Like Carl Dreyer's Vampyr (1932), Hammer's The Vampire Lovers (1970), and Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses (1960), The Blood Spattered Bride adapts the 1871 Gothic novel 'Carmilla', a story of feminine control over masculine dominance. The 1970's saw a rise in lesbian vampire narratives, partly due to the cultural openness to the representation of female nudity in the cinema. Here Susan (Maribel Martin) is the young, newly married bride, who's husband's (Simon Andreu) sexual desires become increasingly horrific to her. With this escalation of pressure for sex, Susan's dreams become permeated with nightmares of rape. However, after hearing about the 17th century legend of Mircalla Karstein (Alexandra Bastedo), - who murdered her husband on their wedding night - her nightmares entwine inextricably with the ancient brides hatred towards men's sexual demands.
The husband increasingly becomes suspicious of Susan's behaviour, as her dreams lead her to a specific knife, that seems to be intended for him. In a strange introduction, he discovers a beautiful and mysterious woman hidden beneath the sand on a beach. This manifestation of the 17th century bride, comes into their home, and begins a sexual and dominating relationship with the young Susan. Whilst this is not over explicit, the two almost become one singular body, as many of the idiosyncrasies of the "ghostly" manifestation are transposed onto Susan.
The Blood Spattered Bride is an interesting film. It offers nothing particularly revelatory or new to this story, but it holds back where many would have been over-explicit, particularly with female nudity. The sensational aspects are kept subdued and this creates a more atmospheric experience (something that Jess Franco would certainly not have done). The languid pace of the film is in no way a hindrance, and offers time for contemplation. Whilst the climax of the film is very conspicuous early on, the short moments of gory violence do tend to come as a little shock amongst the usual beauty of the leading ladies. But this juxtaposition is pretty much all the shock you will get - the violence isn't as surprising if considered separately, and therefore has the same effect as seeing a shot of a crying baby, after seeing a shot of a knife wielding maniac.
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