User Reviews

I had seen only one film from the blind dead series (part 2 aka Return of the blind/evil dead) in the late 80s on a rented vhs. Although this film is the first in the series, i saw this for the first time recently. The story is about 2 girls n one guy who goes on a weekend trip. Sounds erotic huh. Don't get your hopes high. On the train ride there, one of the girl is overcome with jealousy and jumps off the train, deciding to spend the night in some nearby ruins. Wtf? It is a horror film n so the ruins are home of the blind dead knights who were into some satanic rituals until angry villagers killed them n left them for the crows to peck their eyes out. Some decent cinematography. It is an effective atmospheric film. The locations were really good. The abandoned n ruined village in the middle of nowhere, the endless fields, the only single train running n always passing by the ruins n the best part- the slow motion shots of the knights riding their horses in pursuit of their victims. When the knights r on the foot, they r slower than the snails but suddenly out of nowhere they get their horses n once they r on their horses, they ride faster in slow motions. Very creepy though. The skeletons, with their dark, odd beard hair features, actually look as if they've risen from their graves. Good effects.

I am shocked to see the comments on this film by the users of the IMDB. Shocked and saddened; Amando de Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films are the quintessential viewing experience for 1970's Eurohorror. This particular film is nothing short of a masterpiece, though brain cell count and attention span deficit disorders that run rampant amongst the youth of today could account for SOME of the negative comments logged. Still ...

The first BLIND DEAD film does NOTHING to set it's scene, other than to show you Goya-esque views of a crumbling Spanish citadel ... One of the problems in assessing the cultural significance of a film that is 33 years old is related to how it is marketed, and by marketing the BLIND DEAD films as "Zombie Flesh Eating Gore Fests" is to miss Ossorio's point. Therefore the distributors themselves might be as much to blame as any one factor -- by trying to cash in on Zombie gorehounds and their easily parted with money, companies like Anchor Bay took a beautiful little movie and turned it into an instant reseller's nightmare. If plot is something you look for in your films, the BLIND DEAD movies will fall short. They will also fall short on the gore factor, since Ossorio was using the gore effects as ways to color his pallete of moods [see the first ten minutes of NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS/NIGHT OF THE DEATH CULT for the most vivid example]. Ossorio was very much a director of moods and visuals rather than a strict, trudging story line that plods from A to B to C and then you're through. Like most European horror from the early 1970's, the stories are actually rather unimportant next to considerations like lighting, texture, color schemes and movement. If you watch a BLIND DEAD movie for a lightning fast paced blood soaked zombie fest OF COURSE you are going to feel like you wasted $15.

Ossorio was making parables about his time: I see this series as being very subversive commentaries on the Franco regime, with the Templar Knights summond from the grave at the start of each film as a way of representing the old values of Spain finding a voice amidst the artistic repression of their time. Spanish art has always been filled with images of horror & suffering, so it would make sense that an artist like Ossorio would choose the medium of his time -- film, rather than oil & canvas -- with which to bring forth his vision, and fill it with images of horror. But that doesn't mean that his objective was to make a mind numbing splatter film that would beat it's audience into submission with a meathook. If thematic relevance could be found for allowing a pretty supporting actress to be torn to shreds by vampiric Templars in a death ritual, well so be it -- that kind of stuff sells, and was permissable under Franco's dictatorship where straight out sexual content was not.

TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD [as we know it today] stands as one of the watershed films in mixing horror with eroticism: before Ossorio, the erotically tinged horror flick tended to be softer edged, not confront the viewer with TOO much carnage [though torture films were huge during the 1970's, especially in places like Italy and Germany where film makers were free to make films about whatever they wanted], and tended to end "happily". Ossorio's work changed all of that: we see graphic amputations, decapitations & other forms of bloodletting right next to the boobs, bikini lines and Go-Go boots. Ossorio had a great eye for beauty too, and packed his films with a bevy of gorgeous, beautiful Eurobabes who would have the most apalling things happen to them right on camera but were never "exploitational" -- the sexual content in Ossorio's work is treated as a plot element itself, not just inserted into the storyline to keep the attention of the jaded from slipping.

