Último deseo

Strong suspense with considerable violence by that time : the early and middle Seventies . The plot is plain and simple : a bunch of wealthy businessmen , doctors and military officers who are partying at an old house , then occurs a nuclear accident and subsequently they venture out into the nearest little town to search for supplies as well as food and meet most of the residents blinded by the outbursting . As a catastrophe turns all of humanity into blindness , a group of bourgeois people and prostitutes stay suffering on earth in a post-apocalypse , while becoming themselves into reluctant victims and cruel assassins , then several surprises to take place . Meanwhile , lots of infected people are crawling , shambling , through empty streets , whimpering , pleading , begging for his loves ..Now ... there is nothing between you and ... "the people who own the dark".

Creepy , scary and violent movie in which a bunch of rich businessmen are spared when a nuclear war ravages the earth , and they discover the existence of a sinister and brutal group called ¨The People Who Own The Dark¨ . This is an original as well as effective cross-fertilization of doomsday fantasy and Gothic myth . It suggests compellingly the darkest and sinister themes of Richard Matheson 1954 novel , frequently adapted as ¨The last man on Earth¨ . As the story takes parts here and there of ¨The Last man on Earth¨ by Sidney Salkow , ¨The Omega man¨ by Boris Sagal , and ¨The night of living dead¨ by George A Romero . Main cast is pretty good , such as : the veteran Argentine actor Alberto De Mendoza , the extremely gorgeous Nadiuska , the terror legend Jacinto Molina and Maria Perschy who time ago worked for Howard Hawks . And support cast is full of familar faces such as : Teresa Gimpera , Emiliano Redondo , Julia Saly , Ricardo Palacios , Tomás Picó , Diana Polakov , Antonio Mayans , among others . Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Miguel Milá , shot on location in Torrelodones ,Alcalá de Henares, Miraflores de la Sierra ,Talamanca del Jarama, Madrid . And frightening and suspenseful musical score by by Asins Arbó .

The motion picture was compellingly directed by Leon Klimovsky . This Argentinean filmmaker Leon Klimovsky was a good and prolific craftsman . Klimovsky was born on October 16, 1906 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as León Klimovsky Dulfano . Founded Argentina's first film club in 1929 . Began his film career making short movies . Settled in Spain in the 1950s and became a Spanish citizen . He was a director and writer , known for his terror films as La Noche De Walpurgis (1971), La Orgía Nocturna De Los Vampiros (1973) , La Saga De los Drácula , La Rebelión De Las Muertas , Doctor Jekyll Y Hombre Lobo , but he also directed other genres as Wartime : Operación Rommel , A Ghentar Si Muore Facile , The Legion of No Return ; thriller : Mean Mother ; Western : Reverendo Colt , 2000 dollars for Coyote , Few Dollars for Django, Death Knows No Time , Rattler Kid , A dollar for Sartana ; and Drama : La Casa De Las Chivas , Salto a La Gloria . Rating . 6.5/7 . Decent , almost notable terror and thriller movie .

Well, don't get me wrong, this has a nice plot, the acting is better than most films of its type and the direction is nice. But that can't disguise the fact while the movie was good, the ending was just atrocious. I definetely would have given this movie three and a half stars, but due to the lame ending, gave this one only two.

ULTIMO DESEO is the longer, Spanish language version of what Americans saw as THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK. An inspired reworking of George Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, Klimovsky's film posits a nuclear war in Europe that blinds the populace (a la THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS), but spares a handful of libidinous businessmen and military types who were copulating in a rural bordello. When the villagers learn of the sighted survivors, they storm the villa in a manner very much like (and superior to) the undead in Romero's classic chiller. Alberto deMendoza (HORROR EXPRESS), Teresa Gimpera, Maria Perschy and Paul Naschy all star (and were given anglicized monikers - Albert Mennen, Terry Kemper, Mary Pershing and Paul Mackey - to fool us boorish Yanks. Although rare, this film does exist on video, albeit in out of print and bootleg copies of less than pristine quality. Still, the film packs a punch and should be seen.

The People Who Own the Dark is effectively a reworking of the classic horror film Night of the Living Dead; also taking influence from British horror flick The Day of the Triffids. The film has a really great premise and I was looking forward to it for that reason; in spite of all the critical reviews I've read, but unfortunately the film really doesn't make the best of what it has to offer. It's partly down to the fact that it features a very low budget; but the uneven script, which means the film is good in places and very boring in others, doesn't exactly help either. The plot focuses on a party in an old castle. All the partygoers are rich businessmen, and their fun is spoiled by a nuclear war which, aside from shaking the building, also leaves most of the population blind. The inhabitants of the castle venture outside eventually but get into trouble upon meeting with the newly blinded citizens as they appear to have become mad from the trauma and set out to maim and kill those who still have their sight.

The film is directed by León Klimovsky and stars his long time collaborator Paul Naschy. The pair worked together on a couple of Naschy's rubbishy "Homo-Lobo" films as well as the decent Giallo A Dragonfly for Every Corpse. Naschy is one of the major stars of seventies horror; but his role here is very limited and really he's little more than a co-star, which is a shame because the best thing about Paul Naschy films tends to be Paul Naschy. The film does feature a fairly good atmosphere and the director helps the film by putting forward a truly hopeless feeling. The first half of the film really is very boring; the director merely shows us the central characters, none of which are very interesting, and the build up to the party is boring also. Things do get a bit better in the second half as the action starts to take centre stage; and while it's not as good as the films it takes influence from, it is at least fairly entertaining. It all boils down to a dark and depressing ending which is often hated; although I kind of liked it. Overall, The People Who Own the Dark is a disappointing horror movie and not worth going out of your way for.

This film might play as some kind of parable about the rich and the poor, or perhaps the Franco regime, or some crap like that. What we in the instant world of 2018 need to know is: are there plenty of boobs and gore in this film?

The answer of course is there's some boobs and not a lot of gore, but it's worth a watch anyway. It's got Paul Naschy in it. And he's plays a complete jerk.

He's a Baron or something of a huge villa where the rich go to play out weird sex games in the basement. We get to meet our elite first - a couple of doctors, a lawyer, the Madame who runs the plays, and we get to meet out hookers: the red-head, the blonde one, the black one and I think at least two were gay as well. I've got to admit the film does spend quite a bit of time establishing why we should this lot before the men all don weird masks and the women throw on see-through gowns and head to the cellar.

It's lucky for them that while they're down there a nuclear war breaks out and everyone 'up top' is blinded by the flash. Our rich folk/hooker team head back upstairs to find the help staggering about blind, and do what any rich enclave would do: Head into town to steal all the food from all the blind people that clearly need help while also killing a few of those blind folk and causing a huge siege situation back at the mansion. Remember those poor folks in Day of the Triffids? Well, imagine a really angry, violent version of them and you've got this film.

People compare this to Night of the Living Dead and Last Man on Earth and that's because it is basically those films, only with Paul Naschy and the priest guy from Horror Express in it. That doesn't mean it's a bad film though. It's good. I still haven't watched a Paul Naschy film I haven't liked, and this one seems to have a bigger budget than most. Who doesn't want to see a bunch of angry blind people get their own back on a bunch of jerks?