684/007765 PRESIDENCIA DEL SENADO

In Spain the success of Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) inspired a quick sequel from director Amando de Ossorio. Return of the Blind Dead, also known as Return of the Evil Dead and El ataque de los muertos sin ojos, is less a follow-up than a com- plete reenvisioning. Even the history of the evil Knights Templars is completely altered. It’s a differ- ent film that just happens to also feature undead Templars and an unnecessary flashback in which a young woman is stripped and tortured. Thankfully, this bigger production is more action packed, enter- taining, and just plain goofy than its predecessor.

The setting moves to a village celebrating the five-hundredth anniversary of the Templars’ execu- tion. It’s hard to imagine anyone celebrating the day their ancestors interrupted a ritual sacrifice and, on a whim, decided to burn out the eyes of those responsible, but these people do. Anyway, the anniversary is to culminate in singing, dancing, and a fireworks display. Fireworks expert Jack (Tony Kendall) shows up, oozing machismo with a ciga- rette dangling precariously from his mouth. He’s ready to win back the love of old flame Vivian (Esperanza Roy) and pick some fights with the

Pure terror from the writers of American Graffiti! Ironically, no one did remember Messiah of Evil, a very odd take on the zombie flick.

locals. Luckily for Roy, Kendall arrives just as the Knights Templars rise to get their revenge! In a plot development clearly inspired by Night of the Living Dead (1968), much of the film takes place inside a church where the survivors board themselves in.

This time, de Ossorio manages to satirize the Spanish political system by including several

unpleasant authority figures. There’s an ineffectual governor ( Juan Cazalilla), who is more interested in sleeping with his secretary/girlfriend than in helping anyone, and the sin- ister Mayor Duncan (Fernando Sancho). Even more entertaining is Howard (Frank Brana), the mayor’s assistant/henchman, who seems to be attempting a broad Ricardo Montalbán impersonation.

In comparison with the original film, Return moves at a pretty fast clip. The Templars are introduced early, and there’s an elaborate and dangerous-looking scene in which the townspeople battle the horse- riding corpses. The English-

language dubbing is hysterically bad, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any chills. When the horror scenes begin and there is no dialogue, de Ossorio effectively uses slow motion, sound design, and an eerie monk chant to create dread. There’s a particularly tense, creepy sequence in which our hero attempts to retrieve a little girl on the street amid the knights. The film also fea- tures a nifty decapitation by sword, severed limbs, and lots of blood. Not to be outdone by the Templars, two human characters stage an incredible brawl, which ends with the bad guy being punched so hard that he finds himself impaled on a nearby spear! This is no classic, but it is a slicker, faster, punchier Blind Dead film that met with great box office success in its homeland.

“Pardon me, but do you know the way to Lisbon?” Check out the nifty poster art for

When the name Paul Naschy appears across a movie screen, it is never a sign of excellence. It is the stage name of Spanish actor/writer/producer/ director Jacinto Molina, who made a name for himself by appearing in several no-budget horror efforts that eventually found their way around the world in various dubbed forms. Considered by some to be a Spanish Lon Chaney Jr., he would make several films a year, the stories revolving around Naschy as a werewolf, mummy, or whatever horror monster was popular at the time. His were- wolf films, considered his best efforts, were so pop- ular that they spawned a series of ten titles.

Little is known about the production of Vengeance of the Zombies (not to be confused with 1973’s Voodoo Black Exorcist, a rotten mummy movie that was released under the same title in

France) other than the obvious: it stinks. Also known as La rebelión de las muertos, it has all the ear- marks of a slapdash low-budget production, including day-for- night photography (an annoying process by which a dark filter is placed on the camera to suppos- edly disguise the fact that night scenes are being filmed in the middle of the day), lousy zombie makeup, outrageously bad acting, an uninteresting story, and a sleep-inducing pace. Naschy plays an East Indian guru suspected of using voodoo to manipulate and murder in his quest for immortality. Highlights include the on-camera beheading of a real chicken (the only graphic bit, and a tasteless one at that) and a laughable white-faced zombie with thick black eyebrows and a mustache who bears a strik- ing resemblance to Groucho Marx.

Not content to leave it at just one zombie film, Naschy also appeared in a small role in the Ital- ian/Spanish coproduction The Hanging Woman (1973), also known as Return of the Zombies and La orgia de los muertos. This one’s a period piece set in a small village in Scotland; it involves a cult of devil worshippers and a walking army of the undead. Naschy plays Igor, an idiot gravedigger with a pen- chant for necrophilia. It was cut from the same moldy cloth and likely bored the hell out of viewers who expected, well, something decent.

Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973) was Paul Naschy’s third lowball effort of the year. It featured Naschy as a fifteenth-century satanist who is decapitated, but not before laying a death curse on

The zombified Templars take gang muggings to new levels of terror in the enjoyable

Return of the Blind Dead. © Belén Films/Ancla Century Films