Brides of Blood

Wow, does this flick make for one wild and woolly experience! "Brides of Blood" (1968), the first adventure in the Blood Island trilogy, must be deemed, along with 1959's "Terror Is A Man," one of the crown jewels of Filipino horror cinema. In it, 1950s star John Ashley plays Jim Farrell, a Peace Corps worker who comes to the eponymous Blood Island in the Philippines. He is accompanied by naturalist Dr. Henderson, who wants to study the effects of recent nearby nuke tests on the island's flora and fauna, as well as by Henderson's randy, bubble-bosomed wife, played by Beverly Hills (love that name!). This film is some kind of ultimate drive-in experience, and throws in much to ensure a memorable time. Thus, there are some scary, groping, mutated trees (still not as scary as the ones in "The Wizard Of Oz," though), sacrificed topless maidens, gaggles of scampering little people (that IS the PC expression at the moment, right?), battles with torches, bolos and flare guns, AND a roaring, woman-hungry monster that beggars my poor powers of description. Please don't get me wrong; this is certainly not anybody's idea of a quality film (even my beloved "Psychotronic Encyclopedia" calls it "terrible"). It is somewhat shoddily put together, and features God-awful dubbing and egregious day-for-night photography. Still, it does offer truly exotic Filipino atmosphere, interesting characters, decent-enough acting, and eerie native chants. Plus, the film culminates with a wild, celebratory native mating dance that must be seen to be believed; a most satisfactory windup. The bottom line is that I can't imagine any fan of sci-fi, horror or action films not enjoying this pulpy funhouse of a movie on some level. Recommended.

This plot synopsis may sound kind of vague...but so is the movie! U.S. government worker Jim Farrell (John Ashley) is going to a remote island to help the natives build houses and irrigation ditches. He's joined by doctor Paul Henderson (Kent Taylor) and his sex bomb wife Carla (Beverly Hills!). They encounter moving trees, strange vegetation and meet Stephan (Mario Montenegro) who seems to run the island (I think). There's also a hysterically stupid monster that pops up every once in a while to rape and kill the native girls. Why he does this is never explained.

Pretty silly with a (to put it nicely) pointless script. I realize this film (along with the other "Blood" pictures) have a following but I can't see why. It's full of hilariously inappropriate music and mismatched stock footage (the sunsets they see keep seeing never match the people looking at it). With the sole exceptions of Ashley and Montenegro the acting is pretty bad--Hills is easily the worst. The special effects are beyond terrible--I could actually see the wires holding the "killer" moth and moving the tree limbs! The get up on the monster was uproariously stupid. People took him seriously??? Still this is a prime example of late 1960s exploitation with minor gore and nudity (all female of course). It's amusing to realize that this played on Saturday afternoon TV uncut in the 1970s for all the kids to see! Not really good but, in a strange sort of way, kind of fun.

The DVD version by Image is a full frame version with scratches and jumps galore. The color is strong though. This is probably the only available uncut version we'll ever see. I give it a 4.

I first watched this film in a drive-in theatre, when I was just out of high school. I must say it scared the begeebers out of me. And, that was doing something! I was already a dyed in the wool fan of Horror, and Sci-Fi movies. Even though it was filmed with a lot of night scenes, and there-fore hard at times to make out what you were seeing on a drive-in screen, and the special effects were not what they can do by todays standards, I still found it a very disturbing, and frightening film. If anyone else has seen it, please let me know what you thought at the time of it's release.

Brides of Blood (1968)

** (out of 4)

Crazy cult film from the Philippines centers on three researchers (John Ashley, Kent Taylor, Beverly Hills) who arrive on Blood Island to see if radiation has caused any problems. Soon they realize that certain trees are alive and attacking people but even worse is a deformed monster who the locals are giving "brides" to, which it then eats. BRIDES OF BLOOD isn't a well-made movie so if you're looking for class then it's best to go watch the Val Lewton horror movies. If you're looking for cheap exploitation then this here should be right up your alley. I will start off by saying the 92-minute running time is way too long for a movie like this because with an exploitation film you want the goods and nothing else. There are a few too many dialogue scenes that really stretch the running time out and I think the film could have been more entertaining without all of these. With that said, there are some really memorable moments to be found here and they're good enough to make this a cult film. The highlight is without question the monster, which is hard to describe because it's just something you have to see to fully believe. If I had to describe it I'd say it's a mutated pile of spinach with a mouth and pointy teeth. The look of this thing is so silly but at the same time you can't help but be entertained by it. Another good thing are the really bad special effects of the trees attacking people. There's a reason killer tree movies are kept limited and it's because the effects look so silly. It's obvious that in many scenes it's the actors "moving" the trees to make it appear that they're the ones moving and attacking them. The Philipeans setting is another major plus because it just gives the film a cheap look but it also contains some nice atmosphere that really jumps off the screen. Both Ashley and Taylor sleepwalk through their roles but they're still fun to see. BRIDES OF BLOOD certainly isn't a classic but if you enjoy exploitation then there's enough here to make it worth sitting through.

Greetings...

I too saw this when it opened back in '68 at a drive in! Only it was somewhat before High School for me! I was already a veteran Saturday afternoon Horror movie fan and this was the most scary movie I had ever seen! I had nightmares for weeks...

The Jungle drums, the dark night scenes, My father in the front seat laughing and jearing - me hiding in the back seat, unable to tear my eyes off the screen! My sister was there - But she never saw the movie! She hid under the blanket the whole movie, until the second feature started - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

I had an amazing memory back then, and I remember that the next night, My friends and I went out into the woods, and bult a camp fire, where I recounted every scene of the movie, every line, described all the horror and all the action... They were as scared as I was, and they never saw the movie!