Review: Tombs of the Blind Dead

Set in Portugal, Virginia (Maria Elena Arpon) runs into former school friend Betty (Lone Fleming) at the pool one day. Virginia’s male companion and all-round sleaze Roger (Cesar Burner) clearly likes the look of Betty and invites her to join them for the weekend on a train voyage. Virginia, who previously had a romantic dalliance with Betty, is unenthused, especially seeing the way Roger looks at Betty, but Betty is quick to accept the offer and away they go. An increasingly irritated Virginia has had enough of the obvious flirting of Roger as well as Betty’s insistence on bringing up their romantic past, so she jumps the train while it’s still rolling. It’s an area that locals seem to speak of in hushed tones, if they speak of it at all. Basically, it’s seen as a no go zone, as Virginia is about to discover for herself. Virginia finds refuge in an old monastery that is now in ruins. At night she is set upon by zombie Knights Templar, who rise from their graves on horseback looking for human blood to feast on!

 

Imperfect, but occasionally visually striking 1972 zombie flick from Spanish writer-director Amando De Ossorio (“Return of the Blind Dead”) has become a bit of a cult item. I saw it in an unfortunately cut version (and even worse- dubbed!), but having seen some of what was cut on YouTube, the Sapphic action certainly isn’t anything terribly exciting or explicit and probably wouldn’t have factored much into my feelings on the film. However, the cuts are fairly noticeable from an editing/continuity POV, and combined with the rather poor dubbing job and a seriously rushed opening 20 minutes, for me make this a soft recommendation. Still, that is a recommendation nonetheless. I mean, it’s a zombie Knights Templar movie, people. C’mon, how can you not get some fun out of a zombie Knights Templar movie?!

 

We start with a spectacularly silly opening scene with a hot chick tied up to a giant X while robed Knights Templar (who, it has to be said, are drawn much more villainously and demonically than you might be used to) on horseback take turns running at her with their swords and cutting her. Whatever you make of it, that’s definitely something. The zombies in this, riding horseback in the dark like the four (or more) undead horsemen of the apocalypse provide some seriously cool imagery I must say. Truth be told, they are more vampire-like in that they bite and drink blood, but that might be a Spanish quirk, I don’t know.

 

The day-for-night photography is a bit woeful, but the scenery and local architecture are really stunning, as shot by Pablo Ripoll (Lucio Fulci’s “White Fang”). The locales are actually quite creepy. I really got a kick out of scenes of a terrific foggy graveyard with tombstones slightly moving in ominous fashion. That day-for-night aside, De Ossorio and Ripoll certainly aren’t hacks from a visual standpoint. I’ve heard some claim that the film is slow-moving, but those people are insane. Not only is the opening 20 minutes rushed (certainly in this cut version anyway), but overall I’d say the film had well-built atmosphere leading to a pretty tense, downbeat finale. Meanwhile, the acting may not be of a high standard, but Simon Arriaga sure is a creepy sumabitch playing the uber-creepy morgue attendant. It’s a tiny role, but you certainly won’t forget him.

 

Look, there’s a much better film to be made out of the idea of zombie Knights Templar, but this is still a fun, atmospheric film even in cut form. I’m not sure if the uncut version has much more violent/horrific content, but in this version it may not be horrific enough for some. To me it was horrific enough (or at least atmospheric enough) for a soft recommendation at the very least. It’s so close to being a truly good movie that I’m gonna go ahead and recommend it, albeit it could’ve been even better than it is. Good, choral chant-based music score by Anton Garcia Abril as well.

 

Rating: B-