"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.

I had seen only one film from the blind dead series (Return of the blind/evil dead) in the mid 80s on a VHS. I saw this just few days back on a DVD. The story is about 2 girls n one guy who goes on a weekend trip. Sounds erotic huh. Don't get your hopes high. On the train ride there, one of the girl is overcome with jealousy and jumps off the train, deciding to spend the night in some nearby ruins. Wtf? It is a horror film n so the ruins are home of the blind dead knights who were into some satanic rituals until angry villagers killed them n left them for the crows to peck their eyes out. Some decent cinematography. It is an effective atmospheric film. The locations were really good. The abandoned n ruined village in the middle of nowhere, the endless fields, the only single train running n always passing by the ruins n the best part- the slow motion shots of the knights riding their horses in pursuit of their victims. When the knights r on the foot, they r slower than the snails but suddenly out of nowhere they get their horses n once they r on their horses, they ride faster in slow motions. Very creepy though. The skeletons, with their dark, odd beard hair features, actually look as if they've risen from their graves. Good effects.

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".

"Virginia White" (Maria Elena Arpon) has met a new male friend named "Roger Whelen" (Cesar Burner) who she is attracted to. Unfortunately, to her surprise her best friend, "Betty Turner" (Lone Fleming) shows up unexpectedly and she now feels that she has to compete with her for Roger's affection. This begins to devastate her. So when Roger invites Betty to accompany them on a hiking trip, Virginia decides to jump off of the train in order to be alone. What she doesn't know is that the only building around for miles is a deserted monastery. Not realizing the past history of the place she decides to camp there for the night. At any rate, rather than ruin the suspense for those who haven't seen this movie I will just say that this film has a certain charm about it. Now, it doesn't take much research to see that a number of people have given this movie high marks and very positive reviews. Be that as it may, I don't believe this film will suit everyone's taste. For starters, this is a low-budget film with a weak script and a very thin plot. Another weakness concerns the special effects which were barely adequate in its day but obviously not up to today's standards. Additionally, the dialogue is also quite limited and the actors weren't necessarily of the highest caliber either. Now, in defense of this film I think it's only fair to say that it was originally in Spanish and the movie I saw had English subtitles. That being the case, it is entirely possible that some of the dialogue was watered down in translation. One other thing worth mentioning is that the zombies in this movie aren't the "typical" kind normally presented. They ride horses, drink blood and carry swords. As a result one might be inclined to dismiss this film as the Grade-B zombie movie it seems to be. But that might be a bit premature for a couple of reasons. First of all, as I stated earlier some people really liked this movie. And I am one of them. Obviously, different people probably have different reasons for liking it. Perhaps it's the "Old-World" location (Portugal and Spain) which makes it so unique. Or it could be the medieval quality of the Knight's Templars or the Satanic rituals as the backdrop. Maybe it's the beautiful women who add a certain amount of sexuality to the horror. But whatever it is, it has a raw quality to it that seems to be missing from so many horror films. Especially these days. In short, this movie certainly has some flaws and I readily admit to this fact. Even so, I believe that if a person enjoys seeing a rare low-budget film that overachieves then they will probably like this movie. If a person likes zombie movies and can accept the fact that these zombies don't conform to the usual standards then they will probably like this movie as well. But it will require being able to overlook things like English subtitles and special effects which are clearly dated. That said, I think those people who are able to do that will be quite pleased.