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Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: October 11th, 2022.
Director: Ken Ruder
Cast: George Rigaud, Michael Flynn, Catherine Franck
Year: 1973
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Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy – Movie Review:
Directed by the mysterious ‘Ken Ruder’ and alternately known as both Lips Of Blood (not to be confused with Jean Rollin’s film of the same name) and Perversions sexuelles, 1973’s Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy – a much more salacious and eye catching, if not necessarily accurate title! – is set in the 19th century and introduces us to James Barton (Frank Braña), an Egyptologist of sorts who specializes in mummies. He travels to the remote Dartmoor Castle where its chief inhabitant, Count Dartmoor (George Rigaud), may or may not have one in his possession. When Barton arrives, he sees Dartmoor whipping what looks like a mummified hand nailed to a wall… and we’re off!
Here, through a series of flashbacks, we learn that back in ancient Egypt a young man (someone acting under the alias of Michael Flynn) was put to death for his nasty habit of killing off women. His father, a high priest, has his son put into a state of what is more or less suspended animation and sealed in a sarcophagus. This sarcophagus wound up in the possession of Dartmoor, who opens it up and brings its sole inhabitant back to life, unaware of what he’s about to unleash.
See, the Egyptian man that Dartmoor has so foolishly resurrected is not only really horny, but he needs blood to survive. He’s also kinda-sorta telepathic and able to use mind control on Dartmoor’s manservant, John (Martin Trévières), using him to abduct any beautiful young woman he might come across. John does this quite effectively and brings back a string of lovely ladies that the Egyptian then has sex with and drains of their blood, with Dartmoor stashed away in the bowels of the castle powerless to stop him, until his daughter and her friend show up and unwittingly find themselves in mortal peril!
This was clearly made on a pretty modest budget and the acting, particularly from the esteemed Mr. Flyn who just kind of wanders around and humps things, leaves something to be desired, but this has that weird sort of otherworldly atmosphere that certain Eurocult pictures have that makes it watchable, despite its flaws.
As atmospheric as it is sleazy, this French-Spanish co-production doesn’t really have a mummy in it so much as it has a random pseudonymized actor running about dressed in Egyptian garb, but it never really matters much that he isn’t wrapped up or anything, as the movie is still able to do what it needs to do. And what it does, essentially, is focus less on story and more on atmospherics and exploitation. Some may find the frequent set pieces wherein our antagonist rapes and tortures the lovely women who live near Dartmoor’s castle repetitive, and to be fair, they are, but the movie really benefits from some excellent photography and great location work. If the plot isn’t necessarily a strong one, the narrative is decent enough to keep things moving and it does build nicely to a rather weird conclusion.
Note that this disc includes two different cuts of the movie – the Extended Version, which runs 1:32:37 and contains more sex and violence and uses a title card that reads ‘Lips Of Blood’, and the Horror Version, which runs 1:26:45 and also uses a Lips Of Blood title card.
Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy – Blu-ray Review:
Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy makes its official home video debut on region free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro framed at 1.66.1 in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer that is taken from a new 4k restoration taken from the original negative. It’s a very nice transfer, showing strong detail, depth and texture throughout. There isn’t much print damage here to discuss but the film’s natural grain is retained, with the image always looking like film. There are no noticeable issues with any noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts are held in check.
Audio options are provided in French and English 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono options with proper subtitle options offered up for each track. The movie plays a bit better in French but both tracks are clean and crisp and properly balanced. Range is limited in spots, as you’d expect, but no problems to note here, the movie sounds quite good.
Extras start off with a brand new audio commentary by David Flint that plays over the extended version of the film. He talks about strangely arty quality of the opening titles, the difficulty in piecing together who really appeared in and worked on this movie given how many of the participants either used aliases or weren't credited at all. He goes over some of the locations used in the picture, discussing how the exteriors were shot in France but how the interiors were shot in Spain, the quality of the voice work in the dubbing, the weird use of quick stop motion effects in the picture, how the locations and sets make this low budget film look very good, how and why the alternate versions of the film came to exist and how they differ, the French "Perversions sexualles" alternate re-edited cut of the movie, the lackluster acting that comes courtesy of Michael Flynn and how Michael Flynn is almost certainly a pseudonym, the truth behind the Ken Ruder director credit and why Alejandro Martí is suspected of having actually directed the picture under an alias. As the track comes to its close, he also covers how confusing the existing paperwork for this movie is, the use of music in the movie and how it enhances certain sequences, the 8mm variant of the film that exists, the use of strange soft focus techniques in certain scenes, the quality of the atmospherics on display in the movie and quite a bit more.
There is also a section on the disc containing twenty minutes of alternate sequences, noting that the feature version of the movie on the disc is the longest but that alternate scenes were shot for different territories with different censorship requirements. Here we get alternate clothed takes from the Spanish version where the mummy dry humps women with their clothes on, but we also get some topless versions of a few scenes that were likely intended for the UK market and some alternate footage from the re-edited French version that went under the Perversions sexualles title.
An eleven minute featurette gives us a history of the Super 8mm cutdown version that was released in the UK by Derann Film Services in the days before VHS made home video affordable for most people. Interestingly enough, this seems to be cut down from the stronger version of the movie rather than the UK theatrical cut of the movie. It isn't in the most remarkable condition but it's interesting to see it included here, presented with sound. The cutdown version of the movie itself runs roughly eight minutes.
Finishing up the extras are English and French trailers, a Perversions Sexuelles trailer, French opening titles French closing credits a ‘publicity parade’ of stills and posters, the always enjoyable Mondo Macabro promo reel, menus and chapter selection options.
Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy – The Final Word:
Love Brides Of The Blood Mummy is a strangely intriguing movie, low on plot but high on atmosphere and sleaze and benefitting from some great location work and some really nice cinematography. The Blu-ray release from Mondo Macabro looks and sounds really nice and benefits from a really strong selection of extras, highlighted by an illuminating commentary track and an alternate version of the feature.