Since I already knew The Blood Spattered Bride was inspired by the novel Carmilla before the screening, I could not help but compared them while I was watching. Although the two Carmillas give me a very different image, they certainly share something in common. Like it is mentioned in The vampire film, “Much as the original Carmilla relieved the loneliness and isolation of the original Laura, this Carmilla enlists Susan in a full-fledged attack against the patriarchal power symbolized by her husband, his friend, and the doctor.” Another similarity that I have noticed is they both are the cause of the heroine’s nightmares.
It is obvious that the alternation of fantasy and reality has been used a lot in The Blood Spattered Bride, and the whole film intersperses with Susan’s dreams. But some dreams really confused me at first, such as the one when Susan is raped by a masked man at the beginning. I could not understand the meaning behind it until the husband shows his rough sexual pleasure, and Susan starts to reject him and even locked herself in the pigeon cage. The husband disturbs me a lot, I agree with what Carmilla says to Susan, “He spat inside your body to enslave you”. I even kind of wish he could be killed by Carmilla and Susan, but on the contrary, he shoots them and mutilates them. And the use of newspaper to conclude the event at the end seems a little bit abrupt to me.
