DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Pat Higgins
Starring James Fisher, Rebecca Herod, Eleanor James, Cy Henty
Release date 29 March 2010

An ancient cursed wedding ring turns up in modern day England to wreak bloody havoc on a poor unsuspecting couple...

After blowing all of his money on the ideal engagement ring, a small-time comedian, Lee (Fisher), finally plucks up the courage to pop the big question to his girlfriend, Nicole (Herod). Despite Nicole saying yes, a couple of major obstacles still stand in the way of Lee and Nicole’s wedding; namely the fact that Nicole’s father is a mob boss on the verge of starting a gangland war, and that Nicole’s engagement ring is cursed and will bring death and destruction to anyone that comes into contact with it.

After some pre-credit narration that seems to go on for eternity, Hellbride, the bargain basement (Ed Wood eat your heart out) comedy-horror from Brain Damage films, quickly settles into a surprisingly watchable movie. Sure, it may look like a college A-level project, but the actors manage to shoe-horn some dignity into the proceedings, and with engaging performances from the leads (Fisher especially, who has already carved out a fairly impressive b-movie résumé) and some genuinely amusing dialogue, Hellbride could well be the most accomplished movie yet from Pat Higgins (TrashHouse, KillerKiller).

However, that’s really not saying much, and after about half an hour, the film’s low budget charm begins to wane and the combination of an increasingly complex plot and a micro budget lead to some pretty messy results. Indeed, the climactic wedding scene, complete with guns a-blazing and dead girl a-haunting, merely highlights the fact that a supernatural romantic horror with a mob boss subplot probably isn’t the best way to utilise a tight budget, and it’s somewhat disappointing that Higgins fails to comprehend and embrace the limitations of his meagre funds.

There’s a surprisingly decent amount of extras on the DVD, including an audio commentary by the director, some deleted scenes and a selection of bloopers. Lee Griffiths

VERDICT: 4/10
A fairly competent effort from Higgins, but the overly-ambitious script plays havoc with the shoe-string budget.