Plot
For seven nights every seven years, the
Templar Knights rise from the dead to claim their sacrificial offerings from
a fishing village in return for the safety of the rest of the townspeople.
When a new doctor and his wife move to the village, they are ignored by the
locals. But when night falls, an eerie distant bell rings and a flock of
seagulls hovers around the beach at midnight, the doctor and his wife
stumble upon the secret the villagers have.
Review
The final instalment in the Blind
Dead series, Night of the Seagulls once again pulls out the stops
to create a moody, effective piece which sends the deadly Templar Knights
off on a high. It's briskly paced with quite a lean running time and once
again assumes that the viewer hasn't seen any of the other films by
reworking the origins of the Knights so that although it's the third sequel,
it's almost a standalone film more akin to something like The Wicker Man.
Night of the Seagulls adds nothing of real note to the series
though and
just slaps together the series' trademarks of gore, nudity and a truly
haunting atmosphere
with a rather flimsy story which doesn't do the Templars justice at all and
gives them little reason to be in the film. The Templars aren't on screen for that long and the residents of the fishing
village have become the villains of the piece here, acting as generic horror
film locals who fear outsiders and cast them aside (you know the type,
The Wicker Man, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.). However when
the Templars do appear, they are once again the highlight of the film. There
is a highly effective siege sequence where they surround and then break into
a house before fighting with the survivors inside. And there are plenty of
slow motion scenes of them riding on horseback along the beach in pursuit of
their nubile virgin sacrifices. They look as crusty and decomposed as always
which really ups their creep factor. You never believe for a moment that
these are simply men in costumes - they are zombie knights looking
for blood. Their whole aurora is awesome - right from the sounds that they
make to the slow, lumbering way they turn and just the whole sense that you
can't escape them despite their obviously limited speed. They are truly
unique horror creations and it's a real pity that they haven't become as
iconic or famous as Romero's zombie hordes.
As I've already said, one of the trademarks of this series is
atmosphere and Night of the Seagulls reeks of it. The day-for-night
scenes of the beach sacrifices have a dream-like quality to them as if
they're not really happening. The white beaches contrast immensely with the
procession of black robe-wearing villagers and then the horse-riding Templar
Knights. I honestly can't really pick too many faults with this film. I
think the only main problem is that it
tones down on the gore and nudity from the previous films which is a shame
considering some of the virgins sacrificed are way too hot to be left as
virgins! I guess the obviously toned-down budget had a lot to do with what
they had to cut back on and unfortunately the most expensive things were the
things that made the other films so successful - namely plenty of Templar
action and lots of blood. And it does take a while to get going but like many similar-themed
horror flicks, the pay-off is well worth the wait.
Verdict
Night of the Seagulls is a
strong final showing for the Templar Knights. It's a
brooding horror flick which delivers the goods with both jumpy visual shocks
and more spine-tingling moments. Although not a patch on the original couple
of films, it's still a quality sequel to a series which really does deserve
a lot more respect and fame than it gets.
