The Blood Splattered Bride (3 Stars)

This is a Spanish horror film, made in 1972. I've read that it's considered a cult film, but I don't consider it to be that good. Today I watched it dubbed into English, which is the version on the Blu-ray disc combined with "Daughters of Darkness".

The film is loosely based on the 1872 novel "Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. That's a book I've wanted to read for years, and it's already on my Kindle waiting for me to start. This novel also inspired the Hammer Karnstein Trilogy.

The film begins with a couple on their wedding day. The bride's name is Susan, the man remains unnamed, which is significant in itself. He's a generic representative of the male species. They check into a hotel for their honeymoon. Susan takes a nap while her husband goes to the bar for a drink. She has a nightmare about being raped which terrifies her so much that she insists on leaving. They go home to the husband's castle, where he lives with his maid and her precocious 12-year-old daughter Carol.

One of the family ancestors was killed on his wedding night by his bride, Mircalla. She fled from the castle and was never found. Over the following days Susan has dreams about this woman. Then the husband finds a naked woman on the beach who claims to have no memory of who she is, except that her name is Carmilla (an anagram of Mircalla). It's the woman that Susan dreamt about.

Carmilla and Susan become close friends. They go walking at night, and Carmilla tells Susan she has to kill her husband because he's defiled her body by penetrating her.

The ideas behind this film are fascinating, a mixture of lesbianism and female empowerment. The problem is that the film has a slow and dreamy style which doesn't match the plot. There should be more action.

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