MARK
OF THE WITCH (1970)
THE BRIDES WORE BLOOD (1972)
Directed by Tom Moore/Bob Favorite
Retromedia DVD
THE FILMS
If it’s not Saturday night
at your house, it soon will be.
If you’re suffering from a
glut of lousy schlock film experiences,
that will soon be remedied. Had
a bad day too? Get ready to scratch
that itch, my friend.
Regional rarities are a calling
card for some of the finest vintages
known to the trash film connoisseur.
It’s that loving combination
of “go get ‘em”
attitudes, surreal situations born
out of inexperience, and unknown
“performances” that
make these local-colored films so
appealing. You get a sense of inherent
dedication that isn’t always
apparent in studio b-films, no matter
how cheap the finished product may
appear. As a result, these off-center
spook films almost always guarantee
a good watch; hilarity, creeps,
thrills, choose your poison. Mark
Of The Witch, a college campus
possession-fest from Texas, and
The Brides Wore Blood,
a mind blowing monster stew shot
in Florida, not only carry the torch;
they bring the matches as well.
Welcome to Denton, Texas, where
the kids aren’t alright and
they all hold a Mark Of The
Witch. After a prologue witch-hanging,
we’re introduced to a college
class full of occult nuts. Jill,
a girl next door type, spends her
time volunteering for the local
book drive and organizing seance
happenings at her professor’s
pad. Sparse synth blips and lame
hippy folk from Sean Bonniwell (The
Music Machine!) light the way. When
the gang performs a seance found
in Jill’s dirty red witch
book, Ms. J finds herself possessed
by the prologue hag, complete with
a Medieval Times accent. Next up,
she kills a dog (voiced by a man’s
barking noises), fries a canary,
partakes of an artsy make out scene,
and lures young mods to The Grove,
locale of ritualistic killings.
Will boyfriend Alan and Professor
Mac succeed in banishing the witch
out of Jill’s body forever?
Mark Of The Witch might
seem like a gip at first glance.
Utilizing a cast of unknowns and
directed by Tom Moore (Return
To Boggy Creek), the film sticks
to PG rated thrills and holds onto
its one-trick-pony plot for dear
life. It also delves into a few
instances of unnecessary incantation
padding. Normally, that’s
a death toll, right? Fortunately
for us, the simple minded plot is
completely engaging, further embellished
by a really likable cast. The acting
isn’t going to impress anybody,
but the mugs on our group of fashion
rejects are swell. The whole film
has a good time, laid back waltz
to it; crude in its execution and
featuring a few instances of artsy
flourish. And how about that tripped
out climax? Fantastic. All in all,
Witch is quite perfect
in its naivety. Tame by 70s standards,
but a light gem as a result.
Travel even further down the ladder
of obscurity: The Brides Wore
Blood is about to freak you
out. Since the plot doesn’t
make a lick of sense, I’ll
do my best to relate. A guy and
a girl wake up in bed and discover
a secret passageway in the guy’s
bedroom. The nook holds the diary
of Count De Lorca, an ancient descendent.
Let the flashback begin. The De
Lorca family curse calls for a woman
to be impregnated by the master
vamp, Leon De Lorca. I had a really
hard time trying to figure out why.
Four vacationing women are unknowingly
kidnapped by a mute servant and
the head of the De Lorca household.
From there, you can expect a (real?!)
needle injection, trick shop gore
effects, lots of talking, a magnificently
weird monster, and a psychic named
Madam Von Kirst. Damsels are rescued,
fisticuffs are employed, and the
ending will shock you. Explanation
be damned!
Calling the pace and visuals of
Brides “dreamy”
is an understatement. Mostly filmed
around a funky old mansion (more
specifically, that mansion’s
basement), Brides is like
an Al Adamson cut-and-paster gone
haywire. Plot points jump around
without explanation and your eyes
are unexpectedly assaulted with
cheap violence every twenty minutes
or so. The blippy soundtrack gurgles
with sparse echoes, sudden intrusions
of library music, and cues that
wouldn’t sound out of place
on an old Power Records book and
LP set. The whole series of events
is totally implausible; if you were
on vacation, would you accept an
invitation for a mansion tour from
an overzealous hobo mute? Probably
not. Working in tandem with the
strange set pieces, the film’s
technical level floats somewhere
between a home movie and one of
Larry Buchanon’s AIP TV opuses.
Dirty, downbeat, uncertain, and
pointless...pretty much a gigantic
mess. Or pretty much perfect. Remember,
decaying vamps ALWAYS resemble burnt
hot dogs.
With these obscure beauties by your
side, any night is instantly transformed
into a Saturday Nite Creature Feature
of the most respectable caliber.
Now if you’ll excuse me, the
clock has struck four and I need
to get to bed. I’m already
starting to dream about Texas...Jacksonville...
AUDIO AND VIDEO
This is a double sided DVD, with
one film relegated to each side.
Mark Of The Witch features
a disclaimer beforehand, stating
that the film has been compiled
from several sources in order to
present the most complete version
possible. While the letterboxed
print suffers from several jump
splices at the hour mark and a steady
stream of green emulsion lines,
the picture itself looks fantastic.
Bright, clean, and nicely oversaturated.
There were a few moments were the
tone took on a darker grain, but
it still looked nice. A weird jump
cut of an earlier scene also popped
up for a few seconds at one point.
No problems with the mono sound.
The Brides Wore Blood appears
full frame and retains all of the
charms of its low budget film stock:
grainy and good lookin’. Film
noise is pretty much nil and the
mono sound, again, was just peachy.
Retromedia released Brides
on its own disc in 2000 and I assume
this is just a port of that release
(minus the compression problems,
of course!).
EXTRAS
On the Mark side, we’ve
got a ten minute segment of test
footage from a Fred Olen Ray project
called The Coven. It’s
basically a jumble of mid 90s footage
featuring Brinke Stevens walking
around a city, cemetery, etc., some
of which popped up in Jack-O.
She also appears topless in front
of a few burning candles. Erotic!
Fred provides commentary for the
footage. Brides features
an intro segment from a sub par
horror host called “Son Of
Ghoul.” Mr. Ghoul takes long
pauses in the middle of his sentences
and forces toothpaste down a midget’s
mouth. Horrible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Non-fans of this type of stuff may
fall asleep, but I decree a “Bravo.”
One of the finest pairings in quite
some time and by far one of the
best weirdo horror releases of ‘05.
Finally.
— Joseph A. Ziemba, 03.30.05 |
I hate pouting
Seance gone wild
Marked love
De Lorca ladies
Keith Moon alert
Goosh!
|
