ma-cortes The man who brought you such successful chillers as "5 Dolls for an August Moon" , ¨Operazione Paura¨ ,¨Black Sabbath¨ , "Six Women for the Murderer" , ¨The Evil Eye¨ goes back in this nice film that packs great cinematography , impressive spectacle and well staged killings . It begins developing an elaborate animated collage for the film opening credits , being originally created by the great Mario Bava . The flick deals with a respected fashion mogul who runs a house of style where happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . As a bridal design shop owner called John Harrington (Stephen Forsyth) kills various young brides-to-be (Femi Benussi) in an attempt to unlock a repressed childhood trauma that's causing him to commit murder . John contracts a new fashion model , that person ultimately being Helen Wood (Dagmar Lassander) , who eventually gets a little too close for his comfort . Harrington is facing further torment in the mutually unsatisfying marriage to Mildred (Laura Betti , originally the script didn't include the role , it was only after expressed interest in working with Bava that the director re-wrote the script so that Betti could have a suitable starring) who subsequently to return to haunt him as a ghost . Meanwhile , a police inspector named Russell (Jesus Puente) investigates the strange killings , being his prime suspect Harrington . When Russel enters Carrington's home , the latter tells the screams heard are caused by the television set (the TV show that Harrington refers to in an attempt to fool Inspector is a clip from Mario Bava's own Black Sabbath (1963) - specifically the "Wurdalak" sequence featuring Boris Karloff) . Mario Bava strikes again in this mysterious and grisly picture with haunting atmosphere , colorful photography and strange musical score . Bava's great success (the first was ¨Black Sunday¨ or ¨Mask of Demon¨)is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills , chills , high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . Interesting screenplay filled with twists , turns and rare situations by prolific Santiago Moncada , an usual playwright . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue , tension , suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room , corridors and luxurious interior and exterior . Nice as well as twisted acting by Stephen Forsyth as a psychotic killer who manages a model house . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by the same Mario Bava with magenta shades of ochre , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Filmed on location in Barcelona , Harrington's villa , Rome , Paris and studios Alfonso Balcazar . The Spanish villa that the majority of the film was shot at was formerly the touristic home of Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco .The movie well produced by Manuel Caño belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . In fact , both of whom collaborated deeply among them , as Bava finished two Fedra's films ¨Il Vampiri¨ and ¨Caltiki¨ . These Giallo movies are characterized by overblown use of color in shining red blood , usual zooms and utilization of images-shock . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films . Rating : Good, this is one more imaginative slasher pictures in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

utgard14 Laughably bad giallo film from Mario Bava. Full of pretensions and attempts at being something more artistically memorable than it is. Insipid performances, especially from Stephen Forsyth. It's a movie that aspires to be spooky, creepy, frightening -- but all it really achieves is to be unintentionally funny. It has some nice Bava visual touches here and there, as one might expect. But these touches don't overcome a silly plot, terrible music score, and guffaw-inducing narration. Completely lacking in the suspense and psychological terror it attempts to achieve. Obviously avid fans of the director will admire this a lot more. I happen to like a good many Bava films, despite their flaws. But this sort of stuff is too cheesy for my tastes.

