Weirdhouse Cinema: Return of the Blind Dead

fourth episode that jumps into a franchise with the second film. Um, we did this with Boggy Creek To, we did this with transfers To, and I guess you could make an argument that we did this with troll To, though of course troll Too had nothing to do with Troll one. Uh so that's debatable. Did you actually comb through all of our titles to verify this? Well, I mean I have a list of of episodes we've done, so okay, it wasn't much coming, but I didn't I scanned it

real quick. Wait a minute, Wait a minute, Wait a minute, I think you're forgetting one. What's that The Ewalk Adventure movie we did was indeed, as you're right, that's right, that was a sequel. Oh and you know what, technically, Teams in the Universe also a sequel, so make that this This would be what number six then, um, the sixth film that we've looked at that is a sequel to another film. Um, so here we go. It's good. We're gonna be talking about Return of the Blind Dead

a k a. Return of the Evil Dead. Also another another exploitation horror movie from the seventies that is badly in need of a bath, Rob, How did you dig up this abomination? This is what I've I've been familiar with for a while. I think I actually used to have the first two of these, the first two Blind Dead films on DVD like Ages Past, and lost them at some point or traded a man or gave them away and figured I would never need to go back

and watch a Blind Dead film again. Uh. And yet, as these things, as these things tend to work, eventually the thirst returned and I had to to go out and watch these films again, or at least the second one. Here. This one was the first for me in a number of ways. I I know I've seen some Spanish horror movies from the seventies before. I'm struggling to think of what they are, but I know I have. But this was the first movie that I can recall seeing that

had zombies riding horseback. Yes, yeah, this one so so, this is this is an interesting film from a number of different perspectives. First of all, just as a Spanish horror film. We'll get into this a little bit, but it does have kind of an important place. It is a key nineteen seventies Spanish horror film, uh that ultimately had a big impact on that on that genre, in that world of filmmaking. It's one that also has acquired

a cult following over the years. You'll see it often something you'll see it associated with kind of I guess kind of like doom rock kind of vibes. You know. It does have like, it has several of the elements, you know, the idea of like blackhooded figures writing at night, weird sound owns, they have big swords, uh. So, and yeah,

it is in many respects. I mean, it is a zombie film basically, but it it has this interesting place kind of sandwich between the like the George Romero era of zombie films with the First Night of the Living Dead, uh, and then bridging the way to the gorrier realm of zombie films that was to come both in the United

States and in Europe. Yeah, I agree. So if you look at like Night of the Living Dead as a I don't know, you could argue a more cerebral horror film, something that's independent, original, kind of thoughtful, and it is very dialogue driven, almost could function as a stage play. Um, this is a little bit closer to that that full cheese zombie zone where it's it's more just about kind of like fluids coming out of people's bodies and things

being really gross. Now, one of the interesting things about our experience here today is that we each watch slightly different cuts of the film. Uh Then I went back and watched portions of the cut that you watched, But the one that I watched is like a minute shorter and has a little less gore in it, and is missing one crucial scene that we'll get to here in a bit. Uh So, so you probably encountered just a little more of the oozing juices compared to it to

what I saw initially. But still there's some dripping blood in in my cut as well. But this movie is

not just a zombie movie. It also ties into some strange, uh pseudohistorical themes about the Knights Templar being warlocks or something Yeah, So you don't really need to know anything about the Knights Templars in order to watch this film, but I thought we'd tell you just a minimum of what they were and what they were not, so that you can maybe have a little more historical understanding of what we're gonna be talking about here, because this whole

film is about uh Templars who have come back from the grave, that have come back with a thirst for human blood, or at least to kill people. I don't know, it's debatable how much blood they actually want to drink or if they just want to kill people. I don't

recall them drinking any blood after they come back. The drinking blood, I think, is what allows them to come back in the future, Right, Yeah, when they're living nights, they're all about drinking blood and doing bloody sacrifices and rituals. But once they come back from the dead, they're just about riding their horses around, invading the town, climbing into your house and coming at you with a long sword. Okay,

