The Revenge of the 31 Days of Cheese - Day 14 - Brides of Blood

Well it’s Valentine’s day and in honor of that we have the 1968 schlock fest Brides of Blood.

The film opens with several folks on a ship approaching Blood Island, A Scientist and his wife and Jim the peace corps guy (Herein after Jim). The scientist is looking to do research on the effects of radiation from the bomb tests on the island, Jim is looking to do peace corps type things and the wife seems to be looking to get laid (she talks about it a LOT and has a quick tryst/being assaulted on the boat).

They arrive on Blood Island – and honestly arriving at a place called blood island is a guarantee of bad things happening a lot. As they arrive there is a funeral – of two women. Or more exactly the remaining pieces of two women. Something is wrong but nobody will say what.

We then meet the headman and Alma his granddaughter. They also keep mum about what is wrong. There is a very creepy atmosphere in the place.

We follow the scientist and his wife for a bit – she isn’t sure why he doesn’t divorce her and she’s not quite sure why she is staying. It’s clear that there are wheels within wheels with this relationship – and a real negative feedback mechanism is involved she still wants him but he’s cold and stifled to punish her for being unfaithful which leads her to being unfaithful which.. well you get the picture. It’s not a good one.

We cut to a scene where women are taking stones from a jar – one woman is already weeping – and then another woman picks the black stone (which is never good)

We cut to the Scientist, wife and Jim meeting Esteban the owner of a large house on the other side of the island and Gordo who is his overseer/butler and pretty creepy looking. Esteban also has a staff of dwarves as servants (they scamper about and hide a lot, it’s creepy). The whole set up is rather odd to say the least.

Here is where we learn that the island was on the edge of the bomb test fallout area and that the scientist is here to study what if anything has been affected.

Well they find out – on the walk back to the village the plants come alive as is moving and try to attack the wife (it’s pretty cheesy effects) what amazes me is that this is isn’t enough to let the scientist know that the answer to his question “did radiation affect the island” is a very very damn big yes.

Anyway we see the end of the procedure that had been started by the natives with the stones – the two women are tied to an x shaped cross striped of their clothes (it’s 1968 so we get a brief flash of topless woman) and then left.

The night goes one there is a loud and rather creepy groaning in the darkness – then the beast appears to the victims – and then the movie loses whatever creepy atmosphere it had after the fake tree limbs – the monster looks pretty much like the Michelin man after he’s been melted. It doesn’t work alas.

We see the fate of the victims and then – because it’s 1968 and some of us are slow on the update alma explains that the beast doesn’t eat the women he ‘satisfies’ himself on them and the process rips them to shreds. Ouch.

We go along and of course Alma is one of the women chosen the next night or so (how often the sacrifices take place isn’t quite made clear) and that sets in motion the final third act.

I do have one weird quibble here. How the hell did they figure out it took two women to satisfy the beast? When they left three was one spared? Or if only one did it continue to rampage about? It’s an unimportant point but still if you’ve seen this film as often as I have (it was a regular on chiller theater on channel 11 late night back in the 70’s and it remained a guilty pleasure of mine – mostly I think Alma is hot). These things come to mind.

At the end who the monster is is discovered and both the wife and scientist buy it – oddly enough looking for each other which is actually rather apt come to think about it. and the village united under the peace corps guy (this they couldn’t try on their own?) destroy the monster who reverts to his human form.

At the end there is a fertility dance scene where the remaining women and men of the village dance pair off and go into the night – Alma dances looking straight at Jim who being American is a bit slow on the uptake but eventually gets the idea – he does cast a quick glance at the headman who gives him big old smile as if to say “go ahead have sex with my granddaughter. You’ll enjoy it” it’s a moment that always makes me laugh really. And then Alma and Jim go off into the woods with the rest of the village and start making with the sexytime.

It’s a pretty cheesy film especially with the special effects but it does manage to a) be a bit creepy and b) have a certain depth as the sexual factors are not ladled on but are a central part of the story and are rife with undertones and again I think Alma is hot.

Enjoy with tropical fruits.