Les chemins de la violence

Love Brides of the Blood Mummy (1973)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This rather bizarre Spanish horror film received a new title and seemed to cause a stir across the internet but sadly the actual film itself is quite poor. An expert on Egyptian mummies (Frank Brana) is told by a scientist (George Rigaud) how he discovered a mummy and managed to bring it back to life. Bringing this mummy back to life meant that he and his assistant had to kidnap women and "offer" them to the mummy who liked to fondle them and eventually drink their blood. This film has a catchy title but it was originally released as THE SECRET OF THE Egyptian MUMMY and it's easy to see why it was forgotten for nearly forty-years. The film is pretty boring, drawn out and there's simply nothing interesting that happens in it. I think the biggest problem is that it's rather bland looking and there's never an inch of excitement going on. Even worse is that it's quite repetitive because we simply see the same thing happen over and over throughout the running time. We see a woman. We see the assistant chase her. The assistant catches her, ties her up and then the mummy gets her. These scenes are just so boring and watching the same thing over and over simply doesn't help. Even worse is that I watched the Spanish version of the film, which has zero bits of nudity and really not that much blood. Apparently there's an American dubbed version that features more nudity and blood but so far this here hasn't been released. Maybe that version will be a cult favorite but take away the LOVE BRIDES OF THE BLOOD MUMMY title and you really have nothing here. Those expecting a bandaged up mummy will also be disappointed. It's really too bad someone like Jess Franco didn't get a hold of this story.

Count Dartmoor, a scientist and explorer reveals to a disguised Police Inspector a strange account concerning the mysterious events that took place at his spooky countryside castle when a sarcophagus containing mummified body of a young Egyptian believed to be the son of an Egyptian Priest was brought to the castle. The count reincarnates the mummy that feeds on human blood.

The young mummy with carved eyes has got hypnotic powers. He has got a particular desire for young women and enjoys innocent country girls in every horrific way.

Cinematography is reasonable. It is wonderful to see gorgeous country with open fields, streams, houses and of course the ghastly manor. Script and musical score are fine.

Except inept portrayal of the mummy on certain occasions, the performance of characters is up to the mark. The movie deserves six stars out of ten from my viewpoint.

Creepy as well as colorful terror movie with chills , thrills , scary events and being middlingly filmed. The story begins with an alleged Egyptologist named James Barton (Frank Braña) who goes to Dartmoor Castle looking to investigate the mummies owned by the count who lives there (Jorge or George Rigaud). On the way he runs into two countrywomen, the youngest, and the oldest explains that he doesn't know , she only knows that one day heard screaming and crying from that same castle he wants to go and that she doesn't even know . The bravest woman dares him to approach that mysterious place. He gets to the castle in a state of almost total abandon and there is only one taciturn servant who introduces himself as John but does not pay much attention to him. James Barton makes his way by himself and reaches the room where Count Dartmoor is, who thanks to his ability to read human minds discovers that Barton is actually a policeman investigating the disappearances that have taken place there. Barton's skepticism about the earl's threat to turn him into a statue prompts to give us a stop motion animation display by taking a wooden stick and turning it into a snake (similar to Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments) as a sign of his might. While in the sarcophagus there was also a manuscript, which after many hours of work he managed to decipher to reveal the mystery behind that mummy. Plans begin to go awry when he offers him a glass of milk as a welcome and the Egyptian violently rejects it. Then the revived mummy needs the blood of young women to slake his thirst .The plot picks up speed again when the earl's daughter, Lucy (Catherine Franck), arrives in Dartmoor, accompanied by her friend Ana (Teresa Gimpera), who are greeted by the bloodsucker African in undergarments.

This frightening movie deliberately told contains sinister events , suspense , colorful images in Hammer style , lots of blood and gore , including sadistic scenes and obnoxious killings . Director Alejandro Marti and writer Julio Salvador bring this ghastly and stylish story plagued with chilling intrigue , and depraved gore murders executed by a vampire-mummy . There's a long narration in which the starring begins by relating his story from the time he acquired an Egyptian sarcophagus in the Valley of the Kings and, to his faithful servant's surprise, what it contained was not the usual bandaged corpse but a perfectly preserved body . At a point the film acquires overtones of monster Frankenstein as Count Dartmoor begins to talk about Mesmer's treatise, Galvani's work (De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius) and other considerations , all to finally satisfy his scientific curiosity by bringing this mummy back to life , but leaving Frankenstein behind , the flick moves on to bloodsucker Dracula issue , with the accidental discovery that the mummy needs blood to stay alive . From there, the plot of the film loses dynamism as the cycle of kidnapping to innocent girls with subsequent punishment , sucking , lashing and mistreating becomes repetitive to satisfy the appetite of the cruel mummy. All the victims of the mummy being beautiful women and with a good dose of chains and whips, the film was distributed in the United States seeking to highlight its exploitation side over the horror component, which is why it was marketed under the title "Love Brides of the Blood Mummy".

This eerie and obscure picture was regularly directed by Alejandro Marti assisted by Julio Salvador . Alejandro Marti was a craftsman of brief career , he only made another film titled "Elisabet" and wrote the following ones : "La otra orilla" , "Muerte en primavera", "Una madeja de lana azul celeste" and "La boda era a las doce". While Julio Salvador was a good professional who directed some nice films such as ¨Contraband in Spain¨ with Richard Greene and Anouk Aimee and in 1968 directed along with Ray Danton , as co-filmmaker the movie titled ¨Hello Glen Ward¨. Julio Salvador made various pictures with his fetish actor Conrado San Martin such as ¨Sin Sonrisa De Dios¨, ¨Duda¨ , ¨Lo Que Nunca Muere¨ and his best film ¨Apartado Correos 1001¨. He also was a writer , as he wrote "Love Brides of the Blood Mummy¨dealing with a Mummy rebirth and ¨The Mercenary¨ again with Ray Danton . Furthermore , he wrote ¨Crypt of the Living Dead" also titled "Hannah, Queen of the Vampires" or "Young Hannah, Queen of the Vampires . Rating : Average 5/10.

