4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.
Today, we take a look at the early 70s!
8 Shots From 8 Horror Films: The Early 70s
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970, dir by Dario Argento, DP: Vittorio Storaro)
House of Dark Shadows (1970, dir by Dan Curtis, DP: Arthur Ornitz)
Hatchet For The Honeymoon (1970, dir by Mario Bava, DP: Mario Bava)
The Devils (1971, directed by Ken Russell, DP: David Watkin)
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971, dir by Amando de Ossorio, DP: Pablo Ripoll)
Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972, dir by Bob Clark, DP: Jack McGowan)
Last House on the Left (1972, dir by Wes Craven, DP: Victor Hurwitz)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972, dir by Alan Gibson, DP: Dick Bush)
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
This October, I am going to be using our 4 Shots From 4 Films feature to pay tribute to some of my favorite horror directors, in alphabetical order! That’s right, we’re going from Argento to Zombie in one month!
Today’s director is one of the great Spanish horror directors, Amando de Ossorio!
4 Shots From 4 Films
Malenka, the Vampire’s Niece (1969, dir by Amando de Ossorio)
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971, dir by Amando de Ossorio)
The Ghost Galleon (1974, dir by Amando de Ossorio)
Night of the Seagulls (1976, dir by Amando de Ossorio)
The Blind Dead returned for a fourth and final time in 1975’s The Night of the Seagulls!
That’s right, Night of the Seagulls was Amando de Ossorio’s final Blind Dead film. After having the Blind Dead somehow turn up on a boat in The Ghost Galleon, Night of the Seagulls returns to the more familiar ground made famous by Tomb of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead.
That said, it really wouldn’t be a Blind Dead film if there was too much continuity so, once again, we get an entirely new origin story for the Blind Dead. Yes, they’re still undead Templars and yes, they still practiced witchcraft in the 1400s and were executed as a result. But now, the Templars apparently rise from the sea every seven years and, for seven consecutive days, they demand that the local villagers chain a virgin to a rock so that she may be sacrificed.
What I’m wondering if how exactly the villagers figured out that this is what the Blind Dead want. The Blind Dead never speak. In fact, they’re so decayed that if one of them tried to speak, it’s probable that his lower jaw would fall off. So, how do the villagers know that every seven years, they have to offer up seven consecutive virgins?
Who knows? Maybe the Blind Dead are actually just like, “Why do the villagers keep demanding that we kill all of their virgins? We just want to hang out and chill. Oh well, we don’t want to be rude so I guess we better do some killing…”
I mean, seriously, it just seems like this entire problem could have been avoided.
Anyway, there’s a new doctor in town. Dr. Henry Stein (Victor Petit) and his wife, Joan (Maria Kosti), can’t understand why none of the villagers want to talk to them or why the old doctor is so eager to get out of the village. I think some of the problem may have to do with the fact that Henry is one of the angriest doctors that I’ve ever seen. When he first shows up at the village, he demands to know where his house is. When the villagers ignore him, he barges into a bar, grabs one random guy, and tosses him up against the wall. WHERE IS THE HOUSE!? he demands.
Seriously, Doctor, calm down. I wouldn’t go to that guy for checkup. He might get mad and throw something at me if I told him that I occasionally forget to take my ADHD meds. That would be scary.
Since the doctor and his wife are new in town, they don’t really get the whole virgin sacrifice thing. In fact, they attempt to keep one virgin from being sacrificed and this leads to the Blind Dead laying siege on their house. For the most part, it probably would have been better if they had just minded their own business…
Night of the Seagulls can’t really compare to the first two Blind Dead films. It takes a little bit too long to get going and everyone in the movie is pretty unlikable so you really don’t care whether the Blind Dead kill them or not. (At the same time, as opposed to Tomb of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead, no one is unlikable enough for you to root for the Blind Dead insteaf.) That said, the Blind Dead are still scary and decaying and, after being stuck on that boat all through the previous film, they’re riding horses again! And yes, they ride them in slow motion and yes, it looks freaking badass!
Night of the Seagulls is an okay Spanish horror film. It may not be a perfect send off for the Blind Dead but it’s not terrible either.
The Blind Dead are back and this time, they’re on a boat!
Yes, you read that correctly. 1974’s The Ghost Galleon is the third film in Spanish director Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series. The decaying and blind Knight Templar are back and they’re just as evil and blood thirsty as they were in both Tombs of the Blind Deadand Return of the Evil Dead. However, this time, they’re on a boat. What are they doing on a boat? Apparently, they’re guarding some sort of Satanic treasure chest and they’re killing and eating anyone who makes the mistake of boarding their boat.
That means that this is the first Blind Dead film to not feature any scenes of the Blind Dead riding their horses in slow motion. That may not sounds like much but the absence of those horses is definitely felt. The Blind Dead on horses are a metaphor for everything from political tyranny to religious oppression. The Blind Dead on a boat are still scary but now they’re also vaguely silly.