Several of the commentors are correct when pointing out that this movie is "slow", but I contend that it is slow in a way that emphasizes the poetic nature of his visions -- events transpire in a deliberate manner, with the action taking place almost like a walz or ballad. Is this a cultural sensitivity issue? Probably -- American consumers want MORE, FASTER, BIGGER and they want it NOW. To require an audience to sit through 25 minutes of a film before even learning why any of this is happening was apparently so unbearable that the original distributor of this film -- Paragon Video -- actually took it upon themselves to restructure the film so that the middle came at the beginning, and the film opens with a death ritual/blood sacrifice of a sexy woman to assure brain-dead Americans that they were going to get to see the boobs & blood that the films were marketed as delivering. And by doing so they not only did a dis-service to the movie, but shot themselves in the foot, since the action never again reaches that frenzied peak of luridness.

Anchor Bay Entertainment and Video Treasures did better with their "remastered" widescreen presentations, but still failed to grasp how to adequately market the films to what audience, and as such you can go to Amazon & score this tape for about eight bucks from a reseller [the out-of-print DVD containing both this and the second installment usually runs $30 - $50 and is considered tres collectable] and not even have to put up with a prior rental, since AB was marketing to consumers for home sales, not rental outlets. If you are interested in finding the pivotal moment of 1970's Eurohorror when art & entertainment met head on and brought forth one of the most widely respected series of the genre, this IS it.

If you are looking for a gut munching Zombie fest with splatterings and disembowlings, I am delighted to report that this isn't it. You don't check your brains at the door when you watch a BLIND DEAD movie, you use them.

If that is beneath you as a film consumer, you are indeed well advised to look elsewhere.

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.

'The Tombs Of The Blind Dead' is not strictly a zombie movie, but involves the resurrected dead (in this case blind heretics from the 13th Century). While not as explicit as Romero or Fulci it should appeal to fans of the living dead genre. The movie is strong on atmosphere and style, similar in some ways to Jean Rollin, but without the sex or pretension. The "blind dead" themselves are one of the creepiest and most effective concepts in any horror movie. Slow moving, relentless and deadly, with a penchant for flesh eating. The scenes where the dead ride horses to hunt their prey are classic horror. My only small criticism of this movie is that there were so few scenes of them. Modern horror fans who require wall to wall FX and a killing every 15 minutes will probably find this slow going, but true buffs will be mesmerized. Highly recommended.

This film has it all! Pervy Templar Knights killed for dodgy acts return as the Blind Dead, who unsurprisingly hunt by sound. The best thing is that they can hear their victims' heart beating, so there is no escape. I am not sure whether the Blind Dead are really zombies or vampires, as they tend to suck their victims rather than eat them, but the victims come back to life to continue the good work. The Blind Dead have horses and swords, so they are very hard to escape from, however how they have the strength to ride or hold a sword with their withered, spindly arms is amazing! The film, as well as having some quite nice creepy scenes, has the obligatory 70s lesbian sequence which fits perfectly with the rest of the action. I suppose a film maker can only do his best to please all of his viewers. The Blind Dead are nicely made up, there is some gore, one of the characters, Pedro, has the sweatiest armpits in film history and makes the mistake of taking on a whole army of the Blind Dead with a small knife. The end sequence is really good, as the Zombie/Vampire Knights take on a train full of passengers, and literally suck the life out of them! Very highly recommended to 70s horror fans, but please don't answer any history exam questions with any of the films' plot. I intend to enjoy the next episode in the Blind Dead saga asap.

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 .

I first found this film for rent back in the 80's. It was the old Paragon rental and I really liked it right from the get go. I had actually already seen Horror of the Zombies (aka El Buque Maldito) which is film numero three in De Ossorio's quadrilogy of the Blind Dead. I initially found that one to be a waste but seeing Tombs got me back into the swing of things.

Yes this film is slow moving but most Eurohorror films are a little on the slow side. That is because the spend more time on mood and atmosphere instead of clonking the audience over the head with the point of the story. Like Squonkamatic said his review of this film, you turn your brain on not OFF when you watch these types of films.

Tons of atmosphere in this film. The Templars rising from their tombs and then mounting ghostly horseback! Well you just cant much better than that! I absolutely love the soundtrack as well with the moaning/chanting Templar voices. The ending of this film also still packs a punch. THAT is a key sequence that must be seen it's complete form and THEN will you know why I titled this review as "disturbing".

