Amando de Ossorio, 1974
Starring Maria Perschy, Jack
Taylor, Barbara Rey
Two models are told to pretend to be stranded for a
publicity stunt, but they stumble across a strange, old galleon covered in fog
and mist. When they board the ship, they lose contact with their boss, who
decides to go searching for them. He brings along one of their suspicious
friends to make sure she doesn’t run to the police, and a strange professor who
claims to know of a ghost ship that slips in and out of different dimensions. To
their horror, the models discover that the galleon is home to a number of
undead, eyeless, Satan-worshipping Knights Templar who feast upon humans and
are hoping to spread their plague across the Earth.
Also known as Horror of the Zombies, this is writer and
director Amando de Ossorio’s third film in the Blind Dead series. This seems to be the least favorite for many
Blind Dead fans and film critics, but I can’t help and enjoy it. First and
foremost, I love nautical and aquatic horror. Growing up, Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner” was one of my favorite horror tales and I devoured books about The Flying Dutchman and The Mary Celeste, as well as the Bermuda Triangle. So I
can’t help but enjoy this film about horror on the high seas, a clear
inspiration for John Carpenter’s superior film The Fog.
The film is often unintentionally funny due to the silly
dialogue and nonsensical editing, some unfortunate close ups of the Templars, and
a few of the dumbest characters ever captured on screen. None of the characters
are likable or particularly well fleshed out and the movie’s star, Jack Taylor
(a Paul Naschy and Jess Franco regular) is as astoundingly wooden as ever,
though also oddly charismatic. Professor Grüber (Carlos Lemos) is possibly the
most outrageous character in the film. He’s the first to guess who and what the
Templars are, the first to automatically assume that they are all in another
dimension, and offers up his expert exorcism skills to save the day (?).
The Templars appear relatively little in the game and don’t
do much. The death scenes aren’t nearly as gory or creative as in the first two
films. Regardless, they look great, as decrepit and rotting as ever. There is a
strange plot point where the Templars don’t really attack until the characters
fall asleep. On one hand, this could be read as an incredibly flimsy plot
point; on the other hand, it gives the film a nightmarish feel – perhaps the
characters are trapped in a horrible dream, rather than another dimension.
As with Tombs of
the Blind Dead, this focuses less on nudity or gore and relies more heavily
on a gothic, almost Universal horror-like atmosphere, of which there is plenty.
The fog machine is seemingly never turned off and the ship is full of menacing
creaks and groans, bolstered by the excellent, if recycled soundtrack from Anton Garcia
Gabril. Mainly confined to the ship for much of the running time, the
set is fittingly claustrophobic, though it’s a shame the pace drags along so
slowly for many scenes. The production quality is also embarrassingly cheap and
numerous models were used as a stand-in for the haunted ship.
Despite the lack of overt eroticism, some exploitation is
still at play here with the female character trotting around in bikinis for
much of the running time and the unfortunate, though now expected rape scene.
Horrifyingly, the rapist offers his victim a cigarette after the fact, as if
they have just enjoyed consensual sex together. While the first two films had a
rape scene and an attempted rape scene respectively, here it basically makes no
narrative sense.
I think this was Ossorio’s attempt to return to something
original, as he did with Tombs of the
Blind Dead. Return of the Blind Dead
was almost a clone of Romero’s Night of
the Living Dead, so it’s nice to see him do something different here. This is certainly one of the only ‘70s horror films to be set at sea
and though I think he could have taken the idea a lot further, it’s still a
worthwhile effort.
The film comes recommended, though you’re either going to
love or hate it. It’s available in the wonderful Blind
Dead box set, which includes all
four films, special features, and is packaged in a coffin.
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