La Noche del Terror Ciego

La Noche del Terror Ciego (1972)

Genres - Mystery, Thriller  |   Sub-Genres - Gothic Film  |   Release Date - Feb 1, 1973 (USA)  |   Run Time - 101 min.  |   Countries - Spain, Portugal  |   MPAA Rating - PG
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Review by Patrick Legare

Amando De Ossorio's 1971 cult classic has arguably proven to be the Spanish director's best and most successful film. The chilling tale focuses on the 13th century Templars, a group of murderous, devil-worshipping knights whose desire for eternal life resulted in them being executed. Left to hang, their eyes were plucked out by hungry crows which explains their blindness as undead ghouls. The arrival of flesh-and-blood visitors awakens the blind corpses who then go on a bloody rampage in which they follow their victims by sound -- including a heartbeat in one fantastic sequence. While its low budget is obvious, De Ossorio manages to keep the film on its feet thanks to an unsettling atmosphere and copious amounts of sexuality and gore that are tame by modern standards. The bloody special makeup effects are not always realistic looking, but they are effective, with a passenger-train massacre at the climax providing the coup de grĂ¢ce. Other technical credits are decent, but it is Pablo Ripoll's shadowy cinematography that stands out the most thanks to an eerie slow-motion technique that works in perfect unison with the shrill, echoey sound effects and a haunting chant-like score by Anton Garcia Abril. The performers do adequate jobs in their roles, but they all really just serve as victims to the skeletal zombies who are the real stars of the film.