My 5/10 "neutral" rating is usually reserved for movies that are sort of difficult to assess in the forms in which they may be available. Such is the case here with his genuinely bizarre oddity of the Euro Horror fad from the early 1970s, a deservedly obscure ultra low budget attempt to make a vampire movie without a vampire.

The only version I have been able to see for myself is a somewhat ragged Spanish language print that has the trappings of a genuinely interesting film: Gothic location work galore, some demented shock sequences involving chains & manacles & vaulted crypt like dungeons, girls being abused and molested by some freak in a strange half costume, and an interesting aura of gloomy, autumn countrysides crossed with dank cloistered claustrophobia. Even if I don't understand the language it's a pleasure to look at.

There's some sort of story going on about a scientist (George Rigaud, looking respectable as always) who tries to tell a wandering occult expert (spaghetti western stalwart Frank Brana) about his efforts to revive the corpse of an Egyptian mummy who never quite decomposed after being shuttled into his coffin. He succeeds and quickly comes to regret it as the mummy starts to exhibit Christopher Lee like tendencies involving hypnotizing various supporting cast members to do his evil bidding.

One of the bizarre touches the film treats us to is the lack of a mummy costume. Instead we get a sort of 12th grade talent show production's vision of what an Egyptian sorcerer might have looked like before the gauze wrappings were applied. And once revived the fiend must glut itself on the blood of pretty half-naked Euro Horror babes who have been chained up by Rigaud's hypnotized servant.

Being a Spanish production from the early 1970s there were no doubt two versions made to appease dictator Generalissimo Franco's banning of frontal nudity from his cinemas during his reign, and sadly one of the few surviving home video versions was struck from a Spanish language print that doesn't contain the sexualized horror that this sort of material usually calls for. There's some adequate scenes of sadism on the part of the mummy that leads to the expected bloodletting, but something tells me we're only seeing half of the picture in this shaky 16mm Spanish print, and as such its somewhat difficult to assess.

There is one really effective sequence when the suitor of one of the abducted Euro Horror babes tracks her abductor down to the marvelously crumbled & dank castle (or castles, since some of the interiors have a decidedly French look to them, others look familiar from Spanish outings) and has to worm his way inside like Gollum, only to find himself pitted against an evil against which there is no real defense. The hopelessness of the situation is actually kind of compelling in a way, even if in the end it doesn't amount to much.

Fans of spaghetti westerns will probably recognize some of the Spanish & French countrysides used for the exteriors, and die hard fans of vaulted, decrepit Euro Horrors will probably be delighted by the results, which have been filmed with a unique sort of eye for detail including an interesting use of dissolves & editing segues. I wish I had a better idea what was going on however, and interested readers should follow the "External Reviews" link to a more comprehensive review of the film by Euro Horror expert Robert Monel, whom it just happens that I acquired my copy of the film from. Small internet somedays.

5/10: If you find an English language version let me know ...

The majority of IMDb reviewers who have commented on Love Brides of the Blood Mummy appear to have seen a censored version; since then, an uncut and restored version has surfaced, with all of the sleaze intact. And what trashy little treat it is too.

James Barton (Frank Braña) arrives at the castle of Egyptologist Lord Dartmoor (George Rigaud), who tells his visitor how he and his obedient assistant John (doesn't have quite the same ring as Igor, does it?) resurrected a perfectly preserved mummy with a bad haircut and hypnotic powers. Not only does the ancient Egyptian have a lust for blood, the mummy requiring a constant supply of the red stuff from young women to go on living, but he also has quite the libido, torturing and raping his victims before tearing open their throats.

There's not a lot of gore in this tacky Euro-horror, and just a touch of torture (hot poker on victim's breast), but the film more than makes up for this in the sex and nudity department, the mummy tearing open his pretty victims' blouses and yanking off their bloomers before getting down to business. Adding to the sleaziness is the fact that the young women soon stop fighting back and start to enjoy the experience, at least until they have their necks chomped upon by the randy mummy: such behaviour is highly contentious, although it could be argued that the mummy is using his hypnotic powers to stop the women from struggling.

The mummy's final victims are Lord Dartmoor's daughter Lucille (Catherine Franck) and her friend Anna (Teresa Gimpera) from boarding school. One might reasonably expect Lucille to be the 'final girl', surviving her encounter with the mummy, but even her neck isn't safe from the thirsty Egyptian (although she does keep her bloomers on). Extra points for killing her off!

Love Brides of the Blood Mummy also gets bonus points for some really shonky stop-motion effects: when Barton first arrives at the castle, Lord Dartmoor demonstrates his occult powers by turning a stick into a snake, a combination of animation and a rubber snake on a string; later, we get some more juddery animation when the mummy's now severed arm comes to life to strangle Lord Dartmoor. It looks dreadful, but it's fun.

6.5/10 (rounded up to 7 for IMDb). The action is rather repetitive, so make sure you watch the uncut version, with all of that gratuitous nekkidness, to ensure that boredom doesn't set in.