Five hundred years ago, a Knights Templar cult practiced human sacrifice. They would cut out the heart of their female victims, drink their blood and eat their hearts. The cult was captured by a mob from the village of Bouzano, Portugal. They were tied and blinded before they were set on fire. The leader (Luis Barboo) swore revenge on the village. In present day, the village is preparing for a celebration of the event and Mayor Duncan (Fernando Sancho) has hired Jack Marlowe (Tony Kendall) to provide fireworks for the festivities. The mayor’s secretary is Vivian (Esperanza Roy). The mayor believes that Vivian belongs to him, but Vivian and Jack have a past. They rekindle their relationship and Jack asks Vivian to leave with him when he goes.
That night the town’s cripple, Murdo (Jose Canalejas) kidnaps a young woman from the village and offers her as a blood sacrifice to the Templers. The sacrifice reanimates the evil Knights. The Templers mount their dead horses and ride toward the village. On the way they stop at the house of Monica (Loreta Tovar) who is having a rendezvous with her lover Juan (Jose Thelman). They kill Juan. Monica manages to escape and steals one of the dead horses. She stops at a railway station to try to convince the station master (Francisco Sanz) that the zombie Templers are coming. When he sees the dead horse, he is convinced and tries to contact the mayor.
The mayor is more interested in having Jack beat up but is interrupted by the station manager’s call. The call is interrupted when the Templers break into the station and kill the manager. Not knowing what is going on the mayor sends two henchmen, Howard (Frank Brana) and Bert (Ramon Lillo) to check it out. When they see the dead Knights Templar heading for the village, they take a short cut back to town and warn the mayor. The mayor tries to contact the Governor (Juan Cazalilla). The Governor believes that Mayor Duncan is drunk. The Governor hangs up on the mayor as the dead Knights Templar enter the city to exact their revenge.
“Return of the Blind Dead” AKA “El ataque de los muertos sin ojos” AKA “Return of the Evil Dead” was released in 1973 and was written and directed by Amando de Ossorio. It is a Spanish horror movie and the second of four Ossorio films known as the “Blind Dead” series. The other films were “Tombs of the Blind Dead” 1972, “The Ghost Galleon” 1974 and “Night of the Seagulls” 1975.
There are several versions of the film out there. Some have a lot of parts cut out and some don’t. The main versions are the original Spanish version and the European dubbed version titled “The Return of the Evil Dead”. The second version has four minutes of gore and blood cut out. There is a list of the cut parts on IMDb. The version I have is titled “The Return of the Evil Dead” but it appears to be the full movie. I’m not sure where it came from.
The movie is a little on the long side and, to me, wasn’t quite as compelling as the first movie in the series, however, the special effects done to create the dead Templers is still perfect. As far as sequels go it is far better than most of them out there. If you can get the longer version, then you will have all the blood and gore that Ossorio intended. As far as zombie Templers go, it is eerie and the fact that there are more of them this time is a little bit on the flesh crawling side.
Most of the festival scenes were shot at Plaza de la Iglesia in El Vellon in Madrid, Spain.