Curse of the Blind Dead

Curse of the Blind Dead is about what you would expect from a Blind Dead movie, not much on plot but with a decent amount of atmosphere and gore. The plot begins like some of the previous entries with the Knights Templar getting ready to perform a satanic ritual only to be stopped, blinded, and executed. The movie then transitions to the main story, which in this case is a post apocalyptic tale of a father trying to protect his pregnant daughter from scavengers and a cult that wants to sacrafice her child to the undead knights.

What I liked about this movie is that it moves at a brisk pace, the effects work on the Knights, and the gore. The Knights in particular look pretty good and it's a nice update to their look. The setting is also interesting enough, though it does feel like not enough was done with it.

If there is one thing I've learned from Blind Dead movies it's that it's never been big on story or acting, and in this regards the movie fits right in. The story is predictable, and the acting is pretty campy. Where the movie faulters though is that it doesn't capture the haunting feel when the Knights are on screen. The previous films used slow motion to give the Knights a very haunting feel, it's part of what made these movies stand out. This movie only does this once, and while it was nice to see again, it didn't capture that haunting feel.

Overall Curse of the Blind Dead is a middle of the road horror film. It's not awful, but it's also not great either. Blind Dead fans may dig it, or fans of campy movies.

Horror of the Zombies can now hold its head up high and forever cast away the shackles of being regarded as the worse Blind Dead movie.

Heck even 2009's Graveyard of the Dead/Erotic Nights of the Blind Dead felt more in keeping with the original series than this abysmal Walking Dead wannabe. The Knights Templar take forever to show up (sidelined in favour of uninteresting characters bickering amongst themselves) then when they do almost everything about their 'look' has been altered from the De Ossorio originals ('natch not for the better). They are also largely written out of the last ten minutes of the film, taking a backseat to what is obviously an attempt at building a franchise and setting up further sequels. It seems not even the blind dead are immune from the curse of 2020.

Due out on UK DVD next month (you have been warned) as 'The Curse of the Knight Templar'. They seem to be dropping the whole 'blind dead' angle for the UK, in favour of selling it as a historic adventure to the Games of Thrones crowd ...ignoring the small matter of this being a post-Apocalyptic movie!!

Let me preface by saying that I am a huge fan of the Blind Dead series. I didn't want to watch this because everything I had seen on it looked like crap. But it's free on Amazon Prime so I tried to watch.

The good; Anton Abril's score is heard in the beginning and sprinkled throughout. The composer also did a good job of blending the original music to match. And...that's about where the good ends.

Armando De Ossorio is rolling in his grave. If I were in charge of his estate I would sue these guys to remove his name from it. It has nothing on his creation. The post-apocalyptic setting is unbelievable. The idea to set it after an apocalyptic event is plain stupid as it could've been set in contemporary times. I actually had written a treatment for a Blind Dead sequel and was able to pull it off.

The original 4 films had atmosphere and were well acted and scenes were well staged. You'll get none of that here. Acting is a joke. CGI is terrible. The gore effects are decent but. It enough to redeem this train wreck of a movie. Also the Blind Dead themselves look like they're wearing Halloween club discount isle costumes and masks. The original films were low budget as well but pulled it off much much better.

I would've scored it better for the gore and music but the insult this is to Amando De Osorio is simply unforgivable.

So what was this supposed to be? A tribute to the 1972 "Tombs of the Blind Dead" movei? A tribute? A sequel? A stand-alone movie with only the shared title?

Regardless of its intention, the 2020 movie "Curse of the Blind Dead" was not really an outstanding movie. Especially since it was lacking a proper storyline. The plot and script was so weak that you could easily leave the movie for a prolonged time - say a bathroom break, snack break, etc. - and come back later and not have been missing out on anything vital to the storyline. Because there simply was nothing vital to the storyline.

Director Raffaele Picchio just shambled through the storyline at an incredibly slow pace, which really didn't do much to spruce up the overall enjoyment of the movie. In fact, the slow pacing was just helping to make the movie all the more unbearable to sit through.

However, I managed to do that, sit through the entire movie. But trust me, I was by no means entertained here. But still, being a zombiesque movie, of course I sat through the movie to the end.

I will say that while the movie was just plain boring, then "Curse of the Blind Dead" actually had adequate effects, both for the templar zombies and for the blood and gore. And that, at least, counted for something, but it just couldn't make up for the shortcomings on an improper storyline and script.

The acting in the movie was adequate, taking into consideration the total lack of proper characters, script and dialogue.

All in all, there really is no reason for bothering sitting down to watch the 2020 "Curse of the Blind Dead" movie. I am rating it a generous three out of ten stars, and that is solely based on the blood, gore and special effects.

The film has zero atmosphere, zero suspense, zero tension n it is not at all scary. It has some gore n thats it. A scene is copied from Antropophagus n Cottage, the spine removal scene. We have a snake plissken a la poor man's Kurt Russell with an eye patch. Cos of the low budget they cudnt show the roads, highways or cities in dilapidated or post apocalyptic state, so they shot the entire movie in some park or fields.