Tombs of the Blind Dead is a film that people often forget about when it comes to zombie films or horror in general. It is easy to forget that movies about zombies even came out between the time of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but in Europe these movies became somewhat common after George Romero's first zombie classic. Tombs came out only a few years after the release Night of the Living dead, in 1971 actually. Though not Spanish director Amando de Ossorio's first horror film, this is certainly the most remembered next to his sequel/remake of this Return of the Blind Dead, or Return of the Evil Dead as some English speakers knew it as. That title confused me as a child when I saw it's VHS cover on the rental shelf. Taking that into account, as a ten year old I thought it was a pretty strange sequel to Evil Dead. Things would get more confusing when I read about a series called Evil Dead Trap.
More to the point, depending on which version you see, you could get a rather offensive film, or a rather tame one. The American release is pretty neutered by the original Spanish version standards and also is pretty rearranged. In the American version you get to see some Knights Templar doing... something to a woman strapped to a wooden X and then some people by a pool or whatever. The Spanish version opens with some moody castle footage in the day and then a rotting hand comes into view with a music sting, and a blonde girls screams at what appears to be nothing, then we get to a pool scene. This Templar Knights doing stuff scene does happen later in the movie and is far too graphic to show off here, offering nude torture and quite a lot of violence. These Knights are doing witchcraft on the poor girl I guess, which makes me like this movie because I love witches. The scene in question is pretty damn violent for 1971 by the way.
Tombs is one of the many films to use the barf bag gimmick. So just in case you get sick, here you go. Great way to advertise. The only time I remember hearing about people actually using one though is during Zombie 2, but that is a different story.
So these Knights Templar are accused of witchcraft. The punishment is that they are hung in the gallows have their eyes pecked out by birds, while the corpses hang there. Pretty harsh I'd say. Then many years later they look like this.
They are actually pretty creepy in the movie, and are filmed in the dark or at the very least, day for night. There is a lot of fog and footage of them moving slowly... very slowly. These are the slowest damn anythings I've ever seen in a movie next to the pacing of The Crawling Eye. If you don't like slow horror films then you'd have a very hard time getting through the hour and forty minutes of screen time, of which the Zombie Templars walking around makes up about twenty minutes of, and another twenty at least is dedicated to shots of the ruins or country side. So these Undead Knights can't see you, but they can here you, smell you, feel your presence etc. all while riding undead horses.
You might be wondering what the plot of this movie is. Well this guy and his girlfriend are on a vacation and they meet a friend of the girl. For some reason the guy invites her friend on a train trip with them. His girlfriend is not too happy about it. On the train the guy acts pretty inappropriately towards their new companion and his girlfriend goes to the back of the train. Her friend follows and we get a flashback of the two in a catholic school or something doing lesbian stuff together. So the girlfriend jumps off the back of the train and stays in some nearby ruins where she gets offed by these undead knights. The boyfriend goes to find out what happened to her with a group of friends and they all get terrorized by these Templar Zombies.
Like I said, lots of darkness in this movie, but that is what makes it look so good. If you turn off the lights and watch it by yourself, letting this film just happen to you, you can achieve the desired affect. A creepy atmosphere, weird violence, and utter confusion will follow. Not that the movie is hard to follow, but sometimes you just don't understand why a character is doing something. Plus most of the deaths look like this.
I told you they were slow. This movie isn't as good as something like Dawn of the Dead, Zombie 2, or even Make Them Die Slowly, but it is worthwhile for a genre fan. I've seen both versions and I prefer the Spanish one way more. Largely because the American version is mostly slow moving Templar things with no pay off and sometimes it makes the movie a bit more confusing. The real violence comes in it's sequel Return of the Blind Dead, but this movie's gory scenes are nothing to shake a stick at. Especially for when it was released. Overall it is a cool movie it you want something a bit different from your average zombie flick.
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