Leofwine_draca This spooky Spanish shocker is a film which actually manages to be frightening - an achievement which I have yet to see any Naschy film fulfil. Thanks to plenty of unsettling atmospherics and an eerie, isolated locale, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD is a scary, if slow-moving, film. This is also a zombie film which avoids ripping off Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD unnecessarily, instead the zombies here are some of the most distinctive - and memorable - ever filmed.They've been long dead, that much is obvious; dressed in moulding robes, grimacing skulls peer out from underneath decaying hoods. Some of them are bearded, some of them are armed, all of them look horrifying. The fact that these skeletal bastards will bite and nibble at you if they catch you makes them even worse. While this film has an excellent opening and an excellent ending, the middle bit is indeed a bit slow, with too much expository dialogue and too little action. Amando de Ossorio felt the need to fill out the time with a silly lesbian dream sequence plus plenty of unwanted romantic intrigue between central characters. If they'd lost this, the film would have been even better.The action sequences take place in an abandoned church, where the blind dead claw their way from their tombs in slow-motion, extremely unsettling. The famed slow-motion horseback sequences are also impressive. Various characters find themselves on the run from these unstoppable menaces and hide behind rotted wooden doors in a vain attempt to protect themselves. But the zombies get in and devour everybody inside...now that's what I call entertainment! The version I saw had most of the gore and violence trimmed (even the prologue was missing!) but despite this there are still a couple of grisly bits, involving a hand being severed and some grisly cannibalism.The acting is pretty good and understated for a change, but the biggest impression comes from the chilling score. At first the soundtrack is populated by annoyingly twee songs, but soon these give way to some unholy chanting which really add to the spooky feel of the piece. A fun subplot has a female zombie biting into a creepy morgue attendant's neck before being burned in a fight. This is a horror film which has everything: interesting characters, good music, gore, action, suspense, and plenty of terror. Thus it is well established as a minor classic of the genre and proof that any country is capable of making a good horror film, whatever the language.

callanvass (Credit, IMDb) In the 13th century there existed a legion of evil knights known as the Templars, who quested for eternal life by drinking human blood and committing sacrifices. 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 abandoned monastery, reviving their rotting corpses to terrorize the land.I try to abstain from using worn out clichés, but this movie really warrants it. Tombs of the Blind Dead moves as slow as molasses, failing to revitalize my interest in any way throughout. The zombies themselves are pretty cool looking. They are knights that ride horses, except they do it in a contemporary setting. I loved the creepy village with the castles, the photography is fantastic, it's just that they could have done so much with this movie, but they bored me to tears instead. I watched the uncut version of this film. Strangely enough, it didn't seem uncut to me. There isn't much gore to be found. Zombie bites and a woman being burned alive are a couple of the seldom found highlights. There are some plot holes as well. As a couple of reviewers have rightfully mentioned. Why does a female inexplicably jump off a train into trouble? That's like throwing gasoline on a fire. The acting isn't worth mentioning. Everyone is pretty awful, even if they were subtitled. Any more praise? We get some awkward lesbianism, so if you're into soft-core things, that might please you. Overall, I vehemently despised this film. It has all the potential in the world, but they crap all over it. It's an overrated snooze fest if you ask me. I have three more sequels to watch. I hope they are at least marginally better than this film, and add a modicum of energy3/10

MartinHafer This is a decent horror film--thanks mostly to some amazingly scary monsters. However, you should note that in the original Portuguese-Spanish production, the skeletons were NOT from the Knights Templar but from some weird little Satanic coven. This makes MUCH more sense than the English-dubbed version where they are described as from the Knights Templar. Despite the Knights being popular in fiction (such as from the Dan Brown stories), they were not Satanic nor did they have any weird codes--they were just an order of knights wiped out by a greedy French king who wanted their wealth...period. Also, they couldn't have been from the Knights Templar because the symbol on their outfit was all wrong--a red ankh (from ancient Egypt) was used in the film instead of a red cross (which is a Christian symbol).This is a film that I found the plot a lot less important than the monsters. That's because the plot had a few problems--though none made it a bad film. The film begins with two ladies meeting after many years apart. The boyfriend of one of the ladies invites the other to accompany them on a camp out--but, oddly, his girlfriend is not at all pleased. She becomes very jealous of him and stupidly stomps off the world's slowest moving train while they are headed for their camp out. Not surprisingly, she wanders into the ruins of an old abbey and soon she is killed by very cool looking zombie skeletons. While the skeletons' hands are kind of cheesy, the rest of the character design is really neat--and very scary. And, through the rest of the film, these resurrected demonic skeletons do VERY bad things! And, interestingly, the film does NOT have an ending that I had anticipated in the least--and I appreciated that.By the way, what's up with that morgue?! The attendant was MEGA-creepy and why would anyone keep a bird and a frog there?! Also, the jammed door lock in the mannequin shop was a bit of a cheesy cliché in an otherwise decent film.By the way, the DVD for this is GREAT. It had the dubbed AND original version of the film. It also has the intro to the little-known drive-in version where they stuck a very confusing and stupid prologue onto it to try, believe it or not, to capitalize on the Planet of the Apes films--and they retitled it "Revenge From Planet Ape".

ma-cortes 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 .