31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 23 - The Return of the Evil Dead

Return of the Evil Dead

91 mins

Dir. Amando de Ossorio

1973/ Spain

The Blind Dead are back in my favorite horror franchise, the follow up to Tombs of the Blind Dead.  Ain’t no Sam Raimi nonsense here, let’s go in slow motion and take a trip with those blind zombie templars.

Though this is the second of four movies that feature the reoccurring Blind Dead, it’s not so much a sequel as a retelling of their tale and changes things up a bit.  Kind of like how Evil Dead 2 is just a retelling of Evil Dead.  Funny how that worked out there.  So if you haven’t see Tombs, have no fear, while it is a better film, you are totally brought up to speed with Return of the Evil Dead.

Once again in our origin flash back scene, the Templar Knights are sacrificing women and drinking their blood.  This time the local town wants these heathens out and captures all the knights and tie them up.  The Knights vow their revenge.  The townsfolk burn out their eyes before setting them all ablaze to ensure that if they do come back for revenge, they won’t be able to see to find their way to the town.  The villagers are so happy with what they have done, that every year they have a festival celebrating the demise of the Knight Templars and burn effigies of the Knights.

500 years later it is time once again for the town’s festival.  This year however the village idiot decides to sacrifice a girl over the graves of the Knights in hopes of having them rise from the grave.  Why he would want to do this who knows, probably because he is constantly ridiculed and made fun of by the rest of the town, this is his way of getting revenge.  Low and behold that night with the festival in full swing the Blind Dead rise from their graves and ride in slow motion towards the town.

The Blind Dead arrive and slaughter everyone in town, only a small group escape to a church and board themselves in.  In true Night of the Living Dead style, our group of characters bicker with each other, board up windows and make harrowing escapes only to find themselves at the end of a sword from the Blind Dead.  Come morning the Knights are surrounding the church but do not move.  Since legend has it the Blind Dead are supposed to return to their graves at dawn, the last of the remaining group make their way out quietly, since the Blind Dead find you through sound since they have no eyes to see.  But one by one the zombie Knights begin to fall and our surviving characters make their way to safety.

Atmosphere goes along way with me, and the Blind Dead movies are filled with it.  The slow motion scenes of the Knights riding on their horses is stuff nightmares are made of.  Despite the low budget and red paint gore in these types of films, the Blind Dead are some of the coolest looking zombies to ever hit the screen.  Their tattered robes, rotting flesh, empty eye sockets and long thin beards make these horror icons some of my favorite monsters.

Ok grant it, the acting is stiff, the effects are simplistic and the action is limited.  The Blind Dead waste no time rising from their tombs in this movie and have a good amount of screen time.  If you are a fan of Euro horror, the Blind Dead films are a corner stone in that genre.  Maybe not for everyone, but The Blind Dead are some of my favorites.