Tombs of the Blind Dead

First and enjoyable original of the Templars dead series in which the medieval zombies awake to commit ritual sacrifices . The blind dead Templars return again from the 13th century with this creepy story . Blind Dead Tetralogy ( 1971-1975) is among the best and most prestigious Spanish horror pictures of its time . These films are surprisingly well-realized and eerie , displaying an original premise , some Zombi-like are blinded by crows as they made human sacrifices and were executed , but then the clergymen return eventually to the life . The best feature of the films is its title menace : ¨the Blind Dead¨ , the group of renegade knights were condemned for their black magic rituals , mummified zombies from medieval times which rise from their graves to drink the blood of their victims . Executed for their unholy deeds, the Templars bodies were left out for the crows to peck out their eyes . Now, in modern day Portugal, a group of people stumble on the Templars in abandoned monastery , reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land . The film starts when a trio ( Lone Fleming , Cesar Burner , Helen Harp as Virginia) travelling by train , then Virginia flees and refugees at an old castle . There the priests warriors wake up from the tomb and begin their criminal rampage . Ancient Zombies return of graves causing wreak havoc on the place , horrifying and torturing the rural population . They make a brutal massacre and the protagonists are surrounded in a fortress . Meanwhile the starring attempts to save the damsel in disgrace and a police inspector (Rufino Ingles) is investigating the weird deeds. It is definitely a very entertaining horror flick and eerie as hell and based on Gustavo Adolfo Becker writings as ¨Mount of Animas¨ and ¨Miserere¨ . I got to admit I am a big aficionado of the Tetralogy Blind Dead movies , although have many flaws and gaps , it's still pretty damn good . In ¨Tombs the blind dead¨ we find the famous blind dead zombies which rise from the tombs 500 years after to wreak havoc upon some beautiful Euro-babes . The zombie-like pack of ancient warriors priest awake and rising from the graves to kill and torture the unfortunate victims . They were condemned and eternally dammed by cult practicing human sacrifices and blinded by crows and attack on his victims sucking them in hyena style . They encounter their victims by means of screams and sounds . This is a cheap Spaniard production with lack luster and low budget. Special effects are ridiculous and embarrassing, absurd and frankly lousy but functional , showing lots of blood and gore . This atmospheric horror movie contains scary scenes when appear the living dead Templars . It's the first and successful and immensely popular ¨Tombs of the Blind dead¨ series which to be continued by mediocre attempt to cash of following exhausted medieval warriors saga as a trilogy as ¨Return of evil dead¨ , ¨Ship of Zombies or Blind dead 2¨ and ¨Blind dead 3 or The night of the sea gulls¨ . Good exteriors filmed on Pantano San Juan , Monastery Cercon (Madrid) , Guadalquivir river , Estoril and Lisbon (Portugal). Creepy and frightening music especially when the dead attack is well composed by Anton Garcia Abril, author of the four eerie soundtracks in Gregorian chores style . Colorful cinematography and very well remastered by Pablo Ripoll . This lack budget film is regularly directed by Amando De Ossorio but is amusing and entertaining .