Pick this up if you can. I have the double DVD from Anchor Bay which is outta print. Stick with the Anchor Bay VHS or wait because it might be coming out again, supposedly in late 2005. All FOUR films in fact if the cards are played right and the planets align. I will have my fingers crossed and my prayers prayed for Blue Underground who has taken on this task.

Rock on!

Note: this review and rating is being applied to the 102 minute long Spanish version.

Betty (Lone Fleming) and Virginia (Maria Elena Arpon) are old friends who chance to meet. Betty is going on a sightseeing train trip with her male pal Roger (Cesar Burner), and Virginia reluctantly comes along. After Betty makes advances towards Virginia, the latter is overwhelmed and hops off the train. She wanders, coming across the abandoned town of Berzano and its monastery. There, she's easy prey for the Knights Templar, who were practicing the occult in 13th century Spain and have now become zombies. And these aren't your typical zombies: they had their eyes pecked out by crows while alive and now must hunt by sound. Betty, Roger and others eventually come looking for Virginia and discover the horrible truth.

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" is so wonderful, in its best horror moments, that genre fans may wish that more of the film played out that way. Instead, there are a number of plot- forwarding sequences designed to get our characters to the doomed location. But writer & director Amando de Ossorio has created a fundamentally entertaining story that is well told. The Knights Templar don't get that much to do, which is a shame considering how genuinely creepy and interesting they are. The scenes where they rise from their tombs are extremely well done. The atmosphere that de Ossorio creates for the monastery sequences is overwhelming; even the scene where Virginina tries to escape on horseback, in the daylight, has an eerie feel to it. The film isn't overtly gory but there *are* some very nasty and effective moments.

The victim characters, not too surprisingly, aren't as intriguing as their tormentors, but the actors all do a commendable job. The ladies are certainly lovely. Jose Thelman has a fun role late in the film as charismatic smuggler Pedro Candal, and just as good is Francisco Sanz as Pedros' father, a professor who handles exposition duties.

Overall, this isn't quite as great as one might like it to be, but it's still entertaining and zombie connoisseurs who want to check out efforts from all countries and decades are strongly advised to give it a look.

Seven out of 10.

Virginia White (Helen Harp) sees her former roommate of the boarding school Betty Turner (Lone Fleming) in the swimming pool of a hotel in Lisbon, and introduces Betty to her friend Roger Whelan (Cesar Burner). He invites Betty to travel with them to a small town during the weekend. Betty comes alone to meet Virginia and Roger in the train station and when Virginia sees that Betty and Roger are together, she becomes upset. Virginia sees a village and decides to jump off the train. She walks to the place and discovers that it is an abandoned ruin of a medieval village. Virginia decides to camp in the spot and during the night, she is hunted down by undead that have risen from their tombs riding horses. On the next morning, Roger and Betty decide to seek out Virginia in Berzano and the borrow horses in the hotel they are lodged and ride to the village. They meet the police inspectors Marcos and Oliveira that tell Roger and Betty that Virginia was murdered. They decide to investigate the death of their friend and they visit Professor Candal (Francisco Sanz) in the National Ministry of Education that tells the story of the evil Templar Knights. They visit the scum Pedro Candal (Joseph Thelman) that together with his girlfriend, travel with Roger and Betty to Berzano to spend the night in the ancient village.

"La Noche del Terror Ciego", a.k.a. "Tombs of the Blind Dead" is an overrated and lame Spanish-Portuguese production. The story and the screenplay are ridiculous and with many flaws, awful characters development and terrible acting. Virginia, for example, prefers to jump off the train in the morning in the middle of nowhere to get rid of Betty, who was invited by her in the hotel to join Roger and her, instead of spending the weekend in a hotel. Then she decides to camp in a lonely creepy place and as soon as she arrives in the ruins, it is almost night. Why Roger and Betty decide to spend the night in a place where their friend was murdered? Why did they invite Pedro to come with them? The conclusion with the operator stopping the train and unable to bring Betty quickly to the locomotive is dreadful. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 08 September 2015 I saw this film again.

"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.

