husband's sexual fantasies frighten his new wife and cause her
to seek advice from Carmilla, a descendent of Mircalla de Karnstein.
Carmilla seduces the young bride and forces her to commit gory acts of
mutilation. - IMDB
The Blood Spattered Bride is a 1972 Spanish horror film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, based on the vampire story, "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.
It stars Simón Andreu, Maribel Martín, and Alexandra Bastedo. The film has attained cult film status for its mix of horror, vampirism and seduction with lesbian overtones.
I was surprised with how much I enjoyed this film. It has some weird shit going on. It begins with a couple that has just been married and when the bride does not like the honeymoon suite at the hotel, they go instead to the groom's family mansion. The bride has issues dealing with her husbands insatiable rough sex. She sees a strange ghostly figure roaming the woods in a wedding dress. Could this be the woman from the portrait who murdered her husband years ago on their wedding night? When a nude woman is found on the beach and brought home, the bride becomes alienated from her
husband and drifts into the arms of this erotic stranger.
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| Kill your husband..... |
When I say weird shit....I mean incredibly weird shit. The woman found on the beach nude is buried in the sand with only a snorkel to breathe and a dive mask on. What the fuck? Turns out she's a lesbian vampire with a deep hatred for men. She enters the dreams of the bride where they cut out the husband's heart....then joyfully squeeze it and blood flows freely over their nice white wedding dresses. But in spite of all the craziness it has the gorgeous
cinematography and beautiful locations. It moves slow at times and certainly isn't a rocket ride but it does keeps your attention with the imagery.
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| Cut out his heart.... |
The movie also is a battle of the sexes....the husband versus the lesbian vampire for control of the bride. There is also a blurring of the lines between reality and fantasy. We are never really sure what the bride is dreaming and what's real. It makes for some very visual sequences. The performances are all wonderful and the cast is crucial in pulling this crazy film off. (Especially Maribel
Martín) If you enjoy Euro-horror than you will really love this film. I do recommend it. Just don't watch with the kids.
Kevin Booker
Trivia
The Anchor Bay release of the film is in English, also dubbed in English
to clean up the Spanish accents of the actors attempting English
throughout. It is not likely that a Spanish language version of this
film exists.
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