The Tombs Of The Blind Dead Review
By Keith Breese
Very Good
Spanish horror cinema was never able to break out of the European schlock ghetto like Italian genre cinema was. Few American cinephiles that recognize Dario Argento (Suspiria) know the name Amando De Ossorio. Unfortunately most of those who do inhabit a twilight realm, hovering somewhere between grindhouse horrors and the nether reaches of the mainstream. De Ossorio wasn't a consummate craftsman but he was a visionary. His films tend to be weak on plotting (a charge leveled at Argento frequently) but extremely atmospheric and horrifying.
It is because De Ossorio lets this series of four films linger on his marvelously designed "zombies" - the eponymous blind dead - that the films have achieved such vaulted cult status. Unlike traditional zombies, the blind dead are wholly un-human. They have aspects of both vampire and ghoul and roam about the nightmarish Spanish countryside on skeletal steeds (true night-mares). Ah, but these guys are blind, right? As the ads touted: "Don't let them hear your heart beating!" These are indeed, Goyaesque hallucinogenic visions come to life.
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