The Brides Wore Blood

additional review from DVD-drive in... (George R. Reis) Shot in 16mm in Jacksonville, Florida, late director Bob Favorite proves that he can make a vampire film that stinks worse than Staten Island -- ahhhh, I mean stinks worse than Andy Milligan's vampire films, not the actual Staten Island. This rarely-seen effort tells the story of a pretty young blond who moves to Florida after a psychic tells her to go there to start a new life (I only wish it was that easy, I'd be on a plane tomorrow). She runs into an old man who invites her and three other young girls on a free tour of his ancestral mansion. The next day, the girls are invited to come back and meet his unattached nephew, whom he wants to marry off.

Turns out that the nephew is a vampire, and the screen's dullest one at that (picture Don "American Pie" McLean wearing a cape in 1972). One girl is turned into a vampire with exaggerated dime store fangs, and she must of learned how to act like one by watching "The Groovy Ghoulies" Saturday morning cartoon show. Another girl (a stuck-up photographer) is drained of blood in a gratuitous "needle" scene, and after her useless boyfriend tries to save her, they're both killed by a hideous guy who looks like half of the two-headed monster in THE MAGIC SWORD.

The blond girl is chosen as the bride and to continue the family bloodline, and she is kept prisoner by an idiot (hunchback?) with a mid-60s "British Invasion" hairdo. The vampire is killed by sunlight in a lame attempt to recreate Hammer's remarkable Dracula climaxes. Actually, the vampire's death scene resembles a ten-year-old's Super 8 remake of the end of HORROR OF Dracula. Amateurish in every way, THE BRIDES WORE BLOOD is badly shot and terribly acted, and the Florida background feels totally inappropriate here.

Retromedia has rescued this baby from almost total obscurity (unless you count the out-of-print Regal tape). Considering that this was shot in 16mm, the film source is remarkably well preserved, making for a pleasing DVD transfer. Colors sometimes look muted, and there is a fair share of grain evident, but this is due to the film's low-rent production values. The mono sound is perfectly acceptable. No trailer for the film is included (I doubt one exists), but it's introduced by Ohio TV horror host Son of Ghoul. See the Ghoul teach his dwarf friend about hygiene by shoving red toothpaste and green mouthwash down his throat! (George R. Reis) HISTORICAL INFO: here's my observations... ever October i rent ever increasingly obscure horror movies in an attempt to re-connect to my indie horror roots. my dad used to work on gore films... most notably, faces of death 4... and i remember loving moves like children shouldn't play with dead things, when i was a kid. so naturally, a low budget 70's horror titled, "brides wore blood" is gonna get my vote.

i noticed early on in the film that this movie seemed to be shot in Florida or a place that looked like Florida. a few times i even thought it might be europe, based on the marina, the characters and the mansion.

but then i saw something interesting. in the scene when the would-be protagonist, talks at a pub with the bartender, the name of the pub JUMPED out at me. the white lion pub. i've been here! and as a matter of fact... i lived in this town! this wasn't europe... this was st. augustine Florida. i also noticed that the "mansion" was in fact the historical flagler college, built by R/R tycoon henry flagler as a resort. i used to work for flagler college radio in the 90's.

from the best that i can gather, based on the clothes, the wind, etc... this movie was likely filmed during spring break 1972.

oh... and the movie? WONDERFULLY cheesy and horrible.

Not much of a storyline, random scenes that do not create a story. Unknown, unikeable & unattracive cast. A villain that looks like Martin Scorsese. A few gore closeups. Makeup thats on par with a kid at Halloween.

This attempt looks like someone with $1500 wanted to make an Italian knockoff. You can really see the impact drugs made in the movie industry in the late 60s and early 70s. Its hard to make sence of why anyone would make such a bsd movie, unless it was a highschool project.

Topless scene opens the movie, makes a huge statement. Movie will suck but heres some T&A to make up for it. Not dure where the title comes from.

4 girls go by invite to a house, from there its just a mess. If the goal was to make a film that has all the attributes of an early 70s Italian movie, then they succeeded. 90 minutes of nonsence garbage.

Maybe it's just that I watched this film right after my first dumbstruck viewing of Andy Milligan's "Bloodthirsty Butchers." I guess it can only be up from there huh? As a fan of the entire spectrum of horror cinema, I quite enjoyed this dated no-budget obscurity from Florida. It operates on 2 levels: as unabashedly cheesy bad cinema, and as unassuming little rough diamond.

Things I sincerely liked about this film include the general storyline, which blends a family curse with vampirism and ritual magic. The sets and cinematography were OK. The Delorca family house is a typical cozy Gothic mansion, with a gargoyle around every corner, and a Temple dedicated to the Black Arts in the basement. The acting, save for the blatantly bad performance of Bob Letizia as Perro, a Torgo-like troglodyte complete with silly walk, was acceptable and even unusually restrained for this level of cinema.

Things I enjoyed for their abominable badness: the wardrobe, hair and make-up. The female lead is a frosted confection of frosted bleached hair, frosted blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick. We can only hope that look never comes back into style, ACK! Wait, if you think she looks bad, check out the vampire makeup. I thought at first that one of the vampires had a pair of toothpicks protruding from her lip, till I subsequently observed that they were in fact a pair of those cheap plastic kiddie vampire fangs you buy for a buck at the drugstore around Halloween. Laughably lame and unscary. The heroine's makeup was a lot more frightening than any of the vampires. Finally, to draw attention again to Bob Letizia's portrayal of the idiot servant Perro, he was so bad that he made the guy who played Torgo in "Manos, The Hands Of Fate" look like an accomplished thespian.

No name cast and a director with about 2 other happily unknown credits.

Rewarding if you're searching for offbeat, seldom viewed horror, and equally effective as an amusing excursion into the warped, fascinating world of archaic bad cinema.

The Brides Wore Blood (1972) is an English horror movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a family that is cursed after a devil worshipping ritual goes wrong. As the curse is passed down generation to generation a father is worried about his son. He gets advice from an old lady on how to change his fate. He's told to invite four young ladies to his house and sacrifice them and the family curse will be lifted. The journey begins to see if the old lady was right.

This picture is directed by Bob Favorite (Riverboat Mama) and stars Dolores Friedline (Indian Raid, Indian Made), Jan Sherman (The New People) and Bruce Kerr (The Man from Snowy River).

This is a movie that had some potential with a classic horror storyline, solid settings, perfect background music and a well selected cast. The ladies selected for the cast were perfect. There's also a solid needle opening scene. Unfortunately, most of the kill scenes are pretty weak including the final sequence where the face melts. Overall, with better horror elements this could have been a better addition to the horror genre. I would score this a 4/10 and only recommend watching it if nothing better is available.