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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: October 23rd, 2018.
Director: Emilio Portici
Cast: Jack Birch, Marc Brook, Carol Connors
Year: 1973
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The Bride's Initiation - Movie Review:
A man and a woman have just tied the knot, bound in holy wedlock as man and wife. They hop into a limousine and head off to honeymoon-heaven, fooling around on the way until - BAM - a smoke bomb or something goes off. It seems that their driver is in the employ of none other than… Dracula (Marc Brook)! He wants the young couple to be brought to him and so they are. Soon enough, she's being ravaged by various horny hooligans and he's bound and shackled in the corner.
There's more to this than just typical vampiric horniness, however. Drac's got some hot chicks chained and bound to the wall and he's also got a weird big-nosed witch poking about setting things up for him. Dracula himself looks like a cross between Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and an aging Jerry Only from The Misfits. What is he up to? It's got something to do with needing to consume some male sperm and screwing a virgin before the sun comes up or… who knows. At any rate, the witch, when she's not trying to suck his cock, is trying to help him get away with all of this. Eventually, however, Dracula realizes that he's got the hots for a local blonde bombshell (Carol Connors). He has his limo driver, James (Jack Birch), drive him around and follow her, but neither of them realizes that the parents of the kidnapped bride have hired a detective named Gould (Steve Morgan) to figure out what happened to their daughter and… OH FUCK… Dracula registered his car under his real name!
Also known as The Demon's Brew and, more simply, The Vampire this film isn't all that deep but it is pretty amusing. If it isn't good as a fuck film or particularly appealing as a horror picture, as a genre mashup it is at least weird enough to hold our attention. Those hoping that top-billed Carol Connors (of the Candy films and Road Of Death) will absolutely walk away from this one disappointed. She's in it, sure, but only for a few minutes and those, understand, hoping that she'll strip down to her birthday suit and do the dirty deed… no spoilers here. Read into that as you will. Let it suffice to say that there are those of us who will, quite happily, watching anything that Carol Connors chooses to appear (and ideally disrobe) in and yet still find this disappointing in that department.
Still, this has enough 'WTF' going on in it to make it worth checking out. There's some amazingly tacky seventies fashions and furnishing on display throughout the movie that makes it quirky to look at. On top of that, Marc Brook as Dracula is worth the price of admission alone. Not sure what exactly is going on with his facepaint/makeup but the opportunity to see a moderately pudgy man with bad makeup and a 'devillock' go at it with random chicks of varying degrees of attractiveness only comes along so often. For that reason, we should be thankful that this movie exists.
The Bride's Initiation - Blu-ray Review:
Vinegar Syndrome brings The Bride's Initiation to DVD in a 1.33.1 fullframe transfer taken from a 2k scan of a 35mm print and it looks good, if never mind-blowing. There is minor print damage throughout but nothing that's going to ruin the viewing experience for you. This basically looks like a decent quality print - damage is there but colors look good and the image is stable.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono is fine. There is some minor hiss in a few spots but otherwise, no issues. The dialogue is a bit flat but easy enough to understand and the levels are properly balanced.
The only extra on the disc is The Mystery Of Emilio: The Journey From Canada, which is essentially a collection of vintage newspaper articles that loosely trace Emilio Portici's journey from his home and native land to American hardcore filmmaker.
The Bride's Initiation - The Final Word:
The Bride's Initiation is pretty bonkers, not sexy but definitely interesting… at least to those with a soft spot for the very strangest that seventies smut has to offer. Vinegar Syndrome's DVD release is light on extras but it looks and sounds better than any other version out there. Recommended.