Paul Andrews Blood Brides starts on a high speed train late one night as a newly married woman still wearing wedding dress is brutally murdered by John Harrington (Stephen Forsythe), Harrington co-owns & runs a fashion house that specialises in designing & making bridal wear for weddings. Harrington is a self confessed paranoiac & is quite mad, he murders his best customers on their wedding night for bitter & twisted motives but the police are getting closer, Inspector Russell (Jesús Puente) suspects that Harrington is a serial killer of newly married women but lacks the proof to arrest him. As Harrington slips further into madness & decides to murder his overbearing wife Mildred (Laura Betti) the police edge closer & soon Harrington finds himself haunted by his terrible crimes...Also known as An Axe for the Honeymoon (which is the original Italian titles literal translation) & maybe most widely Hatchet for the Honeymoon this Italian & Spanish co-production was photographed, written & directed by Mario Bava & is apparently considered a bit of a classic amongst his fans but I have to say Blood brides didn't do anything for me & I found it rather pointless. The script starts off like a murder mystery as a meat cleaver wielding killer dispatches a blushing bride on a train but that soon gets dropped as the killers identity is revealed almost immediately at which point Blood Brides becomes a psychological thriller in the vein of American Psycho (2000) complete with ever increasingly bizarre voice overs from the killer & then ends up as a supernatural ghost story as maybe or maybe not the ghost of Harrington's dead wife pops up to torment him. I can't say I liked Blood Brides at all, I found it rather rather dull & pedestrian as well as not making that much sense. There are some silly moments, some really dumb character's & a story that never really appealed to me. At almost 90 minutes long Blood Brides drags at times with long stretches where next to nothing happens & even the so-called twist ending is weak that is basically a rip-off of Psycho (1960) with yet more Mother related madness. I just don't get all the love for this but each to their own I suppose & as long as I don't have to sit through it again I ain't that bothered who likes it...With very little in the way of actual suspense or plot I suspect that Bava was more interested in the visuals here than the narrative, sure there are some surreal moments & a few memorable images but even then I wouldn't call Blood Brides visually stunning or even particularly striking. There's no real blood or gore here, a bit of blood splatter & that's about it. The camera spins, goes out of focus, films from unusual angles & whatever else Bava decided to do to try & make banal scenes stand out & have some sort of deep metaphorical meaning that personally I just couldn't buy into. The film that is shown on telly is Bava's own Black Sabbath (1963) while the Spanish villa where the majority of Blood Brides is set was once owned by Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco.Filmed in Barcelona in Spain, Paris in France & Rome in Italy this looks nice enough & was apparently filmed late 1968 but not released until 1970. The film is dubbed into English so it's always hard to judge the acting, it seems alright.Blood Brides, or whatever title you see it under, is a strange psychological thriller that I would struggle to even class as horror & with boring character's & a predictable story I wasn't that impressed. Also, why is a hatchet referred to in the title when Harrington's weapon of choice is more like a meat cleaver?

matheusmarchetti It seems that the 70's is a rather under-appreciated decade for Mario Bava, as it is usually overshadowed by his 60's cannon, with films such as "Black Sunday" or "Black Sabbath". Still, his 1974 film "Lisa and the Devil" is what I consider his masterpiece; 1972's "Baron Blood" is a great old-fashioned Gothic classic; 1971's "Twitch of the Death Nerve" is mindless gory fun; "Shock" is a simple-yet-effective ghost story; and last but not least, there is "Hatchet for a Hooneymoon". Usually depicted as one of Bava's weaker efforts, "Hatchet..." is as influential as "Kill Baby Kill" or "Twitch...", as seen in such critically-acclaimed works as "American Psycho" or "Santa Sangre". Here, we have Bava's ever-present visual flair, combined with a fresh Scroogesque twist on the typical giallo formula. The script is intelligent and gripping, filled with some interesting Freudian motifs represented mostly through the protagonist's doppelganger, as well as including some well-developed and complex characters that you really care for. The charismatic Stephen Forsyth is perfectly cast as the protagonist, and is as seductively creepy as he needs to be. Laura Betti is also terrific as his cold, manipulative wife. Interestingly, Bava seems to play homage to the other great Italian director - Federico Fellini, as he does his own 'La Dolce Vita'-type satire of the plastic Italian high-society in this film. The film also has some of the most beautiful and lyrical scenes of Bava's entire career, both visually and in substance, such as John's 'danse macabre' in the room full of mannequins. These moments blend magnificently with Sante Maria Romitelli's bittersweet score, which captures the film's melancholic tone and perverse humor. The one thing that may put some viewers away is the lack of violence which doesn't really hurt the whole thing, but doesn't add anything to it either. Overall, a mesmerizing combination of ghost story with gialli, that is definitely not to be missed by any fans of the Maestro or Italian horror cinema in general.