Brides of Blood |
Philippines / USA • 1968 • 97m •
  • Directed by: Gerardo de Leon, Eddie Romero. • Starring: Kent Taylor, Beverly Powers, John Ashley, Eva Darren, Mario Montenegro, Oscar Keesee, Ely Ramos Jr., Bruno Punzalan, Andres Centenera, Pedro Navarro, Carmelita Estrella, Quiel Mendoza, Willie Tomada..    Natives of a tropical island have to contend with man-eating plants and animals, mutations caused by radioactivity. Virgin sacrifices become the norm. A small group of interlopers become caught up in the mayhem.
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Review:
This Philippino American co-production was directed by Gerardo De Leon & Eddie Romero & isn't anything special although parts of it are sort of watchable. The script, which is uncredited, is slow going at times & Blood Brides becomes very tedious to watch while at other times it's quite good low budget 'they don't make them like this anymore' type horror, unfortunately those moments are few & far between. There's a generous helping of exploitative moments including some gore, a bit of nudity & it has a sleazy feel at times but I just didn't think it was much fun to watch. I mean I just think that it's one of those films which is more fun to talk about & imagine rather than watch, overall I thought it was OK but when I had finished watching it I felt slightly disappointed. The character's are OK & I don't know about you but I wouldn't travel to somewhere called Blood Island, I just wouldn't. Haven't these people ever watched any horror films before?
Directors De Leon & Romero don't do anything special & the film is a bit of a chore to watch although one or two of the effects are quite, well, effective. There are also a couple of scenes in here which have potential. Originally called Brides of Blood it was renamed Island of Living Horror for American TV although the VHS tape that I watched last night here in the UK also had that title & I would expect that it was cut & this cut version is the only one currently available so gore wise there are a couple of severed limbs & that's it although there are some very awkward looking cuts in both the film & soundtrack whenever it appears something gory should be happening.
The budget on Brides of Blood must have been pretty low, it's reasonably well made, the living tress look OK while the moth sequence looks absolutely awful. The main radioactive monster himself looks a bit stiff although I thought it looked quite gross at times, does that make me weird? Did you know that it was shot entirely in the Philippines? Well, now you do. The acting wasn't great & Ashey really is an awfully wooden actor, a special mention goes to Beverly Hills, what a name.
Brides of Blood is an OK exploitation film for fans of the genre, other's should probably avoid it. The first in director Eddie Romero's 'Blood Trilogy' & was followed by Mad Doctor of Blood Island (1968) & the best of the three films Beast of Blood (1971), don't you think that the title of any cheap film just sounds so much cooler when it has the word 'blood' in the title?
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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