Someone has to be the spoiled sport of the user comments section and it might as well be me. I thought this was a mess of a film with some creepy, very atmospheric scenes built within. Eastern knights, who were excommunicated by the Pope due to their Satanic ritual practices in seeking immortality, rise from their tombs within the ruins of a 13th century village Berzano to hunt prey that dare venture there at night. I guess their horses do the same, although none of them show skeletal parts emerging from their flesh..oh, well. Why are these skeletal ghouls, with a thirst for the blood of fresh humans, eyeballs gouged? After sacrificing a beautiful virgin, through a series of sword stabbings by the soldiers, not to mention their hideous drinking blood from her gaping bloody wounds, the knights are tried and executed for their horrendous cultic activities. Made as an example against participating in such activities, the dead knights are left hanging on a tree while the crows plucked their eyeballs out. Virginia(María Elena Arpón), I'm guessing, gets jealous of the way her "friend"(or whatever he is)Roger(César Burner)is flirting with her former lesbian lover Bet(Lone Fleming)so she hops off the train they are traveling making the inanely stupid decision to stay the night in an obviously deserted village..the very ruins once dominated by the knights resting in their tombs until nightfall. We watch as Virginia tries to flee from the SLOWWWWWWWWW skeletal knights and seems unlucky at finding any form of escape route available to her because they have these magical horses that appear out of thin air. Roger and Virginia pursue their supposed missing friend's whereabouts when she never made it to the hotel they planned to stay. Finding out she was attacked and viciously bitten, Roger and Bet will seek out knowledge regarding the history of the knights and Berzano. Hooking up with Pedro(Joseph Thelman), a corrupt notorious figure the police have yet to nab, they will visit the Berzano ruins(along with Pedro's annoying girlfriend who thankfully becomes a blood-feast)and face the same threat as Virginia..and fare about as well. There's no doubt, the ruins of a once thriving monastery is an amazing setting for a spooky zombie ghost tale..the night sequences created are quite foreboding. The problem I had were the intensely slow zombies. There's a scene where Pedro, who horribly rapes Bet in a uncomfortable, unnecessary sequence, has plenty of time to escape the clutches of the knights but seems to stand in his location for ages as they creep ever so slowly in his direction. It's as if he wants to die, the idiot. Then there's the scene where Bet is running from the knights and just approaches the train when she just goes numb..I mean she waits to go completely life-less when the train is right there in front of her putting the conductor in the awful position of dragging her limp carcass to the steps giving even the slowest zombies extra time to catch up to the victim they are chasing. You also have this whole sequence where Virginia's body, for some reason never explained, that comes back to life attacking a morgue attendant by sucking his blood, then attempting to drain Bet's co-worker at a mannequin factory(this features a hilariously awful sequence where Virginia is burned alive but one can easily see the effects fails miserably). It just seems unnecessary grinding the film to a halt. Instead of keeping the focus on the knights, you shift gears towards her making the film uneven and unfocused. The final thirty minutes is the best part of the film where the knights are the most frightening because we get a good look at their skull faces and blood-drinking in all it's glory. It's an eerie sequence that soon gets even more disturbing when they reach the train killing many passengers inside.

I love zombie movies, I love 70s movies and I love Euro-horror, so Tombs of the Blind Dead, the first in Amando De Ossorio's series of films featuring his sightless, undead Templar knights, was something I just had to see. I had already watched Return of the Evil Dead, the sequel to Tombs, and thought it was a fairly enjoyable, if unremarkable, piece of hokum, so my expectations for its predecessor were not particularly high. As it happens, I found this one to be much more fun; packed to the gills with busty babes, hirsute heroes and cheesy gore, it's hard not to have a good time with this superb slice of Spanish silliness. Whilst relaxing poolside, Virginia (María Elena Arpón) bumps into her old boarding-school room-mate, Betty (Lone Fleming). Virginia's friend, Roger (César Burner), invites Betty to join them on a weekend away, but when Roger shows an interest in Betty, a jealous Virginia hops off their train mid-journey, and sets off on foot. Big mistake! She wanders into a deserted town where the undead rise from their graves at night to seek the innocent for ritual sacrifice. Needless to say, she ends up as zombie fodder. When Virginia fails to show up, Betty and Roger go in search of the missing woman, a decision that eventually leads to them coming face to face with the Blind Dead—a legion of zombie horsemen whose eyes have been pecked out by crows, and who hunt by sound. De Ossorio's film is a stylish effort with great music and genuinely creepy monsters. It is also chock full of the kind of things that makes Euro-horror so enjoyable: female nudity, lesbian scenes, bizarre characters, and bloody deaths. There are also more than a few moments that will illicit giggles from the viewer (check out the pervy morgue attendant and his inexplicable swinging light!). This film is loads of fun and I'm definitely going to have to check out the other Blind Dead films—Night of the Seagulls and The Ghost Galleon.

