The Blood Spattered Bride

I saw a video on Youtube about lesser known vampire movies and so I sat down and watched:

The Blood Spattered Bride (1972).

This Spanish retelling of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu was also turned into film by Hammer Horror in 1970 with The Vampire Lovers, but both movies are very different.

A newly wed couple arrives at a hotel, but the bride, Susan (Maribel Martin) has a horrible vision and begs to leave immediately. The husband (no name given, played by veteran actor Simon Andreu) agrees and they travel to his massive old mansion. There Susan meets the groundskeeper, his wife the housekeeper, and their strange young daughter Carol. Soon enough, Susan starts to both see and dream about a beautiful blonde woman with piercing eyes. The dreams are very disturbing and Susan becomes increasingly unstable. Husband calls a doctor, the blonde, Carmilla, arrives in person and things spiral into violence and madness.

I need to be honest here. The Blood Spattered Bride is a mess of a movie. There are scenes that make no sense, and there are scenes that should go on but are cut short. When it was released in Spain in '72 it was savaged by the censors due to both the blood and the nudity, so this might be why. The nudity itself is apparently historic. If it is true, and I have no evidence to the contrary, then The Blood Spattered Bride is the first Spanish movie to feature full frontal nudity. It is also worth nothing that the nude body in question (Susan's) is probably not that of Maribel Martin as she was 17 during filming and therefore a minor. This is reinforced by the fact that you never see her face when the clothes come off. The camera either stays south of the neck or her hair falls strategically across her face.

To be fair, there isn't really that much blood, but what there is is pretty good. By keeping the amount of violent scenes low they are all the stronger. Nothing remarkable, but solid.

Besides some truly bizarre ideas, my biggest gripe is the personality of the husband, because he is also all over the place. Most of the time he is very caring and loving, but as an example, there is a scene where he apparently just for fun grabs his wife by the hair and starts to haul her up on a large rock, all the while laughing. Scenes like that make him pretty unlikable and as he is the closest thing we get to a hero, it makes it hard to sympathize with him against the vampire.

Carmilla is interesting though. Like the source material she is lesbian, but unlike Hammer's version who is more tragic, this Carmilla is pretty feral and an absolute man hater. I'm not reading between the lines just to be clear, she straight up says it. What I really liked about the Spanish Carmilla are her rings. She wears jeweled rings on each finger but she has them turned inwards with the gems to the palm. This small detail makes it clear that something is wrong with her without being too overt. An interesting little detail in my opinion. Oh, and it's worth noting that Carmilla can go out in the sun, that is also in the source material, so it isn't the movie being sloppy.

So, do I recommend this film? Yes and no. The Blood Spattered Bride is by no means a bad movie, but it is hard to call it good either. If you only want to watch one film version of Carmilla, watch The Vampire Lovers, but if you have no Hammer Horror left and are itching for a Gothic 70's vampire fix you can do a lot worse than The Blood Spattered Bride. Just keep the kids out of the room.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!