Two years after Tombs of the Blind Dead became a hit, writer/director Amando de Ossorio returned to the horrific world of the Templar Knights with Return of the Blind Dead. The film was retitled Return of the Evil Dead when it was released in the United States, the title it retains on this DVD transfer. While it comes from the same director, features the same villains, and even a couple of the actors (albeit in different roles), this is a sequel in title only. Pretty much everything about the Templars and their immortal existence has changed from Tombs of the Blind Dead. It all adds up to a lesser horror experience, and while it does up the ante with regard to Templar screen time, that does not make it a better movie.
In the first film, we are told that the Templar Knights were put on trial and hanged until crows pecked out their eyes, rendering their undead souls blind. They left behind the ruins of their fortress. In this film, they retain the immortal mythos of the secrets brought back from Egypt, but they are captured by villagers who burn out the eyes of the damned.
We witness the murders of the Knights by the villagers who catch them murdering a young woman in order to drink her blood. Women's blood is the secret to eternal life, after all. The villagers go after them with reckless abandon until the very last one is dead.
The tale jumps ahead 500 years to the town of Bernazar, a thriving, but small, community (replacing the foreboding ruins of the prior film). They are preparing to celebrate the anniversary of their slaughter of the Knights. However, this particular night is going to go considerably different than any of the others they have experienced.
Setting aside the tale of the Knights, we meet Jack Marlowe, a fireworks man brought in to light up the celebration. Wait a minute. Fireworks guy? That's who you plan on being the hero of the movie? I cannot say I have ever seen that profession for a hero before. Actually, I am not sure I have ever seen that in a movie before. Talk about your innovation!
Anyway, Jack arrives and immediately starts eyeballing Vivienne, the mayor's secretary, and a woman he has a past with. This does not sit well with the slimy mayor or his right hand man, both of whom seem to have staked a claim to her. Yes, the woman in this film are quite liberated. In any case, there are some romantic entanglements as the men fuss over the secretary while bigger things are going on out on the edge of town.
Article comments