So what's the deal with these knights? Okay, So when we're talking about the Templars or the Knights Templars, we're talking about the poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon. This was a religious military order of the Catholic Church during the time of the Crusades. Now, their original purpose was to serve as protectors for pilgrims who are on their way to the Holy Lands. But as you can imagine with this sort of thing, a kind of power creep occurred. So after a while they were

given free rein to move across borders. They were made exist from taxes. They ended up playing key military roles in various battles all of the Crusades, sometimes serving as kind of like shock troopers. But UM in addition to military roles, their non warriors also played UH kind of a key role during the Crusades, managing the movement of funds across the vast distances all of the Crusades and

setting up a kind of proto banking system. So they became powerful, They made powerful enemies, and as the Crusades failed, they ended up taking a lot of the blame. And so finally you have filled the Fourth of France with the aid of Pope Clement the Fifth, then based in France, UH, they worked together to suppress the order and also bring UH. These various false charges of blasphemy and heresy against them, things like the idea that they worshiped a severed head

and engaged in you know, all manner of depravities. And as a result of this, uh, the Order was dissolved. Uh. Some members were burned at the steak, I think fifty six in total, including Grand Master Jacques de Malay and others were Other members of the Order were absorbed into different militaries and different organizations, or they were just sort

of you know, retired. Um. So you can roughly measure the Crusades as as having lasted from ten to twelve ninety one, and then the Templars themselves lasted as as an organization from eleven nineteen to thirteen twelve. But beyond their actual role in history, the Templars have clearly been an object of fascination for especially people of a more pseudo historiographical bent, people who were trying to sort of like,

we've conspiracy theories through medieval history. Absolutely yeuh, and you see, you know this this is all over the board because you see so many sort of you know, tragedy conspiracy books that involved the Knights Templars. But but also I mean on two levels. First of all, you have people

like on Burgo Echo factoring them into fucos pendulum. But you also have very very you know, very strong, very serious histories they concerned the Templars because they were they were a very fascinating group that was that was involved in a very dynamic time of human history. That being said, when you throw in all these uh accusations of of blasphemy and heresy, you have the mysteries associated with them. Uh, you know, it just opens itself up to so many

different conspiracy theories and crazy ideas. And yes, it's a great hook for the creation of some sort of a movie monster and from what Again. I haven't seen any of the other movies in this series, but in this one, the premise seems to be, Okay, these Nights, the Templars, they were warlocks. You know, they did evil magic and uh, and people didn't like that, so they killed them. But you know what, what warlocks do. They come back from

the dead, right, And that's basically the premise. That's all you really need to know. Uh though I guess the other key thing is that they're not only the dead, they are the blind dead. They cannot see so they're functioning in this kind of sightless way that's has been explored in other films. I think we actually got into this a little bit with the hopping vampires of Mr Vampire, UM and and I and what I guess we have

some contemporary films as well. Right, Uh, there's there was something with Jim from the office like don't make a sound, don't don't be noisy. A quiet place, A quiet place, yes, yeah, yeah, like a similar thing. Be quiet, so the monsters don't get you. Yeah yeah, yeah, that's the monsters are blind, but they have supersensitive hearing. Yeah so same basically, same deal, some similar situation. And that that was another part of

like the key cell on these films. Now, when I say these films, I'm generally referring to the four essentially standalone pictures, all the work of the Spanish filmmaker Armando d o Sario. He did four Blind Dead films. The first was Tombs of the Blind Dead and seven D two and that's basically vacation ers encounter the Blind Dead.

Then he did Return of the Blind Dad. The pictures are discussing here today in seventy three, that's locals encounter The Blind Dead, and then he did The Ghost Gallleon in nineteen seventy four, which is basically The Blind Dead plus a ghost ship. And then finally he did Night of the Seagulls in nineteen seventy five, which is The Blind Dead with a coastal setting and a love crafty and element thrown in as well. I've only seen the first two thus far, but I've been tempted. I've been

tempted to get to go to to go ahead. Like basically, there's a lot of debate of these films, like which one is the best and which one is the worst. And you'll find connoisseurs land in different places. I've seen. I've seen people. A lot of people are like, Nope, it's only the first one. I've seen people who say, no, the second one, returning The Blind Dead is the best. Uh. Some people are actually like, nope, the Ghost Gallion, that's

the one. I think I saw someone say Night of the seagull So it's it's it's it's kind of all over the place, depending on I guess what exactly you're looking for in an undead, blind, medieval night movie. What what is the forum for these debates? Oh? I don't know, you see just different different posts about these movies. Um. I saw an interview with the lead singer of Electric Wizard where he referred to the one he liked the most. Uh, I think he likes the Ghost Gallion the most. Okay,

so you know, it's it's all over the place. I guess it depends on what your particular tastes are. So far, my favorite is this one, though it's hard to imagine the other one's having human villains as profound as like

the mayor and all of the creeps in this one. Yeah, this one has a great lineup of human creeps that That's one of the main things I noticed about It is basically like essentially except for the main character Jack and like one other guy, every other dude in this movie is cartoonishly cowardly, selfish, and misogynistic and just like awful scumbags. Yeah yeah that. The elevator pitch I came

