TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

1971

Written and directed by Armando De Ossorio

A.K.A. Most Ludicrous Zombie Series Ever.

Plot Betty is a shy, introverted girl, yet she likes to have fun. While on vacation, she meets an old girlfriend, Virginia. She is happy to reunite with her after such a long time, and she also meets Virginia's boyfriend, Roger. They then invite her to join them on a trip, and she agrees. On the train, Roger flirts mildly with Betty. We learn in flashback that Betty and Virginia really were girlfriends! In a huff, Virginia stops the train and hikes off. She finds herself in an old abbey, and decides to spend the night. While sleeping, the Blind-Dead rise from their tombs in the abbey, looking like skeletons in robes and hoods, weilding swords. They wake Virginia up, and chase her down to drink her blood. Yup, the blind dead are bizarre zombie-vampire hybrids. Anyways, the next day, Roger visits Betty at her workplace, a mannequin shop which is incredibly creepy, and has her come to the morgue with him. Virginia's body is already there, having been found covered in tiny bite marks. The two decide to set off to find out what killed her. Yeah, that's right all you film geeks, it's "L'Aventura" with zombies. They make their way to the local library for some reason, where the librarian tells them about the blind dead: Back in the middle ages, the famous Knights Templar had gotten too big for their Christian Britches, and started practicing arcane blood-drinking rituals in order to live forever. Of course the local people would have none of that, and had the knights hung to death. While rotting there, birds came and plucked out their eyes, blinding them. So now they go by their sense of hearing alone. The librarian's son works near the site of the blind dead as a sort of gypsy/pirate sort of guy, so he's the prime suspect. The librarian insists they go see him and have him take them to the ruins, to clear his own name. Meanwhile, back at the morgue, Virginia has contracted a severe case of zombiosis, and kills the undertaker. She then makes her way to the creepy manniquin shop, where she stalks and kills Betty's assistant for no apparent reason. Her subplot abruptly ends here, as we never see her again. Once again, not unlike "L'Aventura". Betty and Roger meet the librarian's son, the Swarthy Pirate. He agrees to go along with them, as does his girlfriend, the Dirty Skank. When they all get to the abbey, they break up into two pairs. The Dirty Skank tries to seduce Roger, and the Swarthy Pirate rapes Betty. And that's when the blind dead start coming out to play, cementing the connection between the blind dead, and immoral sex.

Rating I give Tombs of the Rotting Dead: Four Rotting Shambling Corpses out of Five. This is a great zombie flick, and the start of an absurdly out of control series that just improves as time goes on. It's really quite surprising how little good horror has come out of Spain. In the midst of the international boom of the seventies, Spain had Armando De Ossorio's films such as this, or you had the campier efforts by Paul Naschy. And that's really all.

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