Blood Bride (1980) User Reviews

Blood Bride (1980)

[morrigan1982 · 4/10 · 4 August 2014]

This movie is not a horror movie like we know it. Much blood and gore, elements of something paranormal (or not) and again blood and gore. If you don't expect blood and gore it's a watchable movie. It is not bad and it is not good… you can call it indifferent.

The scenario is indifferent the dialogs the same. There is not enough depth to the characters, so you can't really sympathize with them. Some of the stereotypic ideas got on my nerves though and I really wanted to kick the fathers *** who wanted his daughter to get married so she won't be an old maid because she was 26 and alone and that laid to all the wrong decision, because she didn't listen to her gut feeling.

So about the plot… As we said a 26 year old wants to get married and is angry with God because she is alone. She has a nice job which her father wants her to quite because when she gets married she has to stay at home and take care of her husband. She meets a guy, she falls in love and marries him too quickly without really knowing him, although she can feel that something is wrong with him. The guy she marries turns out to be a psycho who has a thing for nuns and dresses up women in nuns' cloths and kills them. From the hints in the film you can see that he had some kind of a weird traumatic experience with a nun of some kind which turns out to be ….

For the end watch the movie. I said too much already!

Bored bride.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 9 March 2023]

The pairing of Philip English and Ellen Barber doesn't create much heat in this film that isn't so much bloody as in plasma as it is bloody boring. The relationship leads to a quick marriage, and soon after, she realizes that he's hiding many secrets from him and decides that she's going to leave, and he doesn't seem to be willing to make that easy. That's even after she tells him that she hates him. It's only then that the Real Horror begins, and that's basically him refusing to let her leave the house.

Not really exciting, and you have to wait a long time for any real impact to occur. I've seen both actors in other roles, with English playing an amoral physician on the soap opera "The Doctors" (killed off that show the year before this movie was released), and his character is basically a more psychopathic version of that part. Usually cast in comical character bits, Bobo Lewis makes a dramatic impression as her mother as does Sam Gray as the father. But it's obvious that this is not going to end unpredictably, so the viewer will basically squirm getting through it and say to themselves at the end, "I suffered 90 minutes for this?"

Not much horror here

[Chainsaw Slasher · 6/10 · 17 December 2003]

Don't expect this film to be a slasher, it's not, its more of a thriller type film. The boxart shows a bloody knife in a wedding cake, but dont get the wrong idea, its not a bloody film at all. You have this girl who gets married to this guy, the guy ends up locking her up in the house, its been a while since the last time i saw the film. But i do remember this, dont expect a slasher film here. You have the death of a nun, but thats about the only slasher type part of the film.

Why Does Johnny Like Nubile Nuns So Much?

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 6/10 · 12 June 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Blood Bride; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.00 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.25

TOTAL: 5.50 out of 10.00

Robert Avrech's Blood Bride A. K. A Death Of A Nun is reminiscent of a Giallo film. And in truth, the original title does have more Giallo overtones than the American sensationalism of Death Of A Nun, especially, when no Nuns were harmed in the making of the film. The trouble is he doesn't have the skill to pull the dark thriller off completely, either in the story or the movie - though the killer's motive is perverted enough.

The story isn't too bad and is fairly plausible. Marie is a middle-aged woman who has had her share of bad relationships. She believed her latest was her last until her boyfriend turned out to be rotten and immoral - a big no-no for somebody as religious as Marie. Sadly, she hit a slump in the dating game and ended up being pressured by her father to try and find a husband. Then one day at work, she's introduced to John McPherson. He is kind, caring, and shows an interest in her and her life. Could he be the man of her dreams or her nightmares? Johnny has a dark secret. Johnny likes sexy Nuns. No sooner are they married than his domination over her begins. It's subtle at first but rapidly builds to a violent crescendo. One of my favourite things in the story is the characters. I found I could easily relate to everyone except McPherson. I particularly liked Marie's relationship with her parents, expressly between her and her father. I have known people like this. He has an old-fashioned way of thinking, which stirred up some heartwarming memories for me. However, what the story needed was more tension and suspense. I found it a little light in those areas.

