October 31, 2007
Yeah, more totally made up "translations." We're really watching "The Attack of the Dead without Eyes" but I guess that IS kinda clumsy it doesn't really matter.
Though, I must say the English title is bizarre. Where were the original "Evil Dead"? There was no incarnation of Ama...( read more)ndo de Ossorio's first film with a title anywhere near there.
Oh well. This is not really a sequel, or even related (a la Romero's Dead films), to La noche del terror ciego, de Ossorio's previous entry. This time we begin with our eastern knights and their secrets of immortality and devil worship, but they're not being hanged, they're being tied to columns in the town of Bourzano, Portugal and burned alive. They taunt their executioners, claiming they will be back and raze the village to the grown, even after being killed. The head of the mob takes this to heart, so he defiantly presses his torch to the outspoken knight's eyes and burns them out, daring him to find his way back blind. All of the knights are treated in this fashion and then burned completely. We see why shortly after, with a more gruesome and effective version of the torture scene from La noche, now with the poor sacrificial girl's heart being torn out and eaten (!).
By this point we can see both similarities and discrepancies arising between this film and its predecessor. The "origin" of the blinded, undead knights has changed quite thoroughly, but they are essentially the same villains in life as the ones in the previous film. More importantly on the subject of rehashing, for the first ten to twenty minutes we are subjected to footage from the previous film recycled and edited in between new scenes here--the undead rising, the first gathering and circling of the undead--all straight out of the first film. However, they're integrated more fully into the plot. This time it takes place in the still living town of Bourzano, five hundred years after the knights were burned, this time the keeper of the church where they were burned is effectively the village idiot, somewhat a hunchback, if you will, Murdo (José Canalejas) is tortured by the town's children, with only Moncha (Loli Tovar) defending him. Murdo takes this to heart though, and sacrifices a girl to bring about the return of the "Templar" knights (for some reason, this is the term chosen by the English subtitle authors, despite the fact that they are not, and are not called, anything of the sort).
It appears from here, with all the recycled knight footage that we are going to see the same movie, except we find the knights arriving instead in the town of Bourzano, in the midst of celebrating their victory five hundred years earlier over the very same devil-worshipping knights. Now we find, instead of minor slaughter, the massacre of a whole town of celebrating people, leaving Jack (Tony Kendall), Mayor Duncan (Fernando Sancho), their mutual love interest Vivian (Esperanza Roy), Duncan's man Dacosta (Frank Braña, sort of a Ricardo Montalban type guy), the traumatized Moncha, a repentant Murdo ("betrayed" by the knights he sought the company of), Beirao (Ramón Lillo), his wife Amalia (Lone Fleming, returning from La noche) and their daughter, played by Maria Nuria (she's referred to only as their daughter and "the girl") to hole up in a church and barricade the doors and windows to prevent the knights' entry. From here we get more of a Night of the Living Dead flavour to things, with conflict (mostly due to an unreasonable--no offense, Miss Roy...--amount of lust for Vivian) and argument abounding between characters, including how best to deal with their situation.
Re-hash though it may start out, it develops into its own little film, and there's an amusing bit of humour whenever Duncan attempts to enlist the help of his superior the Commissioner, who refuses to believe the stories and tends to have hilariously blunt and condescending interpretations of the things he hears over the phone. Mayor Duncan is a pretty sleazy character with only his self-interest in mind, leading to a rather surprising scene where he makes a third or fourth attempt to use the people around him to escape. And, most importantly, just as I was bemoaning de Ossorio's complete refusal to make use of the most interesting part of the whole idea--the fact that they are blind and so one can build ridiculous amounts of tension by trying to use that flaw against them, and the risks inherent in such a plot--there came the climax--and rather a surprise in it.
Again, the budget shows a bit (though much of it shows less--the sacrifice is more effective this time) but I've never cared much about that, except when it's unacceptably ridiculous. I blame the editors more when the effects show. Anyway, it's an enjoyable little flick, and I still love the idea, and it was nice to have a little more plot, a little more connection between the plot and the dead, and some more gore all tied into those same beautiful images--as well as plenty of new ones--especially of the knights with that lovely sound of distant, slowly echoing hooves and low chanting.
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