Tombs Of The Blind Dead

***Tombs of the Blind Dead*** is a 1972 Spanish-Portuguese horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio.

Its original Spanish title is ***La noche del terror ciego***, which means "The Night of the Blind Terror". The film is the first in Ossorio's *Blind Dead* series, and its success helped kickstart the Spanish horror film boom of the early 70s.  Ossorio has stated that Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's Gothic horror legend *El monte de las ánimas* (1862) and George Romero's *Night of the Living Dead* (1968) both influenced the creation of this motion picture.

## Plot:

Legend has that in the abandoned medieval town of Berzano, at the border between Spain and Portugal, the Knights Templar (a fictionalized version of the real-life order that was dissolved in the 14th century following charges of witchcraft and heresy) leave their tombs at night and come back from the dead as revenants. The reanimated corpses are blind, because their eyes were pecked out by birds while their hanged bodies rotted on the gallows.

While on vacation nearby with her friend Roger, Virginia reconnects with her dear college friend Bet, who relocated in the area and now runs a mannequin factory. Roger immediately takes a liking to Bet and invites her along for a train journey, provoking Virginia's jealousy. Angry at both, Virginia jumps off the train and spends the night among the ruins of Berzano. The knights rise from their tombs and attack her, ultimately biting and ripping her flesh.

The next morning, Bet and Roger retrace Virginia's steps trying to find out what happened to her. They hear about the legend from some locals and meet two police investigators who inform them about Virginia's horrible fate. Later at the morgue, next to Bet's laboratory, Virginia's corpse comes back to life and kills a custodian, then flees to Bet's lab and is only stopped by Bet's assistant, who manages to set Virginia on fire.

In the meanwhile, Bet and Roger are investigating the legend with the help of Professor Candal, who indirectly send them to find his son Pedro, who lives near Berzano as a small-time smuggler and is suspected by the police to be the one who killed Virginia as a way to instill fear in the locals. Once they've located Pedro and convinced him to help them prove the knights are real, Bet and Roger return with Pedro and his lover to Berzano, to confront the knights once and for all.

## Cast:

* Lone Fleming as Betty Turner
* César Burner as Roger Whelan
* María Elena Arpón as Virginia White
* José Thelman as Pedro Candal
* Rufino Inglés as Insp. Oliveira
* Verónica Llimera as Nina

## Production:

Although the Knights are identifiable by their uniforms, they are never called "Templars" in the film; they are referred to as "Knights from the East". Ossorio objected to the description of the revenant Templars as "zombies", insisting that they more resembled mummies who feed like vampires and that, unlike zombies, the Templars were not mindless corpses.

The Spanish version, *La Noche del Terror Ciego*, differs from the English version *Tombs of the Blind Dead*. In the English version, a flashback of the living Knights Templar torturing a victim is moved to the beginning of the film, and most of the sex and gore (for instance, the scene depicting the lesbian relationship between Betty and Virginia and the sequence on a train in which the Knights Templar kill a woman in front of her child) is removed.

Distributors planned to severely re-edit the film for its English language release and add a new opening scene to cash in on the success of the *Planet of the Apes* film series. The plan was to replace the film's original setting with a post-Apocalyptic future in which the undead were deceased intelligent apes, similar to the ones seen in *Planet of the Apes*. Rather than doing a reshoot, location footage from the film was edited together and a narration track explaining the premise was produced as an introduction. The revised film title is *Revenge from Planet Ape*. This revised version removed the flashback sequences showing the sadistic Templars torturing and drinking the blood of a woman to gain eternal life.

The Blue Underground DVD contains both versions of the film (the original Spanish version is subtitled but not dubbed) and the *Planet of the Apes* opening sequence.

## Release:

The film made its DVD debut on Sep 27, 2005, as a Limited edition which was released by Blue Underground. It was re-released later that year by Anchor Bay Entertainment on November 14. Underground Blue would later re-release the film again on Sep 26, 2006, approximately one year after its first DVD release.

## Reception:

Writing in *The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia*, academic Peter Dendle says, "Spanish filmmaker de Ossorio earned international fame with this widely popular tale of blind zombie monks, creating a fresh mythology and unforgettable zombies, all set against imposing scenic backgrounds."  Allmovie gave the film a positive review, praising the film's make up effects, chilling atmosphere, and soundtrack.  *TV Guide* awarded the film 2 / 4 stars and called it, "a slow and lackadaisically plotted thirsty-corpse movie distinguished by terrific music and locations, and genuinely eerie zombies". Brett H. from *Oh the Horror!* gave the film a positive review stating, "Tombs of the Blind Dead is a slow moving Spanish classic that is a must see for all fans of creature features with ample amounts of all the things that make horror great. It’s not perfect and it does have some small inconsistencies (why in the world are the Templars so powerful, yet sometimes swing their swords like goofy puppets?), but you'll be too engulfed in the atmosphere and monsters to worry too much about it".  Jeremy Zoss from *Film Threat* gave the film a negative review stating, "Like many old works of entertainment form Mexico, *Tombs of the Blind Dead* is not without its charms. It would be a great film to watch while drunk with a group of friends. However, when looking for a real horror film, the *Blind Dead* are definitely not worth seeing".  Film critic John Kenneth Muir gave the film a mostly positive review, writing that the film lost momentum after the first act but praised the film's suspense, unsettling imagery, and effectiveness of the Templar zombies as "genuinely scary".  Adam Tyner of DVD Talk wrote, "Although Tombs of the Blind Dead isn't a particularly gory film, several of its sequences are deeply unsettling".

The film has an approval rating of 57% on film review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 5.5/10 based on seven reviews.

## Legacy:

The film was an influence on *La mansión de los muertos vivientes*, a 1985 film directed by Jesús Franco.

The film spawned three official sequels: *Return of the Blind Dead* in 1973, *The Ghost Galleon* in 1974, and *Night of the Seagulls* in 1975.

The Blind Dead Knights Templar villains were unofficially resurrected in the 1975 entry *La cruz del diablo*, directed by John Gilling.

More recently, the Knights Templar appeared in the unofficial, shot-on-video sequel *Graveyard of the Dead*. In addition, they have briefly been featured in supporting roles in *Don't Wake the Dead* and *Unrated: The Movie*, two recent films by German director Andreas Schnaas.

The Finnish band Hooded Menace base their songs around the film series and various other horror movies.

In 2015, actress and filmmaker Emma Dark co-directed with Merlyn Roberts an unofficial short film sequel.

The short comic story ASCENSION OF THE BLIND DEAD appears in the 2010 graphic novel ZOMBIE TERRORS Volume 1 from Asylum Press, written by David Zuzelo and artwork by William Skaar.