31 Days of Halloween, Day 13- The Devil’s Bride (1974)

Directed By: Arūnas Žebriūnas

MVP’s: Gediminsa Girdvainus, Regina Varnaitė, Vaiva Mainelytē, Vasilijus Simčičius, Regimantas Adomaitis, Juozas Meškauskas, Bronius Babkauskas, Regina Arbačiauskaitė

Plot: A devil falls from heaven, makes a pact with the miller that he’ll help him get the girl in exchange for the miller’s first born. When the time has come to collect the devil finds his best-laid plans under threat from the manly Girdvainis

Response: Things coming in and out of lakes. Sad dad looking Viggo Mortensy af in close-up. Cinematic spectacle achieves the level of poetry. Dudes caress horse backs while gazing at chicas. Big lug of a feller eating flowers in the rain.

Review: This one exposed the limits of my ranking system as I couldn’t, in good faith, give it any kind of monster score despite its angels and demons, its not scary, and its too lushly verdant to move the marker on autumn vibes. Nonetheless its folkloric liminality make it an excellent Halloween pic.

Laura and I, despite our Vermontean proximity, have still yet to make it up to Montreal for Fantasia Fest but last year’s 4k restoration by the Lithuanian Film Centre would have been one of my must-see’s. Imagine my delight when not a year later, Deaf Crocodile dumps the whole thing on Tubi. Yes, please. Scratching my itch for painterly 70’s spectacles, and Eastern-European fairy shit.

Won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and it’s much more in the wondrous fantasy side of Halloween than the dark spook side of the holiday, but this was a fun rock opera (if that combination of words doesn’t sound like an oxymoron to you). Kinda like a hodge podge of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sergei Parajanov and Ken Russell. There’s some good sad stuff, some lite surrealism, great location footage of Lithuanian mountains and lakes, and a lot of really silly comedy bits. Remember when Lady and the Tramp have puppies and all the girl puppies are cocker spaniels like Lady and all the boy puppies are schnauzers like Tramp? They do that bit. Fucking gold.

Background: This movie remains a sensation, or so I’ve heard, in Lithuania and it's fans will argue it influenced Russian film to come. In the states, if it’s talked of at all, it’s referred as the Soviet Jesus Christ Superstar. The screenplay was by poet Sigitas Geda. It’s based on the popular folkloric novel Baltargis’ Mill by Kazyas Baruta.

Can Kid’s Watch It: Some of the themes are pretty mature and emo and while the alcoholism in the film ain’t glorified it is there. 10 and up?

Halloween Score:

Autumn Vibes: 0/5

Scares & Chills: 0/5

Cultural & Cinematic Importance: 5/5

Monster Action: 0/5

Second Opinions:

“lithuanian directors nowadays should learn from films like this instead of trying to make carbon copies of western cinema ‬or making unfunny misogynistic outdated comedies when we have plenty of beautiful folklore stories waiting to be told in a modern or not so setting!” - crystal on Letterboxed

“Pretty dang freaky… The image of the devil being tied to a cross and thrown in a lake by rampaging villagers is going to be stuck in my head for a long time.” - D. Ash on Mubi

“The Devil’s Bride is so densely-packed, metaphor-heavy, and tonally anarchic that it is practically designed to alienate any viewers who are already allergic to the inherent artificiality of musicals in general. Fortunately, Ganelin’s score, which blends folk music, late ’60s acid rock, and traditional symphonic cues (think of it as Bernstein-meets-Cream), is genuinely infectious and Žebriūnas doesn’t pause to examine any one idea for too long.” - Gabe Powers, Genre Grinder

How Do I Peep it J-Man? Right here, old boy, in all its 4K glory!

Hint for Tomorrow’s Movie: It’s our first foray this season into the 1950’s but Brain_in_a_Jar said that wasn’t enough of a hint so here’s everything else I told him plus a brand new bit. It’s a creature feature. In black and white. Vincent Price is NOT in it. And furthermore, it is NOT The Creature of the Black Lagoon. Shit, I’m practically giving away the pumpkin spice lattes! Three guesses each.