Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971)

Director: Amando de Ossorio

Starring: Lone Fleming, César Burner

Run Time: 86 mins

Certificate: 18

 

Plot Outline: In the 13th century, there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars who conducted black magic rituals and drank virgin's blood in their quest for eternal life. Executed for their crimes, the Templars were left for the crows to peck out their eyes. In 1970s Portugal, a group of people stumble upon an abandoned Templar monastery, reviving the unholy knights in their quest for eternal life.

The Review: Anchor Bay has become a staple ingredient of any horror fans' DVD collection. The company has restored and released many long last classics here in the UK, some great, others not so hot. It's with great pleasure that the company has now released an excellent 5-disc collection of a European horror franchise I knew nothing about - that of the Blind Dead. Four films featuring the unholy Templar Knights were made and the set contains all of them, restored to their former glory. Seeing the cover art for the film inspires a horror fan to sit down and watch and, on the whole, you won't be disappointed with this early outing. For a start the film is oozing atmosphere. Maybe it's the chilling Gregorian chant soundtrack that kicks in straight away which gets the blood freezing. Or maybe it's the really eerie monastery in the village. Or maybe it's the sight of undead knights stalking their victims slowly. The film has something about it which will linger in the mind for a while after viewing. Director Amando de Ossorio has managed to create his own brand of screen monsters with their own mythology and it's a credit to him that the Templar Knights come off as so damn scary and credible. The make-up job on them is excellent for 1971, with their skeletal visages shrouded in old, worn robes. They move slowly because they hunt by sound (as their eyes were pecked out) which makes them even more deadly than one would expect. Like lingering zombies, they stumble around in search of blood. You certainly wouldn't want to get anywhere near these monsters. The resurrection sequence where the Templars rise from their graves is superb, with rotting hands sticking out from the ground or moving tombstones to escape their tombs. Whenever they ride on their undead horses, Ossorio opts to slow the film right down, giving the horses a horrific phantom element. Unfortunately Ossorio also drags the rest of the film down to this slow pace and it's like watching paint dry at times. Some scenes drag on for ages, including Virginia's exploration of the town. And like many "monster" films, it really drags when the Templars aren't on the screen which is quite a while during the middle half of the film. The acting isn't hot (the dubbed version is horrid) and the film is really weak on story apart from the Templar mythology. But there's a fair bit of gore on display (clearly some stuff has been cut out), some flesh and underlying themes of sadism to cover over this.