La noche de las gaviotas

The fourth and unfortunately last instalment in the Blind Dead saga marks a return to form after the slack "Ghost Galleon". In this exploitation zombie/vampire movie a young doctor and his wife move to a god forsaken coastal village with very uncooperative townsfolk. The house that the doctor inherits is a real dive and definitely not Blind Dead proof. Soon it becomes apparent that every seven years seven local girls are led to a cliff top to be taken by the evil Templars. The fact that the girls are led up to the cliff by a pack of the ugliest crones imaginable does not help. The new doctor steps in to lend a hand and the usual Blind Dead schenanagans ensue. This is a much better film than "Ghost Galleon" and has some nice tense and gory moments. A good ending marks the end of the series of films, entertaining even when the quality dropped slightly. What is the chance of a remake or even better allow the Templars to ride again in a new instalment? Here's hoping.

You certainly can't reproach Amando De Ossorio of being lazy or repetitive, as this fourth & final installment in his terrific "Blind Dead" series is again very different in tone and content than any of the previous three. "Night of the Seagulls" is more mysterious and atmospheric than the other films and De Ossorio also throws in an compelling, albeit unoriginal, outsiders-in-a-closed-community sub plot. Young doctor Henry and his wife Joan arrive in a remote seaside village where they're given a VERY unfriendly reception by the oddly behaving locals. Only the town's nut Teddy and maiden beauty Lucy make acquaintance with the new arrivals and also inform them about the village's inescapable "pact" with the undead Templar Knights. For seven nights every seven years, the villagers have to sacrifice their virgin daughters to these eyeless zombies during a nocturnal ceremony on the beach. Okay granted, the sacrifice element in the story is definitely not new and the Templars are given less screen time than usual, but still this is a genuinely creepy exploitation highlight! You can either begin to sum up all the shortcomings and stupidities in the script (and yes, there are quite a lot of them), or enjoy the tense atmosphere and unique filming locations instead! The very weakest moments of the film – like that horribly lame ending – are somewhat more difficult to forgive, but there's graphic gore and sleaze to make up for that. By the way, did you know that skeletons that are dead for more than six centuries still bleed when you destroy them? Oh yeah, massively even! Throughout filming four similar movies, Amando De Ossorio's directing always remained solid, the choreography was always stylish, the music was always petrifying and the acting performances were always above average! That's definitely praiseworthy, too. Every single entry in the "Blind Dead" saga is highly recommended to every true horror fan.

The Spanish zombie film series known as the "Blind Dead" films finishes with this typically well done horror show. The Knights Templar are once again doing what they do best. This time, they haunt the residents of a coastal village for seven nights, every seven years. Beautiful young virgins must be sacrificed for the village to receive some semblance of peace. Into this setting come the intrepid young doctor Henry Stein (Victor Petit) and his lovely wife Joan (Maria Kosty). The locals make it clear that he is not welcome, but he insists on meddling in their business, and naturally comes to regret it.

"The Night of the Seagulls" is good and solid in the best tradition of Euro horror. It's as beautifully atmospheric as the best in the genre. Director Amando de Ossorio, who'd done all the previous entries, is in his element, and he crafts an effectively macabre outing. It's not going to be nearly gory enough for some viewers, but dwelling on the graphic violence is clearly not de Ossorios' priority this time around. It's all about the mood and the style.

One can hardly fail to notice that there is an absence of strong primary colours, therefore the picture doesn't exactly "pop". It's done in a true "black & white film in colour" manner. The music score by Anton Garcia Abril is sometimes repetitive, but overall it's eerie. The admittedly simple story plays like a nightmare come to life.

The acting is generally engaging; Henry and Joan are obviously not the brightest bulbs in the drawer, but they're not unlikable. Both Petit and Kosty are fine. Standing out are Sandra Mozarowsky as the brave Lucy, who's willing to befriend the couple, defy her peers, and divulge as much exposition as she knows, and Jose Antonio Calvo as the much abused town simpleton Teddy, for whom it's not hard to feel sympathy. The Knights Templar are as spooky and hideous as they've ever been.

Well worth watching for genre buffs.

Seven out of 10.

I saw this for the first time recently. This one is the fourth and final in the Blind Dead series n much better than the previous one. It has good atmosphere, the setting is isolated n creepy, lil nudity n the zombie horses r back once again. The film gets a bit slow but ther is sufficient tension n creepiness.

A doc along with his wife moves into a very desolated n archaic coastal town, where they are met with distrust and hatred from the locals. The couple is unaware that the town's people offer live human beings to the undead Templars who sacrifice the human beings in front of an idol n drink their blood n eat their meat.

When the knights templars weren't dead, they used to check out the boobs before stabbing the victims n aft turning into zombies, old habits die hard.

Here we go again. The Blind Dead return and this time they are holding a coastal village in a grip of terror - demanding a virgin to be chained up on the beach for seven days in a row, every seven years. Why? Don't ask me, and definitely don't ask that nice couple that have just moved in because they've obviously not seen the previous three Blind Dead films. Lucky escape for them when it comes to the third one.

You see the guy is the new doctor in town but the locals don't seem to like him or his wife, right down to plain acting as if they weren't there! The couple find this behaviour rather odd but what I found rather odd was that the new doctor had never checked out the place he and his wife were moving to and instead just turned up one day not knowing anything about the place they were staying in? What these two quickly find is that the villagers are too scared to stand up to the Blind Dead, and that they might be a bit short of virgins, or is that young ladies? When I think about it I'm not quite sure it was virgins they were after. Why am I overthinking this?

You can guess what happens next. With only the help of the odd villager (the village idiot, some young girl) the couple have to escape the clutches of the slow motion underfed Knights, but unlike the previous film, this one piles on the atmosphere. Right from the start these two unsuspecting victims find themselves right in the middle of strangeness, what with the weird villagers and such like. The pacing is much better too, so you won't get too bored.

One funny bit was when they used the Blind Dead's horses to escape, then acted surprised when the horses just went back to the Blind Dead's castle. What did you expect to happen? That's enough Blind Dead. This film holds the distinction of having the longest purchased to watched duration of any DVD in my collection. Must be about twelve years!