Bride of the Monster (1955)

 

You know, somehow it feels as though Ed Wood gets a much worse reputation for his films than he actually deserves. Yes, they are absolutely lowest of the low budgets; yes, the acting ranges from mediocre to horrendous; yes, the scripts are fairly cookie cutter and often make little sense, but there is always an enthusiasm and vision there that is just hampered by the fact that no one involved in this was actually a professional. Take this one, for example. A bigger budget and better actors would have made this into an okay horror flick for the time. 

Heck, there are bigger budgeted films of this era that are far worse. 

You get all the tropes here: a mad scientist (Lugosi) lives in a secluded mansion somewhere in the swamps and conducts illegal experiments in the basement, where he hopes to create a master race through the use of atomic energy. To this end, people that get lost in the swamp are kidnapped by him and his assistant Lobo and when they die, they are disposed of close by where Vornoff keeps a giant octopus handy.

Why is there a giant octopus in a swamp? No one knows and certainly no one cares. 

Things get going when a plucky female reporter wants to investigate the disappearances herself and of course gets kidnapped by Vornoff and Lobo, in a weird sort of "you will be experimented upon and yet I feel this vague attraction to you" kind of way. But her police officer boyfriend is on the case and it all grows to a climactic finale.

Or so it would, if Ed Wood had the money and the means. 

A lot about this film is clearly amateur level or worse, from the acting, stilted line delivery, wonky sets (heck, the walls wiggle when Tor Johnson bumps into them), stock footage of lightning and alligators and to top it all: a big rubber octopus that is as inanimate as a rock and only moves because the actors are wiggling about with the tentacles. So a masterpiece, this most aptly is not.

Lugosi is his usual hammy self, but it's fun to see he even uses some of his mannerisms from much better films he starred in. He waves his hands about and uses the hypnotic stare from 'Dracula' and he even folds his hands as if he were telepathically controlling the young girl, exactly like in 'White Zombie'. So this is a lot of fun for Lugosi fans. 

In all fairness: this is not a 'good' film. But if you like the horrorfilms of the period with all the boxes ticked, then this isn't the worst either. It's honestly quite baffling how much flack Wood has gotten thoughout the years. At least he tried to make something, inept though it be. But you can't say it's not entertaining, although maybe not as it was intended.