Return of the Evil Dead

Director: Amando de Ossorio Amando de Ossorio

Overview

The satanic Templars return for more bloodletting and mayhem in this sequel to Tombs of the Blind Dead. This time around, the Templars are shown in flashback killing and drinking the blood of a virgin -- a process by which they hope to achieve eternal life. Local villagers arrest them, scald out their eyes with their torches, and burn the knights at the stake. This differs from the first film which had a legend explaining that crows ate out the Templars' eyes after they had been hung. Either way, the evil blind knights awaken during a festival celebrating the 500th anniversary of their defeat at the hands of the villagers. The drunken shouts of partygoers are quickly replaced by screams at the sight of the skeletal zombies and the massacre is on. A group of survivors -- including fireworks ace Jack, his old flame Vivian, the town's crooked mayor, and a few other eventual victims -- all gather in an old church that is quickly surrounded by the saber-swinging ghouls. One by one, they make idiotic moves that get them killed until only Jack, Vivian, and a little girl remain. As dawn approaches, they make their move to escape in a tense climactic scene that ends in a surprisingly effective twist. Tombs of the Blind Dead was followed by El Buque Maldito.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/26/2006
UPC:	0827058105491
Original Release:	1972
Rating:	NR
Source:	Blue Underground
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	29,728

Special Features

Theatrical trailer; Poster & still gallery

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Tony Kendall	Jack
Esperanza Roy	Vivian,Actor
Lone Fleming	Amalia
Joseph Thelman	Juan
Frank Brana	Howard
Fernando Sancho	Mayor Duncan
Luis Barboo	Cabellero
Jose Canalejas	Murdo
Frank Blake	Actor
Víctor Petit	Actor
Antón Abril	Composer

Technical Credits

Amando de Ossorio

Amando de Ossorio

Director,Screenwriter,Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

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.