Alicia I love this movie so much

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Mr_Ectoplasma "Tombs of the Blind Dead" has all the makings of a great horror film as far as my tastes are concerned: The plot follows two female college friends who get in an argument over the affections of their male friend while on board a train going through the Spanish countryside. One of the women jumps off the back deck, and wanders through the country, stumbling upon the ruins of a medieval villa, where she decides to camp overnight. This unfortunately rouses the zombified Knights Templar from their tombs.This is a phenomenally atmospheric and creepy film that is equal parts suspenseful and violent. The setup for the chain of events here lends itself well to the genre fittings, and there are some wonderful moments in the first thirty minutes that are ominous and subtle. Some have bemoaned the film as being slow-moving, which I honestly did not feel it to be. It's by no means an action film, and is far more occupied by generating mood than perhaps anything else.The shift to the two other characters who have been left aboard the train and their quest to find their missing friend is nicely done, and there are a handful of chilling moments that arise as the plot begins to climb its crescendo. The zombie knights are surprisingly eerie looking, moving unnaturally as though almost hovering, feeling their way toward their victims (it is pointed out in historical background that they had their corpses had the eyes gouged out by birds after they were hanged for blasphemy). The film's conclusion is curt but it is preceded by a playful (and gory) return to the train where the events all started. All in all, I found "Tombs of the Blind Dead" to be an enjoyable and adequately engrossing film, both subtle and violent. The quieter moments—primarily the first act in which the female runaway character wanders around the villa and camps there—are the most unsettling. In some ways, it reminded quite a bit of its contemporary Spanish chiller, "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie," which seems it would make as a good accompaniment piece. 9/10.

jacobjohntaylor1 This is not scary so I do not know why it got 6.2. It has an awful story line. It also has awful acting. The ending is awful. I do not know why people like this movie. It is not a 6.2. It is a 1. If you want to see something real scary see The Exorcist. The Exorcist II is also very scary. The Exorcist III is also very scary. But this is not scary. 6.2 is just overrating it. If I want get scared I will see Exorcist the beginning. The actors in this movie need acting lessons. The ending is just awful. Damnation is a good horror movie to see. But not this. Do not wast your time or money do not see this movie.

Scott LeBrun Note: this review and rating is being applied to the 102 minute long Spanish version.Betty (Lone Fleming) and Virginia (Maria Elena Arpon) are old friends who chance to meet. Betty is going on a sightseeing train trip with her male pal Roger (Cesar Burner), and Virginia reluctantly comes along. After Betty makes advances towards Virginia, the latter is overwhelmed and hops off the train. She wanders, coming across the abandoned town of Berzano and its monastery. There, she's easy prey for the Knights Templar, who were practicing the occult in 13th century Spain and have now become zombies. And these aren't your typical zombies: they had their eyes pecked out by crows while alive and now must hunt by sound. Betty, Roger and others eventually come looking for Virginia and discover the horrible truth."Tombs of the Blind Dead" is so wonderful, in its best horror moments, that genre fans may wish that more of the film played out that way. Instead, there are a number of plot- forwarding sequences designed to get our characters to the doomed location. But writer & director Amando de Ossorio has created a fundamentally entertaining story that is well told. The Knights Templar don't get that much to do, which is a shame considering how genuinely creepy and interesting they are. The scenes where they rise from their tombs are extremely well done. The atmosphere that de Ossorio creates for the monastery sequences is overwhelming; even the scene where Virginina tries to escape on horseback, in the daylight, has an eerie feel to it. The film isn't overtly gory but there *are* some very nasty and effective moments.The victim characters, not too surprisingly, aren't as intriguing as their tormentors, but the actors all do a commendable job. The ladies are certainly lovely. Jose Thelman has a fun role late in the film as charismatic smuggler Pedro Candal, and just as good is Francisco Sanz as Pedros' father, a professor who handles exposition duties.Overall, this isn't quite as great as one might like it to be, but it's still entertaining and zombie connoisseurs who want to check out efforts from all countries and decades are strongly advised to give it a look.Seven out of 10.

InjunNose I'm not a big fan of Eurohorror because it tended to elevate style and flash over substance. Amando de Ossorio, however, was a refreshing exception to the rule: he knew what was frightening and that's what he focused on, keeping the superfluous stuff to a minimum. Nowhere is his firm grasp of the genre's fundamentals more evident than in "Tombs of the Blind Dead". This is truly a meat-and-potatoes horror film, loaded with atmosphere and well-crafted scary moments. Ossorio favored the slow, deliberate buildup of tension, so it's a long time before you see the hooded Templar mummies gnawing on human flesh; first you have to witness the María Elena Arpón character's arrival at the abandoned monastery, her uneasy exploration of the ruins, and that's when you realize you're watching a master at work. When the horror is finally made visible, "Tombs" becomes an edge-of-your-seat viewing experience, and some of the images (the Templars on their phantom horses, galloping in slow motion across an eerily beautiful Portuguese landscape, and the grainy still photo that Ossorio made the brilliant decision to end his film with) will remain with you literally for years after you've seen the movie. Any hack can make a horror film, but very few directors get it right. Amando de Ossorio was one of them. If you're serious about your horror--if you've had it up to here with sexy vampires and mindless zombie shoot-'em-ups, and want to be chilled to the bone--then you should see "Tombs of the Blind Dead".