On the five hundredth anniversary of their defeat and death the Templar Knights are going to rise from the grave once again and seek vengeance and to feast on the blood of anyone that gets in their way. In the ruins of their cathedral, a group of townsfolk will stand up to the knights and try to stop them from ever rising again.

In the first three minutes of Return of the Blind Dead you get medieval titties, blood drinking, torture, eye burning and a lynching, now that’s a way to start a movie! Unfortunately after the three minute mark it begins to go downhill and aside from a few splashes of red, this one is about the same as the original film.

Once again I liked the medieval aspect and scenes of this film, after that it’s long and boring between half decent kill scenes. A lot of the same cast from Tombs of the Blind Dead show up in the sequel as well, only this time they have different names and the women get a chance to be raped by different male members of the cast. Seriously, what in the hell is the deal with the rapes in these movies? I could understand if was a random act of violence or something, but the rape always occurs at the strangest times and for the strangest reasons, “I love you, now shut up as I rape you before we both get ate by zombie knights!” Stuff like that, and the woman’s reactions are even worse.

Anyway enough about rape, the movie takes place during a celebration of the defeat of the knights and as the party rages the knights crash the party on their horses and commence to killing and terrorizing everybody who isn’t raping someone. That includes the town hunchback Murto, who tries to warn everyone, but will anybody listen to him? Nope, because if they did this would have been a real short-ass flick.

If you liked the original, you’ll like this one, I would have liked to have seen a prequel where they should how the Templars were turned to the dark side, but hey, ya get what ya get.

3 of 10

Return of the Evil Dead (or whatever you choose to call it) is not so much a sequel as it is a different movie with the same monsters. They're the same undead knights with the same former rites, but details like when they're active, who knows about them, and what happens to their victims are all new. Even the detail about why they're blind changes (here their eyes have been burned out by a lynch mob; in the first movie, they were eaten by crows). The powerful and disturbing ending of the first movie seems to've been ignored entirely.

I enjoyed this movie, though slightly less than Tombs of the Blind Dead. Except for the parts in which the Blind Dead were directly involved, the storyline reminded me of some sort of Spanish soap opera. The Templars (as they're actually called, here, as opposed to "Oriental Knights" in the first movie) are a bit less scary than in Tombs -- more vulnerable, sometimes clearly just props -- but still chilling at times, and de Ossorio's brand of inexorably-creeping-doom atmosphere is quite effective.

I thought the deranged hunchback, "Murdo," looked suspiciously like Stephen King (think "Jordy Verrill" in Creepshow). What's interesting is that Murdo's behavior and function in the movie are dramatically different in the Spanish version than they are in the heavily reedited English version.

Both this movie and Tombs at some point feature a woman trying to escape by stealing one of their undead / spectral / dirty horses, while the knights ride after her. While it's nice to see resourceful women in horror movies, what happens to the poor owner of the stolen horse? I would like to've seen a deleted scene showing the blind, mute, mummified knight slowly feeling his way around, futilely looking for his horse or any of his fellows, while the rest are off slaughtering villagers far away.

Other Thoughts
Intermittently throughout the film, the villagers themselves show a disturbing propensity for violence. Among others, the mayor, his cabinet of thugs, and even the local children have a murderous savagery to them that echoes the wrath of the lynch mob 500 years prior; it's telling that the two heroes, who by contrast are kinder people (though tough), are also outsiders. The violence and callousness amongst the populace add a certain grit to the movie, and make the Templars' bloodthirsty return appear more vengeful or even like an extension of the village's own wickedness.

Side Note
Blue Underground's DVD release has both versions of the film, and the extras include movie stills that are much racier than what you see in the movie itself.

Review Rating
6 out of 10 fireworks safety manuals that haven't been consulted