The first movie of the famous Blind Terror's tetralogy from the Spanish director Amando De Ossorio is really a bold production, interesting concept idea, on an old Portuguese medieval ruins, a girl disappears found dead miles away nearby at railroad, his former friend and a supposedly her boyfriend are willing find the truth, who killed her and where, thru the old librarian man tell to them the cursed Templar Knights's tale, after back from holy war they became evil, using black magic and kidnapping girls to drinks their blood, judged by the church they were hanged on trees and the the crows eaten their eyes, buried there however they awaking by night, wisely Ossorio includes several technics on many sequences as white horses ride in slow motion, also the Templar's masks there's no eyes, but beards, the skeletons are meatless and black, suggesting a aged corpse, he introduces another key element, the eroticism, all girls with short clothes, a sexual exploitation mixing with a gore horror, fabulous low budge that didn't suffer the ageing process!!!

Resume: First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" often plays like a cross between the supernatural period pieces of Mario Bava ("Kill Baby Kill") and the Westerns of Sergio Leone. Director Amando De Ossorio mixes well-framed shots, a good sense of lighting, and gorgeous imagery to create a film that is...well, fairly boring, redeemed somewhat by the last 15 minutes, which are relentless and brilliant. It's a shame I can't give the film a better rating based on visuals alone, but I found the plot to be slight and uninvolving: Virginia and Betty, 2 friends who had a lesbian tryst years ago, find themselves on a train bound for an exotic locale in the Spanish countryside; when Betty and Roger (Virginia's boyfriend) begin flirting, Virginia jumps off the train and finds herself alone in the abandoned village of Borzamo, burial site of the Knights Templar, notorious for blood sacrifices that would help them cheat death. A very interesting film could have been made out of this backstory, but Ossorio's focus is the dull contemporary characters, who spend most of the running time "killing time." There's no real mystery or thrill in the way the story unfolds, and it is painfully obvious that these resurrected sentries won't be felled by bullets; the characters blunder into contrived conflicts for the sake of padding the film out for its admittedly impressive climax. That being said, Ossorio has crafted a a passable film that should appeal to fans of this particular era in Euro-horror--it's a feast for the eyes, and rather tastefully done...but just lacking in depth.

The story is about a renegade band of crusader-priests that turned from the Church and embraced the black arts. The opening sequence takes us back to the living Knights Templar and their cruel and graphic killing of a scantily-clad young female sacrifice. We then move up to the 20th century and the churchyard is nothing but a ruin, however, at night when females wandering about in the middle of nowhere chance upon the ruin, the knights wake from their crypts to feed on the blood of such passersby. Interesting story and one that has many problems of belief. These knights rise from the ground one moment, and in the next they are galloping on horses. Where did the horses come from? I couldn't find an answer....perhaps you can. The acting is passable, and I concede that grudgingly. But do not think I hold only contempt and despair for this film, because I really heartily recommend it. It is scary. It is very atmospheric. It is very intense at times. These dead knights are wonderfully made-up and really create frightening moments in the film as they walk toward their victims screaming. The knights were blinded after death and now when they rise from their earthy chambers they can only hear their way toward their victims. That is a very inventive concept. The director, Amando de Ossorio, knows what to do with lighting, set creations, and pacing the plot. There were three sequels to this film and that in itself shows it has SOME merit. The film also set the trend for mixing sex and gore. There is a good bit of both, more on the sex side, and what the female leads lack in acting ability they certainly make up for some of it in their...well how shall I put it....their physical presence.

The first of Amando de Ossorio's four films about zombie/mummy Knights Templar is a mixed bag. On one hand there's the beautiful Spanish/Portuguese countryside, an eerie ruined monastery where the Templars reside, and the blind, shuffling Templars themselves. On the other, there's some not-so-great acting, jumpy editing, poor English dubbing, and some distractingly light music that would be more at home playing in a department store lift/elevator. It's cheesy at times (both the male hero and a gangster he later teams up with look straight out of a Spanish daytime soap - which they may well have been), and the featured ladies (María Elena Arpon was gorgeous, btw) are your typical latina spitfires. And talking of the ladies, Jeez there's a lot of screaming in this. At times, though, it's fantastically atmospheric, with the slow movements of the Templars (including great slow-motion shots of them riding their undead horses) staying with you long after the movie's finished. The version I watched is the heavily edited original English release (removing all sex and some gore - which, in fairness, may have contributed to the jumpy editing that I mentioned), but it's still enjoyable. 7/10.