And yet, the Blind Dead on a boat is not the silliest part of the film! The Ghost Galleon starts out with two models lost at sea. Apparently, they were hired by a businessman and aspiring politician named (in the version released in America, anyway) Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor). Howard is a boat manufacturer and he felt it would be great publicity if the models took one of his boats out into the ocean and pretended to get stranded. Apparently, Howard felt that this would convince the public that they could live for weeks in one of his speedboats if they needed to…
No, I’m not making that up. That’s the plot of the damn film.
ANYWAY — the models get stranded for real but suddenly, here comes a big, dark, old timey galleon. It’s just floating out in the middle of the ocean and it appears to be surrounded by a very thick fog. Naturally, the models decide to leave their boat for the galleon because why stay somewhere vaguely safe when you can get on a big, scary, evil looking galleon?
Now the models are missing and Howard needs to get his boat back. So, he and his evil henchman get yet another model to sail out to the middle of the ocean with them. Also accompanying them is a historian/scientist guy, who is mostly there because the film will later need him to fill in the backstory of the Blind Dead…
Now, I know that it probably sounds like I’m being supercritical of the third Blind Dead film but actually, it kind of works. The key is not to worry about logic, consistency, or anything you learned about at that screenwriting workshop. Instead, simply accept The Ghost Galleon as being the equivalent of a filmed nightmare. For everything that the film lacks in logic, it makes up for in atmosphere. (Let’s just say that the fog machine gets quite a workout.) And while it may not make much sense for them to be on a boat, the Blind Dead are just as scary, evil, and merciless as ever.
Add to that, the film has a great ending. I won’t spoil it here but I will say that the film’s final shot makes up for a lot of what you have to sit through in order to reach it.
The Ghost Galleon should not be the first Blind Dead film that you see. (Unfortunately, it can be found in several ultra cheap box sets, complete with a bad transfer and spotty soundtrack.) But if you’ve seen Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead, you should also see The Ghost Galleon. If nothing else, it proves the de Ossorio could get results with even the most ludicrous of premises.
First off, the 1973 Spanish horror film, The Return of the Evil Dead, is in no way connected to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Bruce Campbell never shows up in The Return of the Evil Dead and that’s unfortunate because the villagers who are menaced in this film probably could have used some help from Ashley James Williams.
Instead, The Return of the Evil Dead is a film that, over the years, has been known by many names: Attack of the Blind Dead, Return of the Blind Dead, Mark of the Devil 5: Return of the Blind Dead, and Night of Blind Terror. It’s usually referred to as being a sequel toTombs of the Blind Dead but that’s not quite true. Instead, it’s more of a reimagining.
The film opens, as do almost all of the entries in this franchise, with a retelling of the origin of the Blind Dead. In Tombs of the Blind Dead, the Knights Templar were accused of heresy and hung, just to then have a bunch birds peck out their eyes. In Return of the Evil Dead, the Templars are once again pillaging Europe, sacrificing virgins, and practicing witchcraft. However, this time, they are captured by a group of Portuguese peasants. After being bound in the village square, the Templar leader announces that someday, he and his compatriots will return from the dead and seek vengeance on the village. The villagers respond by using a torch to burn out his eyes.
Jump forward 500 years. The village is preparing to celebrate the anniversary of what they call “the Burning.” We watch as they prepare for the festival and joke about the legend that the Templars will rise from their graves and spend the night seeking revenge. Murdo (José Canalejas), who is known as being the town pervert, watches the preparations and is suddenly attacked by a group of rock-throwing children. When Murdo falls to the ground, the children start to kick him. When Monica (Loreta Tovar) steps in and runs off the children, her boyfriend asks her why she’s wasting her time defending Murdo. Murdo, meanwhile, scurries off.
Meanwhile, the town’s mayor (Fernando Sancho) meets with Jack Marlowe (Tony Kendall). Jack has been hired to supervise the festival’s firework show and the mayor promptly tries to cheat him out of his payment. Jack discovers that the Mayor’s fiancée is his ex-girlfriend, Vivian (Esperenza Roy). Meanwhile, the mayor’s henchmen stand in the background and grimly watch.
In short, it appears that the village is cursed even before the inevitable return of the Blind Dead. And, in these scenes, it’s important to remember that, for the first half of the 1970s, Spain was still ruled by a dictator named Francisco Franco. It’s not difficult to see the village and its villagers as a metaphor for the Franco regime. Director Amando de Ossorio admitted as much when, in an interview before his death, he described Return of the Evil Dead as being the most political of all the Blind Dead films.
Naturally, the Templars do eventually return. Tired and bitter after years of being persecuted by the other villagers, Murdo sacrifices a young townswoman. As her blood pours over the graves of the Templars, the ground starts to shake and the Blind Dead come back to life and, once again, lay siege on the town.
