Customer Reviews

Tombs Of The Blind Dead [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" was such a success that it spawned three sequels, and it's easy to see why. The film concerns the haunting of a mysterious ruin by long-dead zombies, and the fates of a group of holidaymakers who encounter them. Many suspenseful scenes occur featuring the undead creatures, which are frightening enough as they emerge from tombs, and creep slowly towards their victims, but worse still, they soon jump onto zombie horses and gallop en masse through the night! Filmed in slow motion, these scenes are almost poetically eerie. One great moment involves a surrounded victim who has realised that the zombies are completely blind, and holds her breath in terror, only for the zombies to listen in on the sound of her frantically beating heart! The film is slightly let down by a spurious lesbian flashback, and the rape of the main heroine by a macho scumbag who is supposed to be helping her, but overall, the nightmarish atmosphere has been seldom bettered in zombie films, and the unique creations of the unead Knights Templar make this a truly original and scary film. Watch it and enjoy!

I saw this movie in the cut german version some 10 years ago as a kid and was frightend. Well, after finding out there was an uncut, non-dubbed version available I had to get it. I can recommend this movie, even though some scenes are so dull (Knowing a girl was sacrificed there, 4 people spend the night at the monastery)and the templars are so slow ( yet they get everyone they want), because it got atmosphere and the rare templar scenes are somewhat frightening. It seems the only cut out and now put back scenes are the nude scenes - and they aren't very spectacular.

A horror classic! A bit of an exploitation film, too: there's a rape sequence by some pirates that's a bit offensive as it serves no purpose whatsoever; but then neither does the lesbian love flashback, and that's quite funny. But hey, you want to see this film for the creatures. The blind dead move laughably slowly as they shuffle after their victims, but you don't care because they look so damn cool (especially on horseback). This movie has an atmosphere of doom that today's big-budget slasher flicks can't even come close to touching. Wonderful creepy fun.

The first of four(don't bother with the sequels)Spainish flicks
shot by de Ossorio concering the Knights Templar:witchcraft
practicing monks who were executed centuries ago and now rise
from their mass grave as blood-drinking ghouls on horseback.
Being blind(their eyes have been eaten out by crows you see)
they find their victims through sound. With the slow/mo
directing and the famous soundtrack(AGGHHH...AGHHHHH)
you are in for a real GHOUL time(sic)

Besides the tauntingly slow undead (actually a feature here) and the beautiful young girls who cant escape (OK some do) because of their high heels and skimpy wear (hey, we have to get someone to watch this Elvira sponsored style flick), the undead Knights Templar have arisen! If you love B grade horror, watch this one to see some bad guys get what they deserve, and see the undead catch the soul train to town!!

`Tombs of the Blind Dead', released in '71 was the first of writer/director Amando de Ossorio's four cult films affectionately known by its fans as `the Blind Dead'. Who will ever forget that deep, unnerving chant-like moan resonating within the ancient castle walls that precedes the appearance a the long dead group of notorious 13th century Templar Knights.

Yes the production values are poor, the special effects weak and the dialogue bordering on laughable. Yet with all the negatives there is still something inordinately eerie that takes place when that moaning sound begins and the slow-motion, dirt incrusted corpses appear. It definitely creates an atmosphere not soon forgotten.

If you're a fan of low budget Euro-Horror enjoy!

In 1971 Eurohorror auteur Amando di Ossario gave the horror world one of its most stunning creations, the faceless zombie Knight's Templars who hunted by sound alone. All in all, the film is much better than I imagined it would be. The Knights have a truly unique look (that would be replicated by Peter Jackson 30 years later for the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

The plot is a little lacking. After her boyfriend shows interest in another woman on a train in the Spanish countryside, Virginia jumps off a moving train and winds up at the Berzano Monastary home of the Templar Knights. There she is hunted and killed. After some exposition her friends learn the horrible secret of the Templars.

There is not much more to the story than this but the special effects of the Knights on their horses in slow motion is worth the price of admission. I saw the original Spanish print which clocks in at 97 minutes. The Blue Undeground disc also includes the truncated English version and a trailer. The print quality is pristine considering the age and low budget nature of the source print.

Well worth a rental.

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" ("La Noche del terror ciego") is the first of the four films by writer-director Amando de Ossorio dealing with the Templar Knights that rise from the dead and creep, very slowly, after their victims. Five hundred years ago the Templars were sacrificing virgins and drinking their blood. Eventually the locals attacked the Templars, burning out the eyes of the knights before burning them at the stake. Ever since then no one goes near their castle, that is until Virginia White (María Elena Arpón) hops off a train in the middle of nowhere and ends up spending the night there. That night the Templar knights, skeletal corpses dressed up in armor, rise (slowly) from their tombs and follow the sounds of Virginia's screams. The trick is to stay silent so the blind Templars cannot hear where you are, but it is difficult to stay quiet when these things are after you.

