The English-dubbed version of this movie, Return of the Evil Dead, popularized the use of the generic term "evil dead" to refer to malevolent undead.
There are multiple cuts of the film. The uncut Spanish language version, El ataque de los muertos sin ojos, runs over four minutes longer than the international English-language cut, Return of the Evil Dead, and contains longer, more explicit gore sequences. The opening of the English cut contains a truncated version of the Templars' blood sacrifice before the villagers capture and kill the knights. In the Spanish version, the sacrifice flashback occurs when Murdo warns Jack and Vivian about the coming return of the Templars, and contains shots of the virgin's heart being removed and eaten by the knights. In the Return of the Evil Dead cut, Murdo does not sacrifice a local girl to incite the Templars resurrection, and when he's decapitated later in the film, the shot of his headless, spurting neck is removed. Several names are changed and/or Anglicized in the English dub of the film: the village of Bouzano is renamed Berzano, Moncha is Monica, Juan is Don, Dacosta is Howard, Beirao is Bert and Amalia's unnamed daughter is Nancy. Both versions were included on the Blue Underground DVD release of the film.
The film is the second in Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series, and the sequel to Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972). It was followed by The Ghost Galleon (1974).
Ossorio characterized the financing and production of the film as "very difficult... very complicated", and claimed he had never been paid by the distributor.[2]
De Ossorio described the film as having "political aspects", evidenced by the mayor who looks to abandon the town and save himself when the Templars attack.