up with for this film is Undead Crusader. Nights are back for the dead, but we can surely handle it if all the men in town are not dirt back. But of course almost all of them are dirt back,

so most of the people in town are doomed. Now before we move forward that I do want to touch on one other things concertainly just the nature of these films, because because one thing I was I like to think about is okay when you have something like this occur, when you have a series of four films that are that are influential, seemed to have hit a nerve, but are also unlike uh so many other films, they seem to exist in isolation. You find yourself asking, well, what

are these films like? Where do they emerge from? And sort of the you know, the Spanish mindset of the day, or you know, culture and politics of that period. And of course one way of looking at is okay, well, sorry, was just he just had it came up with a cool twist on the zombie format, right lean into history a little bit, throwing a little wild hunt. Maybe maybe you've read Lord of the Rings and you when you

throw a little Nascal in there. I don't know, there's so many different ways you could basically come up with these same results. Oh yeah, I didn't think about it. But the blind dead in this film are kind of nasgal. They're they're sort of ghostly or otherworldly undead writers with swords, yeah, and have at least a different sensory realm that they inhabit. Yeah.

So I wanted to read more about this. I was like, all right, somebody, somebody has bound to have explored this, and I found an article titled Spanish Zombie Films by Alex del Almo Ramon published in the journal Coolabah, and the author argues that prior to the sixties and seventies, Spanish fantasy and horror cinema was just severely repressed due to quote the repression that was still being meted out by the Church Catholic power and the harsh dictatorship imposed

by General Franco. Another element that they point out is that in nineteen four Spain's news Standards for Film Development initiative opened the door for co productions and the international growth of Spanish cinema. And then on top of that, there was a big corruption case at the time involving loans to Spanish cinema production. So for both reasons, low

budget horror movies were suddenly just a smart investment. Uh. They point out that despite the fact that Spanish horror and fantasy films only numbered something like three hundred or so during the sixties and seventies. Total, almost a hundred films were shot between sixty nine and seventy three, so

the ideas cheap movies, cheap thrills immediately profitable. But in all of that, I think the thing that I latched onto the most of this idea that you know, this inside about state and church repression being uh, you know, you know, because ultimately with this film, we have these horrifying creatures all of the church that rise up against

the townsfolk and corrupt politicians are ultimately powerless to stop them. Now, of course, I think if you were going to try to defend this movie against charges of blasphemy or something, you would say that like, oh, well, they're not The knights in this movie are not true Christians. They're they're devil worshipers in secret, right right, Though apparently I was reading that he was very concerned there were a number of challenges to making this film and pretty much all

the films that sorry it did. But uh, in the first film, if you go back and watch it, you'll see that the the the templars, the blind dead all clearly have not a not a cross on their chest, not a templar across, but instead they have the ONC on their chest instead. And and that was in part a direct choice to try and prevent uh, you know,

accusations of of inappropriateness because he didn't. He was like, I don't want to shoot this film and then they're gonna come back and say, I'm sorry, you have to take all the parts with the blind dead out. So he said it was safer to just go with an alternate, you know, crucifix design. So these Nights just happened to be followers of the Egyptian religion or something. Well. Remember part of the plot is that they went off to foreign lands and they they learned foreign concepts, including the

secret of immortality. It's not a very good form of immortality. This is something I've wanted to bring up about a number of movies that have some kind of demonic figure Van Empire, Zombie whatever that says, you fools, you know you you can strike me down, but I will come back from the grave. I will live forever. But in almost every case, it looks like the form they get to come back in their immortality does not look very

pleasant for them. I mean, are they are they having a good time being these rotted corpses that are having to chase down the villagers. I mean, it doesn't really seem like functional immortality. It just seems like, well, your body can kind of come back and lumber around and do some violence. I mean, I guess it's just the whole, you know, trope of clinging to life, of of putting upmost importance on the mortal existence, right, even if the

mortal existence is reduced by it. Right, I guess it's a symbol of a certain kind of imagined vanity, right that you would it's more important that you continue to be animate than what the what form that that life takes. Yeah, but certainly these are some of my favorite like Mad Scientists and Wizard Care. There's from fiction where they clear clearly this was a terrible choice. You made a terrible choice. But I don't know, maybe they're they're they're thinking, ha,

pulled one over on death this time. Should we hear some of that trailer, Yes, let's hear. I'm not sure if we may even play the whole trailer, so just be prepared. Sometimes we play a clip, we might play the whole thing, because it's just a fabulous nineties seventies grindhouse trailer, and I should, uh, I should remind you that this is using the English title for the film The Return of the Evil Dead. Terror once again tricks,

