Bit o’ nostalgia and Brides of Blood

Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s in New York two local stations had Saturday night horror films shows – one was WNEW Channel Five’s Creature Features and the other was WPIX (Channel 11) Chiller Theater. Creature features tended to show the classic black and white universal monsters (the first time I saw Dracula was when it was on Creature Features – my mom got worried cause I spent the next three days trying to talk like Bela Lugosi – but I worried my mom a lot so this was no big deal) while Chiller tilted more towards the American International Style horror pictures – and the Toho Monster movies but I had usually already seen them in the theatre (kiddy matinee at the Sand’s point theatre – I’ll stop before I start talking about how we wore our onions).

Anyway there was one movie I saw a couple of times – there were a couple of elements that appealed to me – one was that the women in the movie were young pretty – exotic looking and wearing sarongs looking skirts and matching tops with no bras – hell I was young and the internet wasn’t around . The other was that the monster made this creepy sounding roar while it was wandering around.

That was what I remembered – but even with the vast resources of the internet it took me quite a while to find the damn film. It turns out it was one of series of films made in the Philippines that featured Blood in the title (Mad Doctor of Blood Island, The Blood Drinkers ect.) this one was Brides of Blood. Which is set on Blood Island – which is a bit much will the blood but it was the 60’s (67 to be exact) where evil things are happening.

The good bits of this film are – most of the people can act pretty well – the leads could speak their lines at least – unlike some films like Monster a-go-go where you just cringe and there are those young women in their island garb. The female lead is however the blonde one – she’s married to an older scientist. They have a pretty dysfunctional relationship – he still loves her despite her sleeping around and yet won’t sleep with her and so she, well you know. It’s pretty good portrait of a bad marriage where the two are still in it because they can’t really let the other go even though they don’t much like each other anymore.

The other leads are well okay – the young romantic lead is okay – not great but okay and the young female lead – Eva Darren (Alma – grand daughter of the village elder) is pretty and there is that braless thing. There a sexual undercurrent running throughout the whole film – which is either interesting or creepy depending on the moment.

When the Young romantic lead and the happy couple land on blood island and it turns out Blood island is staked by a monster who every night kills two women who have been staked (naked – up for him – the idea being he will kill them not the rest of the village. While dramatic it’s really hard to know how they figured out two was the right number – did they start with one and go on? Did they try three women and once and found that the monster left one? You wonder these things

As is if that wasn’t enough of a problem – it turns out the trees come alive at night and bugs turn into bigger bugs – (the special effects here are at the first season of Star Trek level or worse – you can see the string on the flying bugs) and there is a planter , Carlos, who has a plantation (well duh) on the other side of the island with a staff consisting of a bald bullet headed thug and dwarves – lots of dwarves.

I’m not sure why but every damn Philippine horror film I have even seen (and I’ve seen more than I care to admit) features dwarves running around. It’s very weird and more than a bit creepy – in a decadent kind of way. (Crazy European monarchs and princes would keep lots of dwarves in their courts – Prince Ludwig the Mad (well duh again) ‘collected’ them.)

It turns out the monster is not eating the women but raping them – in such a way they are ripped to pieces – the wife is one of the victims – Alma is picked to be sacrificed but rescued an the young romantic lead. The Scientist is killed by the thug – who is protecting Carlos – who turns out to be the monster (the effects of radiation – whatever) – which alas is pretty damn goofy – he looks a bit like the Michelin man would if you poured green paint all over him and gave him teeth and bits of hair here and there. The groaning while creepy at first – once the monster shows up gets a bit much.

Well it all ends happily – except for the folks that got killed that is – the monster is killed and the village celebrates by having what can only be described as a boffing festival – women dance and then men come up to them and if they both agree off into the woods they go – at the end Alma dances for the male lead who for reasons known only to him hesitates and looks over at the village elder who smiles and nods as if you to say “why yes of course have lots and lots of sex with my granddaughter.” I respect the wisdom of the elders as much as anybody but if a woman wanted me to go off with her – asking her grandfather would not be something that came to mind. But that’s me.

I note that in the opening statements in the trial - Libby has decided to toss Cheney and Rove under that bus everybody talks about saying they were responsible for the leak and wanted him to take the fall. This could be interesting. But hell there is no real loyalty among thieves anyway and these guys are thieves.

Senator Clinton has announced that she will not take public funds because that places limits to her spending. Expected if depressing – she has the most money she intends to use it. Still the only way we are going to clean up elections is take the money out of it. Or more exactly the effect of money. I suspect this will be the most expensive campaign for president in history since the others running will no doubt follow suit in order to not get buried by Clinton’s money.

In band news Otto’s Friday – 8 pm! 14th Street between Ave A & B.

Peace, Love, Sarongs