Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

"La noche del teror ciego", tells the story of a legion of evil warriors who lived through the 13th century, known as the Templar Knights. These warriors wanted to live forever and the way to achieve that, was by drinking human blood and offering sacrifices to Satan. So The Templar Knights would gladly torture and use innocent maidens for their rituals and please their master. However, their atrocious deeds come to an end, when the Holy Inquisition decides to punish them, by hanging them in public. Several centuries later, in the 1970s, two girls named Virginia and Betty go on a trip together with a guy named Roger. After a pathetic soap opera incident, Virginia gets jealous of her friends and jumps off the train. Landing on a strange place, she finds shelter in some kind of forsaken fortress in ruins. Unfortunately, that place is also a shelter for some hideously frightening creatures that become alive during the nightfall until dawn. Those creatures are, in fact, the Templar Knights, who come back to life as zombies every night.

Director Armando de Ossorio didn't try to please a blood-thirsty audience that wanted brutal killings for an hour and a half. For the contrary, the body count may be humble, but "La noche del terror ciego" takes the zombie subgenre to a different level, in which the creatures are more dark, mysterious and frightening than gory and brutal. If you are a zombie lover, you're probably going to love this film and if you are not, you might be pleasantly surprised by this.

I have read on the message boards that there were a lot of gore lovers dissatisfied by the lack of blood and guts, but I think this film contains a pretty well-brought-up amount. My favorite scene in the entire movie is one in which one of the girls is trying to hide from the zombies. Since the zombies are blind, the girl stays in the same room with them and the only thing she can do to remain undetected, is staying absolutely quiet. But since she's so afraid and tense, her heart starts beating more and more quickly and all of a sudden, we see a close-up of her chest, pointing out that she's on the verge of either fainting or running for her life. The living dead knights hear those heartbeats and turn to the poor girl, who has no choice but finally running away in fear, trying to avoid the nightmarish creatures. This was perhaps one of the most atmospheric situations I have ever seen in a zombie flick. To be honest, most of the chasing sequences were practically faultless, but that one in particular had to be remarked. Reading the message boards, I also came across some people who also complained about a few unresolved questions like: "How could the zombies hear?", "Where did they get the horses?" "How come they were so strong if they were only skeletons?". The answer to all those questions could be: "this is a horror movie about living dead creatures and it's really not supposed to be realistic". To be honest, I think the zombies were more believable than the pointless lesbian story between the two girls, which didn't serve a purpose to the story. Then again, most couples in horror movies make no sense, anyway.

It's fair to say that "Virginia" (María Elena Arpón) isn't the sharpest tool in the box when she gets fed up with the flirting of her travelling companions "Roger" (César Burner) and "Betty" (Lone Fleming) and abandons their slowly moving Portuguese train in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, she stumbles upon what looks like a ruined monastery and having built a pretty impressive fire from a few twigs, settles down in her sleeping bag for a good night's sleep. No chance. Barely have her eyes closed than things are going bump in the night. The bodies of the condemned Knights Templar buried on the site resurrect themselves and are are thirsty! Feeling a little guilty next day, her two friends try to trace her movements but are ill-equipped for what they find - especially when their horses take flight. Soon the police, some local smugglers and a comically staged cat-fight provide a little entertainment as these wraith like versions of Richard the Lionheart continue to wreak havoc... It's actually quite fun, this film. By no means can it be called good and the acting (and writing) is pretty woeful, but it does make use of it's creepy monastic surroundings quite well, with loads of creaking and dimly lit passageways. There's some fun to be had in a mannequin factory (they don't react too well to fire) too, and there's loads of hysterical screaming - from both sexes. It's way too long with far too much padding, but it's still quite an entertaining horror that can make you laugh.

**_“A pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades followed close behind him”_**

After a young woman in Portugal (María Elena Arpón) has a horrifying experience at some mysterious ruins by a remote graveyard, her two friends try to find out what happened to her (Lone Fleming and César Burner). Big mistake.

A Portuguese/Spanish production, “Tombs of the Blind Dead” (1972) was originally called “The Night of the Blind Terror” (translated from Spanish). It spawned three sequels in the next three years: “Return of the Blind Dead,” “The Ghost Galleon” and “Night of the Seagulls.” “The Ghost Galleon” is the only other one I’ve seen, which is wisely a standalone flick.

This is slightly superior. The story is interesting, but it basically rips off plot elements of the Dracula story, just replace Harker with Virginia and the undead Count with the Templar mummies. The structure also brings to mind “Psycho” and obviously so. Nevertheless, the Iberian locations are great, the characters interesting, the women lovely, the antagonists creepy and the locomotive a nice addition.

Unfortunately, I lost a little respect for the flick when the train conductor's assistant tries to help a distraught female get on the train. You’ll see what I mean. Then there’s the issue of the horses. I guess you’re not supposed to overthink things.

While watching the skeletal Templars riding horses, I couldn’t help think of the apes on horses in “Planet of the Apes.” Some distributors thought the same thing and so reedited the film, releasing it as “Revenge from Planet Ape,” to take advantage of the popularity of that franchise in the 70s. It played at various theaters in America and even Guam.

It runs 1 hours, 41 minutes, with an edited American version called “The Blind Dead” butchering it to 1 hour, 23 minutes. It was shot in Portugal (Lisbon & places nearby: Palmela, Setúbal, Sesimbra and Estoril) and Spain (Monastery of Pelayos in Madrid).

GRADE: B-