Hellbride

I had never heard of Pat Higgins until this DVD became available for review which isn't entirely unsurprising as he operates in the no- to low-budget horror region and his previous films - one of which was made whilst Hellbride was in post-production - have really been limited to the festival circuit and limited DVD releases. As someone who has reviewed a number of titles from Brain Damage Films, I wasn't expecting the most polished or professional of films which is really the attitude you need when settling down to watch something like this.

A prologue provides the background information for what is to follow to avoid any clumsy exposition during the film:

"They buried the ring along with the bride's corpse, you know, so that really should have been the end of it. But times were hard back then, and some thieving bugger must have dug her up for her jewellery. So, despite its bloody past, Josephine Stewart's engagement ring somehow found its way onto the finger of another young girl in love. And after another uncompleted wedding day, it very nearly ended up back in the ground again.

But this family were poorer, and couldn't afford to be superstitious. So, they sold it on. Another grand wedding planned. Another succession of connected deaths. Another bloodbath on the day itself.

And again in the 1920s. And again in the 1950s.

Rumour has it that it was bought by a collector of strange objects after that. He knew that the vengeful spirit would only truly be severed from the ring and made mortal once again if the ring could be successfully used in a wedding ceremony; something that the spirit would surely never allow. So, he had the trinket blessed as best he could and stuck it away in his collection, next to the broken voodoo dolls and the badly drawn druid pornography. Eventually he died at a healthy old age of natural-ish causes, and various relatives who had never much cared for him flogged off his collection for a fraction of its worth. So it wasn't really a question of 'if' the ring would turn up again, more just 'when'

And from there, given that the world can be a dark and violent place, where blessings don't last forever and endings are rarely happy, it wasn't really a question of 'whether' the spirit of Josephine Stewart would claim more lives, more just of how many..."


It is at this point that stand up comic Lee Parker is preparing to purpose to his girlfriend Nicole and finds the perfect ring in a jeweller's - Josephine Stewart's ring - and clumsily pops the question (as subtly as 'a punch in the tits', as Nicole remarks) and she says yes.

You already know that things are going to go badly due to the cursed ring, but to complicate matters, Nicole's father owes money to a local gangster whose son turns up to threaten him and ends up being shot in the head! Lee's best man is a bit of a loose cannon who has a way of getting on the wrong side of ex-girlfriends and their new partners and Nicole's friend and bridesmaid just happens to have a cousin who is an expert on the occult and knows everything there is to know about Josephine's ring - he is also extremely eccentric and is in love with his cousin.

Without much blood spilt before the big day and Josephine's spirit appearing with a masked minion and killing people associated with the ring, the scene is set for a wedding day that no one will forget.


Hellbride is an odd film as it lurches between romantic comedy, gangster flick and occult horror with incredible clunkiness, never settling on one particular genre and there are several massive plot holes - none character disappears in the middle of the night after having his mouth sewn shut but his girlfriend, despite noticing blood on the pillow, doesn't mention it to anybody and no one enquires as to his whereabouts! In the commentary Pat Higgins reveals that the first cut was only 57 minutes long so there were extensive reshoots and extra scenes to bump up the running time by nearly 20 minutes but, in films like this, logic doesn't always need to feature too heavily.

It is really a very low budget amateurish film but somehow works and the more laughable aspects are just part of the charm.

The Disc

Extra Features
A first for a Brain Damage Films release with decent chaptering and a selection of supplementary material, led by the commentary with Pat Higgins and DP Alan Ronald. Like the film, this is a cheap and far from professional commentary with the two guys sharing the same microphone and the sound isn't quite synched into the visuals. The sound levels are all over the place and there are occasions when someone speaks and you can't hear them but the track is worth listening to as they point out the flaws, laugh along at the more daft aspects and explain the difficulties of working on a shoe string budget.

There are also a series of deleted scenes, outtakes by the late James Kavaz, who died just before the cast and crew screenings and to whom the film is dedicated, a reasonably good behind the scenes piece and the trailer. These are all worth looking at and make the very low RRP look even better value.

The Picture
The anamorphic picture is pretty good quality, though the standard is variable and some of the CGI effects are far from convincing. The practical effects fare better and are reasonably good for the budget.

The Sound
A fairly clear Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack though there are a few drop-outs where the dialogue becomes a little harder to hear.


Final Thoughts
Hellbride is a real oddity with no consistency of tone or content - a nice romantic scene will be followed by some offbeat comedy or gory horror, or sometimes all three in the same scene! It is a reasonably entertaining watch that is probably better if you keep your expectations low. The package is very good, the best that Brain Damage Films have put out by quite a distance and I hope more like this one will follow - for £2.99 you can't really go wrong!