Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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64 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Landmark boxet for the Eurohorror genre, August 18, 2005
Finally us Eurohorror fans get something to sink our teeth into, a complete 5 disc box set featuring all four Blind Dead films together for the first time!
The first disc is Tombs of the Blind Dead. If you owned (I said "owned" because hopefully you've sold it by the time this box set comes out) the previous double feature release by Anchor Bay Entertainment, forget all about is as this disc blows their version away. Now you don't only have to watch it in in Spanish with English subtitles as you can choose to watch English dubbed or subtitled versions. Some people prefer subtitles and some prefer dubbing, and Blue Underground Entertainment has graciously allowed both options to please fans. The special features include the alternate opening sequence entitled "REVENGE OF THE PLANET APE" as well as the English theatrical trailer and a Poster/Still gallery.
The second disc is "Return of the Evil Dead", and again it is much better than the original Anchor Bay release. That version you can only watched dubbed, but here you can watch it subtitled or dubbed. The Anchor Bay version was also not the complete version of the film. Blue Underground's new release is FULLY UNCUT for the first time on DVD! The extras include the U.S. & Spanish Theatrical trailers and a sill gallery.
The third disc is the highly antisipated third entry into the series entitled "The Ghost Galleon". The version released in those ultra crappy "Brentwood" value pack (Die Hard "Blind Dead" fans know what I'm taking about) under the title "Zombie Flesh Eater" was literally unwatchable so this it's no wonder fans have been drooling over this release. Inludes a still gallery and the U.S. Horror of the Zombies Triler, TV Spots and Radio Spots. Sadly this one is only dubbed in English. Oh well, you can't have it all.
The fourth disc is the fourth and final film in the series "Night of the Seagulls". Again there is NO COMPARISON to the original Brentwood value pack version entitled Night of the Deathcult. That was an unacceptable version. I'm glad to see it properly released domestically. Includes the theatrical trailer and a still gallery.
The fifth disc entitled AMANDO DE OSSORIO - DIRECTOR, is only avaiable in this box set. It includes to fan pleasing documentaries entitled "The Last Templar - Documentary on Writer/Director Amando de Ossorio" and "Unearthing the Blind Dead - Interview with Writer/Director Amando de Ossorio". For the DVD-Rom it includes another documetnary entitled "Farewell to Spain's Knight of Horror". Great disc to please us die hard fans.
Please sell your old Anchor Vay Double Feature of Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Blind Dead while its still worth money as when this box set hits the stores, no one will want it. Believe me, this set is WELL worth getting, and it even comes in a coffin shaped box!! To top it off, a 40 page booklet is included which gives all the info Blind Dead fans ever wanted!
Other info: Color * Dolby Digital Mono * 16x9 * 537 Mins * Not Rated * Region Code: 1 * Tombs Of The Blind Dead & Return Of The Evil Dead: 1.66:1 * Ghost Galleon & Night Of The Seagulls: 1.85:1
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very unique spanish horror., January 6, 2006
The blind dead collection is fantastic, it contains all 4 films in the series complete and uncut and a fifth disc with a short documentary on the spanish director Amando De Ossorio and an interview. The films are probably a great example of the euro horror genre with the amount of blood, gore and nudity. The films also have a great gothic atmosphere and excelent music especialy when the templar knights rise from their tombs and start riding their horses its very creepy. I have heard alot of great things about these films from other horror websites and when I finaly got to watch them I was not dissapointed well except for the third film Ghost galleon which I admit was a peice of crap.
Tombs of the blind dead which centres on an evil cult of knights known as the Templars in the 13th century tortured and murdered innocent victims in a quest for eternal life. After a revolt by the local townspeople, the Templar knights were executed and their corpses left for the crows to peck out their eyes. Years later, terror begins again as the eyeless undead knights rise from their tombs to hunt their victims by sound. The victims include a couple on a train and an old friend, the girl gets fustrated with her friend so she decides to jump off the train in the middle of no where nice one!. The film wasn't exactly terrifying but it was creepy as hell I absolutly loved it, the film was a different take on the zombie genre which I thought was an original idea the Templar knights are basicly mummified skeletons that wear robes and usualy hack or slash their victims with swords and drink their blood.