When Virginia's dead body is found her friends Betty Turner (Lone Fleming) and Roger Whelan (César Burner) decide to find out what happened to her. This is where they learn the legend of the Templars and then go off to investigate the castle, thinking that maybe somebody is using the local tale as a cover for criminal activity. This explains why they drag along local smuggler Pedro Candal (Joseph Thelman) and his girlfriend Maria (María Silva), to investigate the place, which only gives the Templars more victims to pursue (slowly). In his horror films Ossorio is all about atmosphere, so what stands out here is the thought of these shuffling corpses coming after you while the young women who are about to die take terms trying not to make a sound and then screaming all the way until the end. There is usually some blood at the end, but "Tombs of the Blind Dead" is more about spooky atmosphere. You just have to remind yourself that this film was made in 1971 and not judge its slower pace (and the slowest monsters you have ever seen) by the standard of contemporary horror films.

Actually, this is the 86 minute dubbed into English version of the original 101 minute Spanish film. What has been cut from "La Noche del terror ciego" is the nudity, a rather chaste lesbian love scene, the bloodier parts of the flashback to the Templar rituals, and one of the more gratuitous rape scenes of all-time (although the part where the rapist offers his victim a cigarette afterwards before he is killed by the Templars remains for you to scratch your head over). The edited flashback is actually the prologue for "Tombs of the Blind Dead." Obviously if you can track down the existing Spanish version (which clocks in at 97 minutes for some reason) you can see the film Ossorio actually made and not this edited down version, paying the small price of reading subtitles to enjoy the film.

This film was followed by "El ataque de los muertos sin ojos" ("Return of hte Blind Dead") in 1973, "El buque maldito" ("The Ghost Galleon") in 1974, and "La Noche de las gavitos" ("Night of the Seagulls") in 1975. Some see Jesus Franco's 1985 film "La Mansión de los muertos vivientes" as a remake of Ossorio's first film, but I think you are on safer ground if you consider it to be definitely inspired by this entire series. One of the interesting things about the series is that most of the films can stand on their own, with the second being the best of the lot.

Tombs of the Blind Dead (Amando de Ossorio, 1971)

One of the often overlooked Euroshock films of the seventies, Tombs of the Blind Dead has been finding itself a new generation of fans thanks to a DVD release and a mention in Fangoria's 101 Best Horror Movies You've Never Seen. While I wouldn't go quite that far, it's got a charming naivete to it, some excellent footage, and a bushel or two of good mindless fun.

Virginia (Maria Arpon) meets her old babysitter Beth (Lone Fleming) by chance one day, and Beth ends up invited on a weekend with Virginia and her boyfriend Roger (David Hasselhoff lookalike Cesar Burner). After some sexual tension on the train, Virginia runs off to an abandoned monastery around which local legends circulate about a band of Knights Templar who survive in undead form. She turns up dead the next day, and Roger and Beth decide to investigate...

The one thing about this movie every review mentions, and rightly, is the slow-motion shots of the templars riding their undead horses. Beautiful stuff (and, as far as I know, unduplicated to this day). Sure, the slow-motion looks a little cheesy these days, but hey, the movie's almost thirty-five years old. Psychomania's cheesy, too, but it's still brilliant.

The one thing they all seem to gloss over is the painfully large plot holes, threads that go nowhere, somewhat substandard acting by a select few characters, and incredibly cheesy special effects (the fire scene's effects are only a step above those of a similar scene in the shoestring-budgeted TV series Night Gallery). Still, there's enough good stuff in here to make it worth a rental, and the ending (the style of which was borrowed from a certain similar horror film released a few years earlier) is un-Hollywood enough to be refreshing to even the most jaded horror film fan. Turn your brain off for a hundred minutes and just enjoy the undead Templars riding their undead horses in slow motion. ** ½

I couldn't decide between 2 or 3 stars, so I'll be generous. I read a fair amount of positive commentary on this horror film. It didn't live up to my expectations. The templars are somewhat effective, the slow motion horse riding is atmospheric, and the setting is creepy. It doesn't get going though. There are also a few subplot things that don't make any sense. For example the girl murdered by the templars arises from the dead as zombie and eventually gets set afire. There is no explanation for this; I wanted to know how it fit into the story. There are other problems also. Watch your copy of "Night of the Living Dead" again before settling into this languid psuedo-zombie flick.