Screenplay: Amando De Ossorio

Music: Anton Garcia Abril

Cast: Lone Fleming,  Cesar Burner,  Helen Harp,  Joseph Thelman,  Rufino Ingles,  Veronica Llimera,  Simon Arriaga,  Francisco Sanz,  Juan Cortes,  and Maria Silva.

Spanish language with English subtitles. LBX ratio 1.66.1 Released by Anchor Bay on a double disc with "Return of The Blind Dead".

The plot involves a centuries-old group of undead Templar knights, returning to life nightly and committing murder as revenge for their execution by the local rulers during the Dark Ages.

Legend speaks of the remains of the ancient Berzano monastery as being one time home to the inhuman Templars, who practiced black magic and sacrificed young maidens for their blood, which they drank in order to obtain eternal life.

One night, the young and beautiful Virginia jumps from the train she is riding after a fit of jealousy after her boyfriend Roger flirts with her friend Betty, who she has recently been reunited with.

Spotting the Berzano monastery in the distance, she begans walking to the ruins while waving goodbye to Roger and Bette.

That night, at the stroke of midnight, the Templars arise from their crypts and, despite their frail frames and bony hands, manage to throw their tomb slabs aside as if they weighed a mere ounce.

Using sound instead of sight, they hunt down Virginia, (who somehow manages to escape on one of the undead Templar horses), and eventually subdue her and kill her for her blood.

Arriving the next day at the monastery ruins, Roger and Betty are met by local police and informed of Virginia's death, and later identify the body.

The authorities reject the theory of the returning Templars, and attribute the murder to a group of cultists or satanists.

Switch to the morgue: Inundated with life after death, Virginia rises from the mortuary slab, killing the attendant, and later meets her second demise at the hands of Bette's shop assistant, who sets fire to her with a kerosene lamp.

(Aficionados of Dawn Of The Dead will notice a nod to the film in this scene, as part of it has Virginia hiding among a group of mannequins to try to catch her prey.)

Betty and Roger are unaware of this, and later meet and team up with a hood named Pedro, a small time smuggler who is trying to clear his name with the authorities.

Pedro, his girl, and Roger and Betty decide to spend the night at the deserted Berzano monastery to see if the legend of the Templars is true.

Various personality conflicts and a few minor altercations distract the group, who do not notice that the Templars are indeed rising, and they are taken by suprise and must fight for their lives amid the backdrop of the ancient monastery.

Who wins, the living, or the dead?

LINER NOTES:

Director Amando Deossorio went on to make 3 sequels to this film.

They are: Return of The Blind Dead, aka Return Of The Evil Dead, Ghost Galleon, aka Ship Of Zombies Night Of The Seagulls, aka Night Of The Death Cult.

The appeal of Tombs Of The Blind Dead is it's atmosphere, heavily due to the use of a REAL deserted Spanish monastery in the Madrid countryside as the home of the undead Templars.

Anyone watching them crawl from the ruins and ride the Spanish countryside on their ghost horses will really enjoy this unique twist on the undead genre, as many of the scenes take place amid the backdrop of unusually crisp nighttime photography, which only adds to the  spectral surrealism that has made it the horror classic that it is.

Just sit back and let it soak in........

Dictator Francisco Franco was still in power when these films were made, and initially, all of them suffered heavy censoring due to things the regime thought were obscene or objectionable.

A recent buzz has developed because a rumor exists that a full 106-minute print of the third film, Ghost Galleon, is rumored to exist, but this has not been found yet.

In any case, thanks to Anchor Bay, we can now experience the first two films in their most complete formats, with most of the gore and other scenes intact just as they were filmed.

One can only hope that they do the honorable thing and seek out the  other two sequels, and bring them to us in the same spectaular format they have done with the first two films.

Sadly, Amando DeOssorio recently passed away, but his unique vision of the Blind Dead films has earned him a well-deserved spot among the great all time horror film directors, and rightfully so.

4 out of 5 stars

Shawn Howlett