Le retour des morts-vivants

I started watching this sequel to Tombs of the Blind Dead, and at first was remarkably unimpressed. But by the final minute of the film, I had watched a stirring, atmospheric film that, by a slight nod, bested its original. Again we have the evil Knights Templar out for an evening of murder and mayhem at a village festival celebrating their deaths. The film drags a bit in the beginning, and the dubbing is rather poor on the Anchor Bay video(despite advertising subtitles instead). But once the leprous, rotting, decaying Knights break from their earthy pits to exact their vengeance on the villagers, the film starts and remains at a high, fast, tense, frightening pace with some wonderful filmed images. The basic premise of the film has a group of survivors holed up in a Church and what becomes of them through the dark night. The acting is fair, and the actor playing the mayor is humorous in a way. If you enjoyed the first film, I am sure you will like this sequel. I look forward with anticipation to watching the third and fourth installments of this gothic, moody series.

A rural Portuguese village is preparing to celebrate the annual festival commemorating when their village overran and killed the Templar Knights who had been sacrificing its villagers. The mayor of the village on the advice of his fiancé Vivian, hires a fireworks expert Jack Marlowe, to ensure the festival is a hit, little knowing they have a past. Jack and Vivian immediately rekindle their passions in the ruins of the local abbey, where they are spied on by the village idiot, Murdo, he regales them with the gory history of the abbey and how the Templars had their eyes burned out in case they returned to avenge their deaths, which they swore they would. He tells them that the Templars will return tonight during the festival and he duly has a secret plan to sacrifice a local girl to ensure the curse of the Templars comes true. Sure enough the dead arise, and seek to avenge their deaths, they ride into town to kill all they encounter, Jack and Vivian along with the mayor and his cronies hide out in the village church and with the mayors pleas to the local authorities ignored, they must fight for their lives. Pretty decent follow up to de Ossorio's Tombs of the Blind dead, some striking Gothic visuals and just a little gore make this a sight to behold, things are also spiced up by a bevy of local beauties. The Blind Dead makeup and costumes are also very effective even if their pace is a tad slower than a comatose sloth.

I really enjoyed Tombs Of The Blind Dead (1972) it blew me away and left me really excited for the other three movies in the franchise.

Sadly I knew it was too good to be true as this second film is very underwhelming by comparison.

The first thing that struck me is the timeline. Is this a sequel? prequel? remake? Every potential answer to that has an valid argument against it so I was already more than a little frustrated.

The film does however have most of the strengths of the first film, the concept is great and the cast do a good job. Sadly the plot is hit and miss this time and honestly a great deal of mistakes were made in its creation.

Return Of The Evil Dead isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination it's just a let down after the outstanding Tombs Of The Blind Dead.

This time we see the blind dead raise from their graves to assault the near by village who are in the middle of annual festivities and ripe for the slaying.

Watchable second film but not the best start to carrying on a franchise.

The Good:

Most of the cast

The Bad:

Confusing timeline

The big "Battle" has to be one of the dullest fight scenes ever

Couple of the effects are really screwy

Weak ending

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Blind Dead zombies can walk around in a near skeletal form but die from being impaled

Asking a little girl to be blindfolded, telling her its a game, asking if she wants to play with you and telling her she's not allowed to make any noise has to be one of the most unintentionally uncomfortable scenes in movie history

It is hard to deny Amando De Ossorio's talent behind the camera--the man knows how to make even the most foreboding locales postcard-pretty. His writing, on the other hand, is a different story..."Return of the Evil Dead" is essentially a plot less rehash of "Tombs of the Blind Dead," with a liberal helping of "Night of the Living Dead" thrown into the mix. I don't have a problem with movies borrowing from each other, but "Return" is so bereft of story and interesting characters that the whole thing becomes kind of tedious. While "Tombs" didn't really spring to life until its impressive climax, Ossorio does a much better job integrating the resurrected Templars into the film--mostly filmed in mid- and long-shots set against dark sets, they exude more menace this time out (also drawing attention away from their creaky marionette movements); problem is, the action scenes revolving around the Templars go on far too long, diluting their presence. And underneath the surface, there isn't much going on here--a bunch of forgettable, cliché characters hole up in an unusually well-lit church to hold out against the Templar menace--subplots involving a greedy Mayor, a jealous lover, and a lost child ensue. Ho hum. To "Return"'s credit, the opening Templar slaughter is effective, as is a suspenseful child retrieval scene, and the climax is chilling. Too bad everything in between is beautiful to look at but aesthetically mediocre.

The Return of the Blind Dead is not so much a sequel as it is a retelling. The original writer/director, Amando de Ossorio, is back on board for this, in my opinion, superior outing. That's right, I said superior. It's got a better storyline and it's not boring once. The pacing is right on the money. Unlike the original, there's no part where the action is lagging and there are a couple of laughs even. Despite this, it's still not a good horror movie. I think they should have combined their efforts and put the two films together; the make-up and general style of the first, and the action and claustrophobia of the second. They could have made one decent horror flick instead of two mediocre ones.