Like many wonderful esthetical movements in movie history,Spanish horror— or, as it is also affably called, Fantaterror — came to be thanks to the resistance. The pushback in this case was mainly aimed against the censorship of Franco’s decaying dictatorship, since it’s a known fact that nothing encourages creativity more than restrictions.Amando de Ossorio’sTombs of the Blind Dead, which came out in 1972, was just the second horror film he made (after an already strong genre debut withMalenka, the Vampire Niecein 1969), butit managed to really jumpstart Fantaterror, laying the foundation for the wild,psychosexual style ofJesús Francoand darkly ironic outings ofJorge Grau. While de Ossorio’s colleagues tended to employ iconic monsters, such asvampiresandwerewolves,he came up with something original, while overcoming the limits of a low budget and the above-mentioned censorship— as the movie came out three years before Franco’s death and the explosion of graphic violence and sex in Spanish film.
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The story ofTombs of the Blind Deadkicks off when a young woman called Virginia jumps off a train in the middle of nowhere to avoid a tricky relationship squabble with her friends, Betty (Lone Fleming, a future genre veteran) and Roger (César Burner). As a result, she has to spend the night in the ruins of Berzano, an ancient Templar monastery, where she is promptly killed by theundead knights who rise from their graves after midnight. A little later, Betty and Roger make their way to thisforsaken placelooking for their friend and risk becoming the next victims of the bloodthirsty Templars, who are blind but can follow their prey by sound. As is easy to imagine, the plot is largely perfunctory here, serving as a carcass forinventive imagerythat can be scary, sensual, graphic, and at times, outlandish.
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Let’s get undead.
The sparseness of the plot contributed tomultiple different versions being created out ofTombs of the Blind Deadfor theatrical release in various countries. The first US version was severely watered down in comparison to the original, with several scenes involving graphic violence and lesbian sex removed. Another alternative cut also famously and hilariously tried to pass the movie as part of thePlanet of the Apesseries— this version was calledRevenge from Planet Ape, despite not featuring any apes whatsoever. It was another classic film from 1968 that is widely considered to have inspired Amando de Ossorio to come up with an idea about undead knights —George A. Romero’sNight of the Living Deadand his introduction of zombies as reanimated corpses. However,de Ossorio was always adamant that his villains weren’t traditional zombies, instead,calling them mummies on horseback with a touch of vampirism, as they strive for blood, not brains.
Despite some moments reminiscent of Romero’s classic film andthe zombie canon in general, such as the corpse’s hand emerging from the ground,Tombs of the Blind Deadalso has a very distinctive Gothic feel— what with the appearance of the knights with their lavish black capes, riding on ghost horses (one of the most iconic images in the film), the blood sucking, andthe occult practices. The middle part of the film especially doesn’t really look like a zombie film. The episode with Virginia waking up in the morgue and attacking a custodian is pure Gothic vampire style, while the scene of her stalking Berry’s unsuspecting assistant at the mannequin factory, withits disorienting tracking shots and grotesque bloody-red lighting, looks like something out of thegiallo film canonthat was on the rise in Italy.
And then,setting up an important trend for the next years of the Fantaterror tradition, there is the unabashed eroticismthis movie is filled with. Another successful attempt to spite Francoist censorship,the sexually charged scenesinTombs of the Blind Deadare actually more than meets the eye, as they serve to explore one of the favorite motives ofSpanish and Latin American genre cinema—the battle of desires and taboos that attempt to suppress them. At the start of the film, Virginia literally tries to run away from her complicated feelings towards Betty, with whom, we find out through a flashback, she had a fling some time ago, and ends up getting killed. Her appearance after she comes back to “life” in the morgue is clearly sexualized, as if she has been liberated in death and is finally able to fully explore her desires, as shown in the scene where she follows Betty’s assistant as if it was a macabre dance of seduction.
But the most significant part of this unique horror are the knights themselves. LikeRomero’s zombies, de Ossorio’s blind dead, who will eventually star in three additional sequels, aren’t only entertaining, but also meaningful. By turning knights from centuries ago into evil creatures who need human sacrifices to sustain their existence and who are relentless in their pursuit of the living,de Ossorio sets up a major theme for the generations of Spanish horror authors to come. Years later, it will be perfectly summed up inRandy’s famous video messageinScream 3: the past will come back to bite you. For all the silly fun the authors are having here,Tombs of the Blind Deadtouches allegorically upon the painful subject ofthe Spanish Civil War, depicting their evil dead as a blind, but fully conscious and ruthless force that is after anyone with a heartbeat — symbolizing thetragic past that simply refuses to let go, always coming back to dig into the present and rip it to shreds.
Tombs of the Blind Dead
