Review of Bride of the Monster (1955) by Donovan D — 06 Feb 2008

While Plan 9 is Ed Wood's most lauded film, special mention should go to the sometimes forgotten Bride of the Monster, an almost equally bad film by the director who made an art of bad movies. Perhaps its because Bela Lugosi IS actually Bela Lugosi in the whole film and not a stand in ala Plan 9 and because the film actually made money, but Bride of the Monster has its own horrible gaffes, most impressively the octopus scene where Lugosi is clearly making the rubber model's limbs attack him, and Wood's brilliant use of stock footage montage to create an ending that is terribly unsatisfying and incoherent.

This would be Lugosi's final speaking role, and to some his end may seem undignified, but this is a classic as important as his Dracula albeit for very different reasons.