Return of the blind dead which is the sequal, those who have complained about the continuety of the films should realise that all the films on their own have different storylines and even the background of the templar knights is different. In Return of the blind dead the templars get their eyes burnt out in the begining by the villigers for commiting human sacrifices, 500 years later the Templar knights return from the grave to terrorize a rural Portugese village during it's centennial celebration. Sooner than later a small group of people including the mayor, the mayor's wife, a wife and husband and their young child ect. take refuge in a deserted cathedral and must find a way to escape from the Templars. This film was deffinently my favorite out of the series since it was the goriest film (nice decapitation scene) and as cheesy and ridicioulos as it may seem you also get to see a living dead horse........
The ghost galleon was truly awful while not the worst film I have ever seen I thought it was pretty close, with cheap production values and an Ed Wood style of filmmaking and a terrible script I just thought it was horrendous. The ship that they use as background shots is a toy model ship used in a bathtub incase you were wondering. A pair of models staging a publicity stunt on the sea in a motor launch mysteriously disappear after reporting a mysterious ghost ship wooooow. After learning the ghost ship has been seen along the meridian the girls disappeared at for years, a search sets out and discovers that the ship is inhabited by the undead Templar knights. The film has just one gore scene and the rest of the film was bloodless and the acting oh dear which I didn't think would be possible is even worse than the previous films.
Night of the seagulls is the last in the series and is surprisingly good and a vast improvement over Ghost gallion, on this outing the Templars haunt a fishing village where they rise seven nights every seven years to claim a virgin for their sacrificial offerings in return for the safety of the townspeople. I was glad when they brought back the blood and gore while the film wasn't the best in the series it was still good. all four discs have trailers for the films themselves and a picture/poster gallery and overall I think that Blue underground did a great job releasing these obscure horror films and I highly recomend this especialy for euro horror fans while other viewers should watch something else cause you might notice that it was a waste of time and money like some other reviewers have said.
I thought it was money well spent even if it was a bit to expensive almost 90$, its better than ordering something like Strip nude for your killer (What the hell was I thinking!!?) theres another addition by anchor bay but you can only find it on E-Bay. The films were fantastic except for Ghost gallion and its prefrebly watched after midnight cause thats the best time to watch these.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well, they're not very good films really..., May 30, 2006
I'd always been curious about the Blind Dead films, and a friend who's a fan gave me a pirate (aptly enough) dvd of Ghost Galleon. It's a bad film (that inspired a better one, Carpenter's The Fog) and yet somehow (despite the worst model work ever) I rather liked it, so I bought this box set, curious to see a decent print of Galleon as well as the other films. On the commentary De Ossorio, an amiable hack, says they didn't have the money to do things properly, and that about sums it up. The Blind Dead are effective and there are some creepy moments here and there, but the scripts are dreadful, the acting's dire and the directing often simply inept (for instance: bad cutting together of various poorly-chosen shots creating a confusion as to who's where doing what to who, particularly in Return of the Living Dead; appalling day-for-night shots in three of the four films that are so brazenly daylit it takes you a while to realise it's meant to still be the night; re-use of the Blind Dead emerging from their tombs and riding their horses in three of the movies). Sometimes the badness is fun, as when a girl, fleeing her kidnapper/rapist in Ghost Galleon, wastes time strapping on some elaborate high-heeled sandals that she won't be able to run in prior to attempting her escape, but mostly the bad plotting, garish acting and absent characterisation are rather dull to sit through. The creepiest effect - the Blind Dead listening for the heartbeats of their victims - is about the only thing that isn't reused, which is a shame.
The presentation is excellent: the Spanish language version of Tombs is uncut; the American one is heavily cut. All are in widescreen, and the prints are colourful and clean. The interview/featurette disc is mildly interesting and - along with a good and informative 40pp leaflet - tells you about as much as you need to know about these minor curios.
What's curious, and makes these films worth preserving, is, I think, that they gesture towards being so much better than they are: in my memory I find myself imagining what if they had been everything they might have been, remade with time and money and attention and good scripts? What if one cared about the people the Blind Dead were pursuing? What if things made sense? What if the night scenes were shot at night?
I'd say two stars for the movies, 5 stars for the presentation, so I guess about 3 stars overall.
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