tombsoftheblinddead

This Spanish / Portugese production is the first of four Blind Dead movies that De Ossorio made. It opens with eerie establishing shots of ruins of an abandoned monastery, accompanied by a soundtrack of ominous gregorian chants. It cuts to a resort where two young people, Virginia, and Roger (who looks a lot like Armande Assante) are holidaying. They meet an old freind of Virginia's called Betty , and end up inviting her on a train trip, and picnic they're going on the next day. Betty agrees, and on the train she starts fooling around with Roger. Virginia is not impressed, and asks the conductor to stop the train so that she can get off. Realising they are near the old Templar ruins, he refuses. She grabs her things, and dives off the moving train anyway. Roger and Betty try to get the conductor to stop the train, but he still won't stop, so they are forced to go to the next stop. Virginia sees the ruins in the distance, and heads for them to find a place to spend the night.

She couldn't have picked a worse spot to camp. The ruins are occupied by the Knights Templar They were satanic monks who sacrificed young virgins in exchange for eternal life. The local townspeople were understandably upset by this, and had them executed in the middle ages, and let the crows peck out their eyes, thus making them the blind dead. Rumours of their demise were greatly exagerated however, and they begin to rise from their crypts late that night, to attack Virginia. The blind dead are very effective looking, with their decaying features, mouldy robes, and bony hands. Virginia runs from them, and in a very surreal scene, they pursue her accross the fog-laden plains noiselessly on ghostly horses. When they finally catch her, they bite her to death.

She's found dead the next day. Police suspect smugglers. Roger and Betty hear stories about the blind dead who find their victims by sound, and decide to investigate themselves. For some reason, they enlist the aid of local smuggler Pedro ( who reminded me a lot of Danny Trejo - From Dusk Till Dawn) , and his cigar smokin' , pistol packin' girlfreind Ginger. They decide to spend the night at the ruins to solve the mystery.

Although it can be a little silly at times, Tombs of the Blind Dead is one of the most atmospheric horror films you'll ever see. I'm not usually a huge fan of gothic horror, but this blew me away. The set pieces, or should I say locations, like the ruins, were great. A lot of scenes, like the one in the mannequin factory, and the almost silent, echoey scenes of the Templars riding were very atmospheric, and genuinly chilling. The plot was very tight, and well structured. There has been talk of re-making this on, and off for some time. We can only hope this doesn't happen, because the original is too good a film to be made redundant by a pointless remake. If you like zombie movies, and foreign films, check it out.