The Bride- AKA "No Way Out" (British title), "The House That Cried Murder" and "The Last House on Massacre Street" (re-release titles), "Scream," "Wedding/Marriage of the Dead" and "Wedding Night Slaughter" (Euro titles) is a 1974 supernatural/psychological thriller about a young couple who decide to get married. On their wedding day, the Bride walks in to find the Groom cheating on her with his ex-girlfriend.
That's where the fun starts. The hysterical Bride attacks him with a pair of scissors and ends up running off, never to be seen again. But when mysterious phonecalls and vivid nightmares start plaguing the man and his girlfriend, could something sinister be afoot? The film was shot over a three-week period in June 1972, reportedly for less than thirty thousand dollars (which was very low even for that time). The film struggled to find distribution and and sat for almost two years before hitting the grindhouse and drive-in circuit, usually as the B-film in a double feature. (This helps to explain in part why the film had so many titles. It was often paired with other "House" movies of the time like "The House That Vanished" and "The Last House on Dead-end Street.") The film is a poverty row concoction yet makes up for it in stylized cinematography that betrays its meager roots. Unconventional lighting, odd shooting angles and good use of color really help sell this film during its few generally eerie scenes. It goes to show that you could churn out a decent horror film without resorting to schlocky special effects and cheap gorefests.
But other than that, the movie is kind of weak from a story standpoint. I've only ever seen the 71 minute cut and not the 85 minute version, so I don't know what else is lurking in the longer cut. But I can only imagine that the long version trods along at a sllooooowww pace, because the plot is so simple that the story is more than adequately told in the short version.
The canned soundtrack is very poor, even in comparison to other cheap horror films of the era. The "LA LA LA LA" love theme that pops up throughout the movie sounds like it was lifted from one of those softcore Italian "Emmanuelle" pictures from the mid-70's. Every now and then though the soundtrack is used to good effect when it jarringly blares out during some of the more creepy scenes.
The acting ranges from mediocre to downright horrible. Future sitcom and soap opera mainstay Robin Strasser is at times convincing in the title role and at other times takes "hysterical overacting" to a new level.
So in a nutshell, the movie plays out like an overlong "Night Gallery" segment but manages to conjure up some of the atmospheric nuances that Hammer and Amicus Studios were turning out at the time. Sadly the movie has fallen into the public domain and a lousy film-to VHS master seems to be the only thing floating around on the bootleg circuit. As of this writing the movie is available on youtube and on DVD as part of the "Blood Bath 2" 2-disc collection. (I am hesitant to purchase the set because I'm afraid that it's going to be the same transfer I already have, which is not very good.) I'd like to see this cleaned up (and maybe paired with another similar movie) for proper DVD release, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
