See apes rise from their graves to destroy man in a battle that survives death!
Directed by Amando de Ossorio
Reviewed by Deep Red
Aka Mark of the Devil, Part 4: Tombs of the Blind Dead aka Mark of the Devil Part V: Night of the Blind Terror aka Crypt of the Blind Dead aka Night of the Blind Dead aka Tombs of the Blind Zombies aka The Night of the Blind Terror aka The Blind Dead….
Firstly, this film has no apes in it. It was re-cut and released in the U.S. as Revenge from Planet Ape in an attempt to cash in on Planet of the Apes (1968). Apparently they added some shady prologue about apes getting their eyes burnt out with red hot pokers and coming back from the dead in order to explain this. This prologue wasn’t in the version I watched.
There are four films in the Blind Dead series; Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972), Return of the Evil Dead (1973), Horror of the Zombies (1974) and finally Night of the Seagulls (1975). They all have numerous other titles.
Tombs of the Blind Dead is a Spanish/Portuguese film directed by Amando de Ossorio who directed all four films in the Blind Dead series.
Two old friends, Betty Turner (Lone Fleming) and Virginia White (María Elena Arpón) meet up at a holiday resort, Bet also meets Roger Whelan (César Burner) who wants to take them to the country. They take the train and part way Virginia jumps off and heads off on her own. She comes across an abandoned monastery, builds a fire and decides to bed down for the night. The Knights Templar buried there rise from their tombs….
Excellent cinematography! I love this film. It’s dripping with atmosphere. The Knights Templar/revenants look simply awesome, and on horseback too, wow! They hunt by sound because the crows ate their eyes, now that I like. There’s a bit of nice gore, but it’s not all about the gore, not at all, this is just an über-classy slice of 70s horror. Really cool ending too. Watch it!
Also stars Rufino Inglés as Inspector Oliveira, Francisco Sanz as Professor Candal, Verónica Llimera as Nina, José Thelman as Pedro Candal and María Silva as Maria.
I can’t wait to see the others films in the series.