The setting or location, the makeup of the creatures, and the musical score... all blend wonderfully well to create a truly chilling effect- the ghouls or 'revenants' are actually scary and the ruined estate is creepy even at high noon. The acting is so-so and the plot is a bit inadequate or goofy here and there. But this incredibly atmospheric 1972 Spanish/Portuguese film is well worth a watch. But be sure to see the longer Spanish language version and avoid the dubbed shortened (censored/edited ) English language one if you can, as it will make much more sense and give you a more total experience.

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

I finally saw this movie after reading about it for years and really loved it! The scenes of the Templars riding their horses in slow motion (with great sound effects) was chilling. Sure it's a European low budget horror flick but for me it had enough enjoyable moments to get a place in my collection. *NO SPOILERS* The ending was really, really great and the exact opposite of a typical North American horror movie. Fantastic stuff! The out-of-print Anchor Bay edition also includes the excellent sequel "RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD". This set (on 1 disc) is highly recommended for fans of European horror/zombie movies. Can't wait for the upcoming 5 disc boxed set from Blue Underground....

"Tombs of the blind dead" ranges among the classics of the Zombie genre. It has been attributed qualities like "innovative" and "effective". Having watched it twice, I couldn't detect anything of that sort. It is basically another cheap and uninteresting Spanish horror movie which spreads nothing but boredom and involuntary laughs.

The only merit of the movie are the bony blind dead with their excellent make up. Unfortunately, Amando de Ossorio is unable to make good use of them and stage them properly. The few interesting shots are embedded in a silly plot and not worth watching the remaining 80 minutes or so. Finally, the camera work is very static and contributes to the overall failure of the effects.

What could have been an atmospheric horror movie thus becomes a dreary experience, lacking anything like pace or rhythm.

The final zoom out from a toy train provides a good summary for this uninspired production.

Despite a slow start, Amando de Ossorio's Tombs of the Blinddead soon picks up and morphs into the exploitation highlight that you were no doubt expecting going into it. Naturally, it's full of plot holes and dubious character decisions; but it doesn't matter, because it's Ossorio's story surrounding the knights, along with the terrifying spectacle of the Templars rising from their tombs that makes this film what it is. The intro to the film gives you an impression of what you're in for, as we glide through an ancient monastery. This creepy sequence is very much coherent with the style of this film. Amando de Ossorio seems more concerned with making sure that his creations, the knights themselves, look as decomposed and disgusting as possible - and he truly succeeds. The gore takes a backseat, therefore, but it doesn't matter at all. The plot follows three friends on a train, one of which decides to leave that safe haven and spend the knight in the deserted town surrounding the monastery. Unbeknown to her, that's the same place where Templar knights were left to the crow's years earlier - and they're still mad about it.

When you think of zombie movies, it's always George Romero's gory classics that spring to mind - and that is another thing that is great about this movie. Tombs of the Blinddead has completely made it's own style, and originality is something that the horror genre could use more of. Of course, similar plots to this one have been used before, but never in exactly this way. Another thing I admire about the director is the fact that he's obviously more concerned with the horror of the story than anything else. Exploitation flicks like this tend to show a lot of nudity or other things that aren't really relevant - but this flick has made a real effort to stay away from needless elements as much as possible. Fans of intellectual cinema wont find much to like here - the dialogue is trite and the acting is rubbish - but there's no denying that this film has at least something resembling a respectable status within the horror genre. The fact that it's been remembered over thirty years on shows that - and if you're a fan of this sort of film, then you should definitely make sure you see Tombs of the Blinddead!

TOMB OF THE BLIND DEAD's reputation proceeds the movie itself. I've heard so many good things about it that I had to see it. And I'm glad that I finally saw the two first films. But the hype surrounding these films are much greater than the films themselves. The atmosphere and the climax are excellent but the bulk of the film is quite slow and boring. When the girl leaves the train and walks around the deserted church, it is very long and drawn out. It's beautiful but somewhat pointless. It's more padding than anything else. And the story goes in so many direction (the fishermen...) that it just makes the film seem to stop to a crawl.

But the cinematography is fine and the zombies are well made and the atmosphere is superb. I just wish the story was more focused and there was a bit more action than the startling (but somewhat clunky) climax.