The direction is above average, and Avrech uses the slow pacing well to tell the tale. Though I can't help but have a niggling feeling that it could have been more engaging if he'd kicked the tempo up a notch or two. His compositions are sound. I especially liked the darkened restaurant where John takes Marie on their first date. Avrech uses the heavy shadowing to show that, though the place may be filled with a million customers, for John, there's only Marie, and vice-versa. I just wished his imagination and creative side had kicked in more often.

As the characters are one of the strongest elements of the story, the cast needed to be damned good to fill their boots. And they are. Take Marie's family; the actors and actresses have that family unit down pat. Ellen Barber does well in nearly every one of her scenes. However, when she has to start crying and has to retaliate against her husband while showing she's terrified, things get a tad messy. Though, in general, all the performers are enjoyable and engaging in their portrayals.

I would happily advocate one watch of Blood Bride for a Sunday Afternoon. It's the type of movie you can easily watch after comfortably stuffing yourself on Sunday Dinner. Sit back with a nice cuppa, relax, doze, and enjoy the twisted marriage of Johnny.

Now you've confessed and flagellated yourself, feel free to visit my Killer Thriller Chillers list to see where I ranked Blood Bride.

Take Care & Stay Well.

Box art misrepresentation

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 7/10 · 2 February 2023]

Viewers who went into this film expecting something akin to an Argento or Bava horror flick were certainly disappointed, but if you take the movie for what it is, a psychological thriller, you'll be pleasantly surprised. All the film can offer is suspense and thrills, for from the opening scene, we know John McPherson is a creep with a morbid fascination with nuns. What keeps the viewer engrossed is his new bride Marie's discoveries and despair.

Marie (Ellen Barber) is a lovely, old-fashioned woman in her upper-twenties, living at home with her folks because her mother needs help caring for her ill father. Marie spends her days working as a secretary for kind Mr. Stern ( Joseph Sullivan) but there's something missing in her life. She knows exactly what it is, even with her father's constant inquiries into her stagnant love life. She finds her man in gentlemanly but eccentric antique book dealer, John McPherson (Philip English) who she meets at Mr. Stern's office. They quickly marry, then Marie finds out the type of monster she has accepted for a husband when they retreat to his family estate in the country where he isolates her and abuses her.

STORY $$$$: The foundation of the story isn't new, for they've been making movies about tormented wives for ages, but the framework of the story is endearing. Marie's father (Sam Gray) may be a bit meddlesome and overbearing in his eagerness to see his daughter married, but he's a man torturing himself, fearful that Marie will end up a sad old spinster because she sacrificed her youth to care for him. So his interest in seeing her wed is not only for Marie's own good, but for his as well, to bury his guilt. There's also the dynamic of John's morbidity, obsessing and sexualizing nuns, that Marie discovers. John is a monster, but he was a monster created when he was sexually abused as a child. Then there's a nice touch on the wedding night, when Marie & John are home, after the nuptials, she gets up from bed, alone in the bedroom and yet outfitted in her wedding dress, when a police siren is heard driving by their townhouse while she prepares to get undressed. That siren was an alarm for things to come in Marie's life, but she was heedless to its warning.

ACTING $$$: The acting is quite good all around, with Ellen Barber standing out. I've only seen her in one other role, as an insane mother in THE PREMONITION, and watching her work, her full surrender to her parts, can be gut-wrenching. The despair she is able to convey, issuing such raw shrieks and sobs, makes the viewer more invested in her well-being than it otherwise would be with a more standard actress in the role.

SEX/NUDITY $$: John's unhealthy interests in nuns forbids him from being intimate with his wife on their wedding night, but he has flashbacks of a Sister Mary (Jocelyn Javits) who took a more than sisterly interest in him when he was a boy.