The Blood Spattered Bride (1972) aka La Novia Ensangrentada

3.5 / 5 Jan '10
Tagline: The revenge of a young bride on her wedding night!
Directed by: Vicente Aranda
Written by: Vincente Aranda, Sheridan Le Fanu
Actors include: Simon Andreu, Maribel Martin, Alexandra Bastedo
Genre: Horror
Length: 101 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This was an unusual ghostly vampire picture that seems to break many rules. In some ways it's quite similar to Hammer's story of The Vampire Lovers but there is a good reason for this. They are both based upon the story "Carmilla" though stylistically the two are quite different. This Spanish take (although no Spanish language edition likely exists according to the box) is rather dream-like and surreal. Very much in the style of erotic Eurosleaze although the artistic touchs make it somehow slightly tasteful I suppose. A young couple to be wed shacks up at his family's home only something strange is going on there. The portraits of the Females in the family have been placed in the basement and one particular painting has the face cut out of it. The bride-to-be has visions of this blond woman and beings having violent fantasies. The girl seems to be some sort of masochist as her husband-to-be is rather pointlessly cruel to her. There is a fair bit of nudity here and even lesbianism as the blond woman appears in reality things get more complicated. Considering that this is such a hybrid of styles it does have some gruesome blood and the story is interesting (but slow). It should satisfy most though one does have to be rather patient and willing to accept the dream-like state of everything. It's an unusual take on the vampire theme but I think it could have been edited down to be quite great instead of rather good. Thanks to Infofreak for this recommendation!

Availability:  On DVD

Vampyr - Der Traum Des Allan Grey (1932) aka Vampyr aka Adventures of David Gray aka Castle Of Doom aka Not Against Flesh aka The Strange Adventure of David Gray aka The Vampire aka Adventures of David Gray aka Vampyr, ou L'etrange Aventure De David Gray

4 / 5 Jan '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written by: Sheridan Le Fanu, Christen Jul
Actors include: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Length: 75 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This is a rather slow and atmospheric film that has many creepy images. Such care seems to have been put into the shadows, scenery and overall detail of the film which I think is what makes it so special. The actual plot is a bit muddled (or I'm a bit stupid, take your pick), but always there is something to appreciate, somewhat surreal I guess. The story (I think) is about a young man who goes to a castle and starts seeing things...scary and strange things. He starts to believe that he's being called to rescue a girl, but whom and why and where? We are made aware that our lead character was often having delusions so it's hard (or at least I found it so) to judge reality from dream. It definitely has some shocking things in the film considering that it was released in 1932 which I applaud. It does also have a whole bunch of reading to do and if you know anything about the legend of Vampires most of it will be redundant (and why do they give you so much time with each page to read...I could have read each 10 times over). It does have a few odd twists on the tale that I'd not heard before which I found interesting. For the most part though I think those interested in art and the history of vampire lore may get more out of this than some, but maybe I'm wrong.

Availability:  On DVD