Brides of Blood

[Andrew]

Started watching the four-movie Pacific Island exploitation series with the first film, "Brides of Blood."

The story is that a young man, who is an engineering type (think solo Peace Corps) accompanies an older scientist and his very unfaithful wife (the scientist's wife, that is) to an island that was near the Pacific atomic tests.  They find that strange mutations abound on the island, but that they only manifest on certain nights.  Then, the place comes alive with trees that grab people and bizarre creatures.  When the time passes, all of the mutations return to looking normal.

For the centerpiece of this plot, we have a mutant humanoid that is feared by the villagers.  To placate the beast they stake out two young women near a primitive idol.  The massively strong mutant has sex with the women, then rips them apart.  That is a waste, you know.  Women tend to be good for that more than once.

Also on the island is a rich man who has a single bald native assistant and about half a dozen midget native servants!  The midgets run around when visitors come to the rich man's mansion, taking up hiding places and peering out around corners.  They also serve all the meals.

The cheating wife, deprived of likely men to have sex with (except the rich guy and he seems oblivious to her offers) has several scenes where she acts like an addict needing a hit.  You can just see her thinking, "I need loving RIGHT NOW!"  Um, "loving" might be too tame of a term, but I think Menard and Dean have used up our quota for references to the male genitalia for this month.

Rather silly at times, but I enjoyed the low budget exploitation flick.  I also thought that some of the scenes with the mutated jungle coming alive (largely done with puppetry and wires) were pretty effective.  The mutant human looked strange, but I did not spend the whole movie laughing at it.  I did laugh when I realized it was "dismantling" the women after it finished with them.

[Scott]

Remember liking this one a bit. Not a great film, but I liked the tree roots that grabbed people walking about and the women sacrificed to the creature.

[Dennis]

This is a movie I'm sure I've seen on a late night horror TV show, but it was so heavily edited that the movie was barely understandable, I really hate it when they do this.

[Scott]

The other one that I've seen from this collection is called BLOOD OF THE VAMPIRES and also made in the Philippines. Actually own a copy of this one. Both are worth a good look. I kinda like my copy as early in the film an old lady vampire is locked in a basement and heard screaming while a party goes on above. Though it's not part of the Blood Collection you might want to look at TERROR WAS A MAN also from the Philippines.  Not really much to censor in any of these movies, but you'll enjoy them anyway.

[Andrew]

I definitely enjoyed "Brides of Blood" more than "Terror is a Man."  Watched about half of the next film in the series, "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and it started out really slow.  In fact, it has not gotten anywhere yet.  Hoping that the second half will be more interesting.  I've seen the third film before and remember liking the monster in that, which apparently was introduced in the one I am trying to watch now.

Another bit not to be missed in "Brides of Blood" is the ritual at the end of the movie.  All the women go and dance, picking out mates from the assembled men.  The pairs then run out into the jungle to do the wild thing.

[Scott]

BRIDES OF BLOOD is supposed to be the better of the Blood Collection, so if you only have time for one then BRIDES OF BLOOD is the one to pick.