A similar motif has also been used by Prosper Mérimée in his story La Vénus d’Ille. Instead of the corpse bride, the ancient statue of Venus figures in the story.
A similar narrative also occurs in early Islamic literature. The 10th century Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity contains an Arabic anecdote of a “prince who strays from his palace during his wedding feast and, drunk, spends the night in a cemetery, confusing a corpse with his bride. The story is used as a gnostic parable of the soul’s pre-existence and return from its terrestrial sojourn”.
Another similarity is found in Shivkhey HoAri – the biographical collection of mystical stories about a renowned kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria Ashkenazi. There someone jokingly put a ring on a finger sticking from the ground and pronounced the formal betrothal phrase, thus unwillingly becoming married to a woman from an underworld who subsequently came to claim him as a husband. The case was brought in front of the Arizal, who ruled that since the man did not willingly perform the betrothal he was not bound by the marriage, but to be sure that the woman should remain free to marry one of her kind, the man had to give her a formal divorce according to the Jewish law.It is actually claimed, that this particular story inspired the creation of the film.
Lord Barkis is based on the fairy tale figure Bluebeard.
Emily’s release in the end of the movie indicates that the Underworld represents the concept of Purgatory.