There's only one reason to watch Tombs of the Blind Dead: Zombies on horseback in slow-motion...look cool as hell!! The make-up department made the Templar's the scariest looking zombies I've seen in a while. Other than that, we've got an overrated Spanish bore. The pacing is slower than the blind dead themselves. If you're going to have a slow movie, you have to make it interesting. There are times in the movie when nothing is said or happens for 7 minutes at a time. There are some serious believability issues as well. I mean, for a bunch of slow, blind dead guys, they sure are hard to get away from. All in all, Tombs is not half as bad as I remember it being. I believe the DVD transfer can be thanked for that though. A clear, crisp picture can make any flick better. This film has a large cult following, however, there's just not enough action to keep me satisfied.

I bought this film at a cutout bin at a * store because I heard how "great and wonderfully inventive" it was. What a load of crust! This movie is so dull that I fell asleep each time the blind dead came out. It isn't even atmospheric. Each time the blind dead are around there's some so-called "creepy" music that only makes it look like a corny monastic opera. All the women do is scream, and scream some more; has anyone ever heard of matches when dealing with stinking, dumb, and blind slow-moving skeletons that creep along at a snail's pace? Get real. There were three more boring sequels to this stinker. And I just had to watch them.

Yet another example of the perception of a film being superior to the reality of actually sitting and watching it. There is no argument from me that the Blind Dead (The Templar Knights) are fantastic creations and director/writer Amando de Ossorio is to be revered for their birth. The scenes of the Templars stalking their victims and chasing them on horseback are striking and haunting and now occupy a special place in the pantheon of fantastique cinema. Unfortunately, "Tombs of the Blind Dead" is also a slow, boring, illogical mess. The performances are terrible, the "suspense" scenes are hit-and-miss, and the day-for-night photography, though effective in parts, is not believable. The film's bloody climax is a good one and the final freeze frame has some power, but it's sad to see such a wonderful concept handicapped by mediocre scripting and appalling acting. Still, there are defining moments of horror within the frames of this Spanish potboiler.

For my money, this was the best horror movie to come out of Europe in the 70's. Sure, you had plenty of good giallos, but the antagonists in those were strictly human. "Tombs", though, gives monster lovers what they really want...some of the creepiest ghouls ever seen. Director Amando DeOssorio really understands the nature of horror. The crawling fear of a medieval graveyard at night. The inexorable terror of being stalked by the dead. The unbelieving despair of knowing you will be slashed and drained by blind zombies from hell! The scene where the Templars arise from their tombs oozes bone-freezing atmosphere. When they chase the plucky heroine (who even steals one of their demon steeds)across a moonlit plain, the movie transcends itself to become true art. The final scene is one of the most appalling things I've seen. It is just utterly morbid horror. The fate of a little girl will fill you with fear and disgust. It's extremely disturbing to watch because the girl's reactions are authentic, not acting. There are stiff characters and silly dialogue here, but all that pales into insignificance compared to the overwhelming aura of evil and creeping horror that De Ossorio conjures here. There were three sequels but the original is the best. If you are looking for real horror, not video game gore, start right here!

source: Tombs of the Blind Dead

"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.

Tombs Of The Blind Dead is the first in the Blind Dead franchise, a Spanish series of zombie movies that have evaded me for a fair while. I'm glad to say that it really impressed me and is highly similiar to Italian movies of the same ilk also from the same period. It tells the story of a girl who is murdered in an abandoned ruined village once occupied by Templars. Her friends set about investigating and discover the villages horrifying secret. What makes this stand out is that not only do our zombies have origins but that they have personality. Robed, skeletal, blind and horse riding! This is original stuff and it works wonders. Ontop of that the movie is well scored, looks fantastic and really delivers on every front. Because of this I can't wait to get stuck into the remaining films. The Good: Looks great Quite original for it's genre Well made Brilliant finale The Bad: Couple of ropey looking moments Could have been longer Things I Learnt From This Movie: Porcupines are sweet and suave