The Blood Spattered Bride  | 1972 | Spain | Vicente Aranda

Based on the original vampire novel before Dracula, (the 1872 novella Carmilla), Vicente Aranda’s psychological horror is a surprisingly progressive yet stylishly sanguine exploitation package. Newly married Susan embarks on her honeymoon with her new betrothed, heading to his childhood home to begin her new life of marital bliss. After feeling a little uneasy in the house after discovering its history, Susan finds herself the target of a mysterious woman who invades her dreams and waking life, seducing the naive young woman into lust and distance to her cold-seeming husband. As the femme fatale delves deeper into Susan’s psyche, the bride is eventually compelled to commit the most unspeakable acts. Similar to the edited US cut under the title Till Death Do Us Part, the Mountain VHS in the UK was already a censored print, which makes it a real puzzle as to why the police kept seizing it during their raids.