At the beginning of Vicente Aranda's The Blood Spattered Bride, newlywed virgin Susan (Maribel Martín) imagines herself being raped by a masked man who looks uncannily like her husband (Simón Andreu)an early indication that this girl is fearful of the opposite sex and therefore not going to make the ideal spouse.
When the time comes for her to put out on her wedding night, Susan discovers for real that her hubby lacks the gentle touch when it comes to making whoopee: he likes to be the one in control and, although he doesn't actually force himself upon her, he is more than a little predatory when it comes to sex.
Susan finds herself beginning to hate her husbandfeelings which are encouraged by a mysterious blonde, Carmilla (Alexandra Bastedo), who is found, by Susan's hubby, naked and buried in sand on the beach. Before you can say 'bean-flicker', Carmilla is sexing it up with Susan, biting her on the neck and fuelling her hatred towards men.
Believing that Carmilla is actually his murderous man-hating ancestor Mircalla Karnstein, who has returned as a lesbian vampire, Susan's husband sets out to stop her any way he can.
Made in the early 70s, when the battle of the sexes and the feminist movement were in full swing, The Blood Spattered Bride uses sexual domination as its central theme: both the husband and Carmilla seek to control Susan. Carmilla succeeds in turning Susan into a grade-A man-hater (to the point where she is willing to kill) and so the husband, out to prove his superiority, grabs his gun, and pumps his load into both women (oo-err, missus!).
Whilst I am sure this intellectual subtext is all very interesting to some, I couldn't care less: I like my Euro-horror trashy and gory and my lesbian vampires to be sleazy, and although The Blood Spattered Bride has the occasional smattering of nudity and some bloodletting, it is way too reserved for my depraved tastes. Bastedo and Martín do get nekkid, but don't get down to any serious kinky stuff together, and the film doesn't go far enough with the gore: a couple of scenes almost make the grade (Susan dreaming that she is stabbing her husband and a gratuitous shogun blast to the crotch) but I was hoping for much more.
The film ends very abruptly, just as the husband is about to remove the hearts of the dead women (a scene which is rumoured to have existed, but which has now apparently been lost). And I couldn't help but feel disappointed.
When the time comes for her to put out on her wedding night, Susan discovers for real that her hubby lacks the gentle touch when it comes to making whoopee: he likes to be the one in control and, although he doesn't actually force himself upon her, he is more than a little predatory when it comes to sex.
Susan finds herself beginning to hate her husbandfeelings which are encouraged by a mysterious blonde, Carmilla (Alexandra Bastedo), who is found, by Susan's hubby, naked and buried in sand on the beach. Before you can say 'bean-flicker', Carmilla is sexing it up with Susan, biting her on the neck and fuelling her hatred towards men.
Believing that Carmilla is actually his murderous man-hating ancestor Mircalla Karnstein, who has returned as a lesbian vampire, Susan's husband sets out to stop her any way he can.
Made in the early 70s, when the battle of the sexes and the feminist movement were in full swing, The Blood Spattered Bride uses sexual domination as its central theme: both the husband and Carmilla seek to control Susan. Carmilla succeeds in turning Susan into a grade-A man-hater (to the point where she is willing to kill) and so the husband, out to prove his superiority, grabs his gun, and pumps his load into both women (oo-err, missus!).
Whilst I am sure this intellectual subtext is all very interesting to some, I couldn't care less: I like my Euro-horror trashy and gory and my lesbian vampires to be sleazy, and although The Blood Spattered Bride has the occasional smattering of nudity and some bloodletting, it is way too reserved for my depraved tastes. Bastedo and Martín do get nekkid, but don't get down to any serious kinky stuff together, and the film doesn't go far enough with the gore: a couple of scenes almost make the grade (Susan dreaming that she is stabbing her husband and a gratuitous shogun blast to the crotch) but I was hoping for much more.
The film ends very abruptly, just as the husband is about to remove the hearts of the dead women (a scene which is rumoured to have existed, but which has now apparently been lost). And I couldn't help but feel disappointed.