Bride of Monster Mania is the third and final documentary in the Monster Mania series that originally aired on AMC. Once again, Elvira is our hostess with the mostess. Unlike the last two entries, she narrates the entire special instead of just appearing for the bookend segments. It’s only fitting, seeing how this one is a salute to women in horror.
The first segment is on witches and vampires. Witches are represented by clips from Haxan, I Married a Witch, Bell, Book, and Candle, and Black Sunday, while Dracula’s Daughter, Blood and Roses, Brides of Dracula, The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil, Countess Dracula, and The Lair of the White Worm take care of the vampires. Then, it’s on to synthetic women in films such as Metropolis, Bride of Frankenstein, She Demons, Frankenstein’s Daughter, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, Frankenstein Created Woman, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, The Stepford Wives, and Species. The next segment is on possessed and powerful women and includes clips from White Zombie, The Exorcist, Beyond the Door, Carrie, and Cat People. Finally, we come to women who are truly out of this world with scenes from Cat-Women of the Moon, Devil Girl from Mars, The Astounding She-Monster, Queen of Blood, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, and Alien: Resurrection.
What’s interesting about the final segment is the documentary’s assertion that women were portrayed as a threat to humanity in the films of the ‘50s but when Alien came around, it showed that a woman like Sigourney Weaver could be its savior. It’s that extra level of insight that makes Bride the best of the Monster Mania specials. It also helps that some of the interviewees are world-class beauties like Martine Beswick and Ingrid Pitt. Other interview subjects include women professors who opine that the popularity of female monsters is mostly due to their overtly sexual demeanor.
I was also pleased that we get a lot more of Elvira this time around. Her one-liners are pretty funny too. My favorite jab came when she was talking about “synthetic women” and quipped, “I’m not just talking about collagen and silicone!”
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