One evening, scholar Nie Yun Peng (Yang Fan) and his servant Da Huo Zi (Ko Hsiao Pao) come across a woman in a lake side and, thinking that she’s a ghost, they bolt away from her. Soon it gets dark but they manage to seek shelter in a house in which an attractive young maiden Feng Ah Nu (Margaret Hsing Hui) and her servant Yin Er (Carrie Ku Mai) live. During the night, while wandering around, Nie sees the fully naked Ah Nu in her bedroom, the same incident also happens to his servant who in turn witnesses Yin Er in the nude. Obviously upset, the devastated women start to cry, and it looks like the logical thing to do is for the men to offer a marriage proposal in which they happily accept.
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The Nie family is thrilled to welcome Ah Nu just the same, although they know nothing about her. However, while their relatives are keen to meet the new bride next morning, they quickly run away as soon as they lay eyes on her. As it turns out, she looks exactly like a woman who died a horrible death twenty years ago and they believe she’s her ghost but in a human form. Before long, Nie’s relatives start to die in mysterious ways and it looks like something sinister is happening in his neighborhood.
Being an early venture into the horror genre, this slow-burn ghost story relies heavily on lighting and set design instead of using outlandish make ups. The use of old Chinese string instruments and flute does add a sense of creepiness but the use of green lighting on faces to create ghostly effects is less successful. The production has a vintage Shaw Brothers wuxia look minus the sword fighting. The sets and costumes look good none the less. However, this is not a terrifying movie even though the theme concerns a vengeful spirit; furthermore the editing is choppy at times due to the many uses of jump cuts. Interestingly, there’s full nudity displayed here and a surprising amount of comedy relief from the two servants.
Looking good in her costumes, Margaret Hsing Hui is adequate as the ghost seeking revenge and comes across as a sympathetic figure. Unfortunately, Yang Fan is rather stiff in his role as the heedless scholar Nie and he’s a weak character too. However, they’re a well matched pair of doomed lovers on screen. Ko Hsiao Pao and Carrie Ku Mai who portray their servants are more interesting, although they’re not the main characters. They provide the comedy relief and lighten up the pace in this otherwise overly serious drama.
There’s always a Taoist master in most Asian horror films and here, the honor goes to Chang Feng who plays Taiyi, the Ying Yang Master. This fearless demon catcher uses magic and arms with interesting gadgets like the trusty wooden sword, a flute that summons ghosts and paper charms that prevent them from entering any room. It’s a delight to see him in his yellow Taoist rob, chasing down spirits with one hand ringing a bell and the other holding a sword. The ghost bride also uses magic too: in one instant, she’s able to shrike a man’s soul and traps it into a small paper fan and later burns it, therefore killing him.
“The Bride from Hell” fails in the drama department, the doomed romance is not fully played out and most of the special effects are unconvincingly executed. None the less, its colorful production looks good on wide screen and it has that certain old charm quality. Still, while clocking in around seventy nine minutes, it’s quite fun at times.
