Zombies

 

La Noche del Terror Ciego (1971) 
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) 

Innocent Virginia (María Elena Arpón) had a brief lesbian relationship at boarding school, but has tried to blot it from her memory.  When she finds herself on a train with her ex-lover, Betty (Lone Fleming), and her semi-boyfriend, Roger (César Burner), it is too awkward for her to handle and she hops off the train near an old ruin.  Unfortunately, it is the resting place of the undead blind templars.  When she hasn't returned home the next day, Betty and Roger set out to find her.

Often considered to have been made to take advantage of the success of Night of the Living Dead, La Noche del Terror Ciego ("Night of the Blind Terror" in English) is far from a rip-off of Romero's shuffling zombie shock-fest.  It offers us a very different type of zombie, a death's head in reaper robes that can ride a horse and swing a sword.  These guys aren't mindless killing machines, they're evil.  They are also wonderful horror creations that could use a better film.

Writer-director Amando de Ossorio makes good use of Portuguese and Spanish locations, particularly two aged and impressive monasteries, to make the film look more expensive than it is.  The ruins are beautiful and I can imagine low-budget American filmmakers crying when they see what their European counterparts have to work with.  de Ossorio lovingly creates a walking tour of the crumbling buildings, far longer than the story requires.  The architecture, along with some creepy chanting and bell ringing-filled music, almost had me.  I was ready to forgive the slight plot, amateur acting, and questionable editing, but eventually something had to pop up other than ancient buildings and then the cheapness of the project shows through.

A bit more money to hire a trained cinematographer could have aided in making the day-for-night scenes look like night, instead of day as they do.  Cash could have paid for a writer who would have eliminated bizarrely out of place characters such as the comic relief, sadistic morgue attendant or the jealous, cartoonish smuggler woman.  He might have also made time pass in some kind of reasonable fashion (a character is being chased in the middle of the night by the blind dead, and as she crosses the field, it's midmorning with a commuter train passing).  A few more coins could have bought a skilled cast, or at least given Arpón a few acting lessons as her attempts to look embarrassed (when first meeting Betty) and frightened (when she finds a zombie at the window) are laughable.  With more resources, perhaps silly moments, such as when a zombie is obviously wearing a mitten, could have been avoided.

I can't say if it was an "artistic" decision or not enough money for fake blood and to encourage the actresses, but the film is oddly blood-low and prudish.  Late in the film there is a climactic gore-filled slaughter on a train, which we don't get to see.  It's an important scene and needed to be onscreen.  As for nudity, while there is a bit of flesh on display, when it really should be there, it's missing.  There is a chaste lesbian scene (just dwell on that for a moment), two people have sex with their clothes on, and a nude corpse rises as a zombie and somehow fashions a little outfit from a sheet.  She doesn't just wrap the sheet around herself; she has a little top and bottom ensemble.

So, what you've got are great new monsters in the templars, plenty of atmosphere, and beautiful sets.  Well, that's enough to make it worth your time, but it is one of those few films that deservers to be remade.

Tombs of the Blind Dead is the fifteen-minute-shorter English language version.  It cuts many unnecessary lines as well as removes most of the inappropriateness from the morgue attendant and female smuggler, creating a streamlined film.   However, those cuts, often done with the finesse of a large man with an axe, pare down the screen time of the leads to the point that they have very little personality.  The cuts also remove all of the blood, nudity, and even implied lesbianism, making this a family friendly zombie picture.  Is there a need for a family friendly zombie picture?  It gets so bad that a major character dies, and there's no way to tell why.  It also changes a rape scene into an inexplicable consensual affair (In a graveyard? With her clothes torn?  And she's a lesbian—well kind of in this version?  I don't think so.).  The original scene had some uncomfortable teeth; this is just incongruous.

The English dubbing (from watching the actors' lips, I think all versions were dubbed to some extent) isn't accurate when compared with the Spanish.  Sometimes, as with the smuggler woman, this is a good thing.  Other times, it makes people appear rather dim.  Apparently, these people use the word "morgue" interchangeably with "cemetery," which has got to lead to some interesting funerals. 

The blind dead are still there, as are the ruins, though in an abbreviated form.  See Tombs of the Blind Dead if you can't get a hold of La Noche del Terror Ciego; otherwise, skip it.

de Ossorio made three sequels, Attack of the Blind Dead/Return of the Evil Dead, The Ghost Galleon, and Night of the Seagulls.

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