The Blind Dead Collection [Limited Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Amando De Ossorio's series of films about the "blind dead" has finally gotten the deluxe package that cult movie fans have been waiting for, thanks to Blue Underground. This lavish package presents all four of these films letterboxed in their original theatrical ratios. Tombs of the Blind Dead and Return of the Evil Dead also offer the viewer the option of watching the film in their full-length European cuts or the shortened, dubbed American versions. The other two titles, The Ghost Galleon and Night of the Seagulls, are uncut and offer viewers the option of English or Spanish soundtracks (the latter tracks featuring English subtitles). Each disc features mono soundtracks, all of them in nice condition regardless of which language option is chosen. The film discs are rounded out by trailers as well as ad and still galleries. Tombs of the Blind Dead also offers an amusing bonus called "Revenge of Planet Ape," which is an alternative title sequence that tries to pitch the film as a sequel to The Planet of the Apes. Also included is a fifth disc that pays tribute to the deceased De Ossorio. It includes a featurette about the director's career, a short interview with De Ossorio, and a text piece that is accessible via a DVD-ROM drive. The package is rounded out by Knights of Terror, a short but content-rich digest-sized magazine that synopsizes and reviews each film. The final touch is provided by amusing packaging, which houses the discs and booklet in an oblong black leather coffin-shaped carrying case. All in all, The Blind Dead Collection is an excellent package, both in terms of transfers and extras, and a must for Euro-horror buffs. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 5
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Alternate Wide Screen), 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen), 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Encoding: NTSC
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV, Color
• Subtitle: English

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Amando De Ossorio

• Producer:

  J.L. Bermuder de Castro

• Screenwriter:

  Amando De Ossorio

• Cinematographer:

  Miguel F. Mila, Raul Artigot

• Composer (Music Score):

  Antón Garcia Abril

• Editor:

  José Rojo, Petra de Nieva

• Executive Producer:

  Salvadore Romero

• Set Designer:

  Juan Garcia, Eduardo Torre de la Fuente

• Costume Designer:

  Cornejo

• Special Effects:

  Amando De Ossorio

REVIEWS:

• Amando De Ossorio's 1971 cult classic has arguably proven to be the Spanish director's best and most successful film. The chilling tale focuses on the 13th century Templars, a group of murderous, devil-worshipping knights whose desire for eternal life resulted in them being executed. Left to hang, their eyes were plucked out by hungry crows which explains their blindness as undead ghouls. The arrival of flesh-and-blood visitors awakens the blind corpses who then go on a bloody rampage in which they follow their victims by sound -- including a heartbeat in one fantastic sequence. While its low budget is obvious, De Ossorio manages to keep the film on its feet thanks to an unsettling atmosphere and copious amounts of sexuality and gore that are tame by modern standards. The bloody special makeup effects are not always realistic looking, but they are effective, with a passenger-train massacre at the climax providing the coup de grâce. Other technical credits are decent, but it is Pablo Ripoll's shadowy cinematography that stands out the most thanks to an eerie slow-motion technique that works in perfect unison with the shrill, echoey sound effects and a haunting chant-like score by Anton Garcia Abril. The performers do adequate jobs in their roles, but they all really just serve as victims to the skeletal zombies who are the real stars of the film. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• The second installment in writer/director Amando De Ossorio's Blind Dead quartet retains some of the strong atmospheric elements that made the original a cult horror hit, but the sequel's weak story and extremely low budget severely erodes its intensity. As with most sequels, this film suffers because of the constraints of the original. The influence of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead was apparent, but not obvious with Tombs. The follow-up is a much more blatant rip-off that finds the main characters barricaded in a building while the dead roam outside near a vehicle that presents the only mode of escape. De Ossorio also mistakenly makes an effort to reenact the scenes that made the first film so memorable, including a gratuitous attempted-rape and a flashback to the human Templars sacrificing a girl. The film works best during stalking sequences, as Antón Garcia Abril's chanting score, the chilling makeup design of the living dead, and the dark atmospheric sets all combine for scary fun. Things begin to stall as soon as the story traps the potential victims in one place. Logic is immediately thrown out the door, the film becomes tiresome and the cost-cutting measures become visible. Scenes of the corpses rising from their graves are actually shots lifted from the first film. The special makeup effects are primitive, but decent for the time and De Ossorio ups the body count significantly with a surprise beheading counting as the highlight. The dead are still unsettling to look at, but the film has one moment when they look like puppets on sticks. Performances are awful across the board with the actors only made worse by a horribly dubbed English soundtrack. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• The Knights Templar take to the high seas in this third installment in Amando De Ossorio's infamous Blind Dead film series. The production is obviously low-budget -- particularly when you are forced to see the same foggy shot of a Spanish galleon that is an obvious miniature -- but it is still amusing and occasionally chilling fun for fans of the series. While De Ossorio's original film was a scary shocker, the sequels attempted increasingly outrageous tactics to please viewers. For its part, El Buque Maldito combines elements of vampire films with those of The Exorcist, which was released a year earlier and was to inspire dozens of lesser films such as this one. The best is when a meteorological professor suddenly reveals his knowledge of "exorcism" by burning a homemade cross to chase the zombies back into their caskets. The graphic elements have been toned down quite a bit (there's a tame lesbian sequence and very little gore) and the ghouls are not nearly as threatening this time around (hardly any have swords), but the shipboard setting provides an interesting new venue for the Templars. There's also a well-designed shock ending that provides a fitting climax for the galleon's survivors. As with all of his Blind Dead films, De Ossorio comes up with a good concept that is weakened by screenwriting gaffs such as ludicrous plot turns and inane characters who appear unable to think with any degree of logic. Then again, since they only serve as victims for the ghouls, it doesn't make much difference. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi
• Director Amando De Ossorio's final installment in the four-part Blind Dead series marks a significant improvement over the previous two sequels Return of the Blind Dead and El Buque Maldito. It has the usual low-budget shortcomings, recycled footage, and badly dubbed soundtrack, but De Ossorio manages to back up the film's eerie, atmospheric look with a compelling script that has strong characters for once and an intriguing story about a seaside town held in the grip of the Templar curse. The curious title, Night of the Seagulls, refers to the many birds that fly at night over the village. As one character explains, the gulls are the souls of the young women who the townsfolk have offered as sacrifices to the Templars. The lone negative to the story is the ending which proves to be anti-climactic considering how much more ferocious the zombies attack in this picture than in the previous films. The gory special makeup effects are minimal, but effective with the highlights coming at the beginning (a heart is torn from a woman's chest) and the end (a skeletal knight lays prone with blood pouring from its empty eye sockets). Two of the technical elements common to all of the Blind Dead films, the echoey, slow-motion attack sequences and the chanting score by Antón Garcia Abril, once again prove crucial to this film's scary atmosphere. ~ Patrick Legare, Rovi