The Blind Dead are still moving in slow motion and are just as decayed and deadly here as they were in Tombs of the Blind Dead. Interestingly enough, the scene where they ominously knock on the door of an isolated house was later recreated in John Carpenter’s The Fog. In fact, the entire film has quite a lot in common with The Fog, right down to the final siege on the church.
So, which is better? Tombs of the Blind Dead or Return of the Evil Dead? To a certain extent, it depends on what you’re looking for. Return of the Evil Dead is faster paced than Tombs of the Blind Dead and Jack and Vivian are far more likable than the leads from Tombs. As previously mentioned, Return has a stronger political subtext than Tombs. However, speaking for myself, I prefer the more atmospheric and fatalistic Tombs.
But ultimately, both Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead are superior horror films, perfect for Halloween viewing.
If you really want to see something scary this Halloween season, I suggest tracking down Tombs of the Blind Dead, a Spanish film from 1971.
Who are the Blind Dead? Well, the obvious answer is that they’re a group of dedicated horsemen who have not allowed being both dead and blind to keep them from accomplishing their goals. Of course, since all of their goals are evil, that’s not necessarily a good thing. When they were alive, the Blind Dead were 14th century knights. (The usual assumption is that they were Knights Templar, even though this is never specifically stated.) Accused of witchcraft and heresy, the knights were executed and, as their corpses hung from the gallows, bird pecked out their eyes. The bodies were eventually buried in an isolated Spanish monastery.
The future members of the Blind Dead
Jump forward six centuries. The year is 1970 and Spain is still under the repressive grip of the feared dictator, General Francisco Franco. (This is important because some critics have suggested that the Blind Dead were meant serve as a metaphor for Franco’s regime.) The monastery sits deserted, an otherwise menacing ruin on the beautiful Spanish countryside. There’s a train that regularly runs by the monastery but the train’s conductor is always quick to tell his son to never stop the train. The monastery, he explains, is a cursed place and no one should go near it.
Unfortunately, someone does go near it. A passenger on the train, Virginia (María Elena Arpón) is annoyed that her boyfriend, Roger (Cesar Burner) has been flirting with Virginia’s former schoolmate and lover, Betty (Lone Fleming). So, naturally, Virginia hops off the train and decides to take a cheerful stroll across the Spanish countryside. With night falling, she decides to camp out in the ruins of the old monastery.
Now, if you guessed that this leads to a bunch of decaying blind knights coming out of nowhere and chasing her down, you’re absolutely right. That’s exactly what happens. And, when Betty and Roger come to the monastery to investigate what happened to their friend, the Blind Dead are waiting for them.
The Blind Dead are also waiting for that train, which leads the film to its bloody conclusion…
Now, you may have noticed that I was very careful not to describe the Blind Dead as being zombies. That’s because the film’s director, Amando de Ossorio, frequently stated that the Blind Dead were not meant to be zombies. He stated that, if anything, the Blind Dead were mummies with vampiric tendencies. He also pointed out that, unlike zombies, the Blind Dead are not mindless. Instead, they are calculating, deliberately cruel, and, unlike the living, they work together. Because of this, they’re even more dangerous and frightening than your typical zombie.
So, what distinguishes The Tomb of the Blind Dead from every other mummy/vampire/zombie/living dead film? It’s certainly not the film’s plot. This is one of those films were characters frequently do the stupidest thing they can at the worst possible time. Instead, it’s the fact that the Blind Dead themselves are pure nightmare fuel. Some of it is the brilliant makeup. The Blind Dead truly do look like they’ve spent the last 600 years decaying. Some of it is the fact that the Blind Dead are shockingly cruel and merciless, even by the standards of a European horror film. When they finally do get on that train, no one — not even the cute little girl who sobs as her mother is killed in front of her — is shown a hint of mercy.
But you know what makes the Blind Dead truly frightening? It’s an amazingly simple thing. de Ossorio films them in slow motion. I know that doesn’t sounds like much but, along with the film’s brilliant soundtrack, it really does create a relentless atmosphere of impending doom. When you watch the Blind Dead as they ride their similarly decaying horses across the Spanish countryside, you truly do feel that they’ve come from a different time and place. The Blind Dead are so relentless and determined that, even though they may move slowly, there’s still no way you could ever escape them.
(And, of course, it doesn’t help that the Blind Dead are basically indestructible. You can shoot the walking dead in the head and go on about your day but that’s not going to help out when it comes to the Blind Dead.)
Amazingly, when Tombs of the Blind Dead was first released in the United States, the film’s American distributor added a nonsensical prologue that described the Blind Dead as actually being super intelligent apes and changed the film’s title to Revenge From Planet Ape, all in an attempt to cash in all the popularity of Planet of the Apes.
That PG-rating should clue you in on just how much material was cut out of Tombs of the Blind Dead in order to make Revenge From Planet Ape!
Well, Tombs of the Blind Dead may not actually involve any super intelligent apes but it’s still a shocking and effective horror film and I highly recommend it for your Halloween viewing. Just make sure you see the uncut Spanish version!
Through the Shattered Lens 