By Melissa Antoinette Garza
THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE (1972) opens with the Plato quote, “The good ones are those who are content to dream what the wicked actually practice,” and just like that I’m hooked!
The film begins with Susan (Maribel Martin), still in her white wedding dress, sitting passenger to her new husband (Simón Andreu) as they drive to a hotel to enjoy their honeymoon. The husband has stayed at the hotel before, but it’s Susan’s first time (symbolism anyone?). As she approaches the door, she notices Mircalla (Alexandra Bastedo) a beautiful blonde woman with piercing hazel eyes sitting in a parked car and staring at her. Odder still is when Mircalla pulls a black hooded cape around her.
Things go from strange to terrifying when Susan is let in her room alone and has a vision of being physically attacked and raped by her husband who is covered with pantyhose on his head. After the delusion is over, she sits on the bed terrified. Her husband arrives back a short time later and disturbed, by whatever the hell that was, she tells her husband that she wants to leave.
He obliges and they go, but the terror isn’t over. They arrive at the hubby’s childhood home where she sees Mircalla again, this time draped in a pink wedding gown. She tries to ignore her curiosity and fear, but doesn’t mention anything to her husband. He then roughly undresses her while she lies down keeping her eyes closed. They have sex for the first time, but it is obviously not her thing. Even though the encounter was consensual,there are purposeful similarities to the rape delusion she had earlier including her dress being ripped off.
Later, when she wakes she tells him that he was great and seems a bit insecure about her own performance. She had been a virgin, but there is definitely more going on than just that. When they’re not having sex and just playing around, Susan is having fun.
Things get odder still, when she notices that all the male ancestors have portraits hanging, but there isn’t one visible of the women. Carol (Rosa M. Rodriguez) a 12 year old, odd, little girl who lives there, informs Susan that the paintings of the women are in the cellar. She immediately goes to her husband and ask that they be brought back upstairs.
Only a short time later, Mircalla appears again in the woods. Susan feels an immediate tense and forbidden attraction to the mystery woman though she doesn’t quite grasp what she’s experiencing. Meanwhile, Mr. McRapey husband shows up and grabs her by the hair. He doesn’t see Mircalla, but tries to force Susan into giving him head. She escapes but he follows her home.
To take control, she locks herself in a coup of white doves. She frees one after wrapping a ribbon around it. The husband breaks down the door and tries to have sex with her again, only to be stopped by Carol.
After sketching a portrait of Mircalla, she goes into the basement with Carol to look at the pictures of the women of the family. Unbeknownst to her, the woman in the painting is Mircalla, but she is missing her face, covered in blood and clutching a knife. Susan’s husband catches her down there and with promises of sharing family anecdotes about the women, she agrees to go with him.
He does oblige telling her that the woman, Mircalla Karstein, killed her husband on her wedding night. Known as the blood spattered bride, she struck him dead when he tried to make her do unspeakable things. In other words, Mircalla is a goddamn feminist hero that Susan needs to seek out.
Susan does slowly get more gumption telling her husband to learn more about women and not be so pounce-ready. She then experiences an event where lights flash and Mircalla, now a vampire, appears to her. Mircalla hands her a blade and then sexily bites her neck.
Everyone tries to tell Susan that she’s dreaming, but when she sees the knife, she’s convinced. Carol’s mother (Montserrat Julió) claims that Carol put the knife under the pillow.
Susan is confused and when she picks up a book that says after losing one’s virginity, a woman can grow to hate the man who took it, she gets worried. She gives the dagger to her husband and tells him to hide it.
The next night, Mircalla returns and summons Susan who follows her without question. Mircalla shows her where the dagger is and brings her over to kill her husband. I don’t like her husband at all, so I’m cheering for the duo of crazed ladies. They weren’t born crazy. They were made that way by some seriously screwed up men. To be clear, I’m team #SuCalla.
It’s a gruesome and awesome scene, but sadly and apparently another delusion as the husband is still alive. After that, a traumatized Susan is seen by a doctor. Everyone believes her to be going mad, until the husband finds a naked woman, seemingly alive, but buried at the beach. He brings her home, but soon finds out that she is Carmilla,an ancestor of Mircalla (and identical in appearance).
Back home, Carmilla begins a slow and tempting seduction of Susan, who finally gives in to her passions, thank God. Susan realizes who she is and that she hates her husband for touching her. She embarks on a murderous rampage and a fabulous sexual affair. The sexy vamps team up, but sadly the husband now knows he’s in danger and tries to stop the women. Again, he’s an asshole!
Though I tend to detest modern lesbian vampire movies as they are empty and formulaic, the 1970s were gold for the sub-genre. The decade understood the way to develop strong yet feminine lesbian seductresses. There is nothing better than a team of empowering, take-no-prisoners femme fatales, who heat it up in the bedroom.
The actors are brilliant! The chemistry between Maribel Martin and Alexandra Bastedo is palpable and passionate thus perfectly contrasting the disinterest and disconnection that Martin expressed while with Simón Andreu. One thing to note is that the husband is not given a name. He isn’t important. He’s a hurdle or at best a pathway so that the two lead women can find and be with one other.
I love this movie. It’s one of the best of its kind and I highly suggest it! This isn’t about fear of losing one’s virginity or even just about lesbian vampires. The theme is so much deeper and that’s why it’s superior to the ilk of today. This is the tale of someone who is not straight, yet is forced into a heterosexual relationship. It represents the suffocation, repression and inner turmoil that one endures while living a lie of that magnitude. It’s smart sexploitation and I miss that terribly.
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Scared Stiff Rating: 8/10