It's legendary course, making your flesh creep with pleasure. Night when the unliving rise again from their graves, you will tremble with the return of the Evil Dead, hell born revenge by which there is no assurance of protection. Or will you escape the fear, the anxiety which the return of the Evil Dead provokes a new high and excitement? Help me The Return of the Evil Dead. The Return of the Evil Dead with Tony Kendall and Fernando Sancho,

The terrifying thriller of the year. Do not attend this film alone. We suggest you bring at least one large part to hold you tightly. The Lifeless Horseman will make this theater into a living horror. The Return of the Evil Dead, The Return of the Evil Dead. Are you sure you're in a fit condition and don't scream? All right? Oh man? I love this trailer so much for starters it makes. It makes several promises or statements about what is going to happen when you see this film. They're

trying to get you to sign that contract. Right. They let you know. It's almost like the side effects list on a medication. They let you know that your flesh will creep with pleasure, you'll tremble your Also, fear and anxiety are going to be unavoidable. You will get high. You should not attend this film alone. You should bring at least one large partner to hold you tight. The theater itself will become quote a living horror. I'm not

sure what that means, but it sounds impressive. You need to make sure you were in fit condition to see this film, so I guess consider going to your doctor and making sure that you're cleared. And then also, don't scream. Not it's a good idea not to scream. I guess it's in case the Blind Dead also infiltrate the theater. It's the opposite of the Tingler. Yeah, well, the thing that's right, the Tingler you had to scream to alleviate

the growing monster in your what your spinal colm. I mean, in general, this trailer does have a strong William Castle quality to it, and that it's Yeah, it's making lots of promises about what the film will deliver and saying like, I don't know if you're up to it. I don't know, you know, we dare you to see this film. Oh and then that's the other thing too that I love about it. I love a movie trailer that repeats the name of the moves movie multiple times, and this one

does it. It says that is some of you may have noticed that the narrator said as the return of the Evil Dead six times and in less than two minutes. It reminds me of those great old radio spots for Zombie that would just be like Zombie. Oh, it's got my arms, Zombie. No one under seventeen will be admitted. All right, shall we get into some of the people here involved in this film? All right? Well, you already mentioned the director Amando di Osorio. Yes, director, also writer,

and he also did special effects on this one. So he lived nineteen eighteen through two thousand and one, one of the key names in the nineteen seventies Spanish horror resurgence. He was also a painter. He directed commercials and documentaries before branching into horror with nineteen sixty nine Malenka The Vampire's Niece, and he often employed inventive ideas to that

ran up against budgetary frustrations and vegetary realities. So he's one of these guys that he seemed to always dream big and never had the budget to realize the sorts of effects and you know, visuals that he actually wanted. I love the vampires and these because it just seems like you're working your way down the chain. It's like you got bride of Frankenstein, son of Dracula, the vampires,

and niece, um the Mummy, second cousin. I don't know, it didn't sound like a boat, like like, okay, let's start small vampires, niece and will work the horror empire up from there. Apparently he almost got Boris Karla for that one, but yeah, I think it wasn't. His choice was something that the producers finally said, now, this too much. He's asking too much now. As Ramon points out in that article I referenced earlier, Oh sorry, oh did it just encounter all sorts of issues making the first Blind

Dead film. He couldn't film in Spain as originally planned, because authorities were concerned that filming a horror movie there might ruin tourism or hurt tourism, so he ended up having to go and shoot in Portugal instead. I feel like I missed something in the logic there where what would be the relationship between those two things. But between the I mean hurting tourism, yeah, um I Ramon mentions that there were some other things hurting tourism at the

same time. Um, so like they tourism had already taken a hit, and then here this filmmaker wants to come and do some sort of a sleazy horror film right next door, and they're like, I don't know about that. So he didn't, you know, he didn't want to risk it. He went to Portugal to film instead. And then of course there was the deal with the Crosses too. He was worried about censorship in that regard. So that's how

you get the ons. Yes, so it's but it's interesting to place this film at the very end of Francisco Franco's rule, which ended in nine because given all of this, um, you know, you have to figure out, like what kind of audience was this was this film playing too? And Ramon in his article writes quote the Blind Dead series attracted two types of very different generations of audiences. The first were hardline fascists and the second where young people

who just wanted to have fun at the cinema. As Nigel J. Burrell noted, Tombs of the Blind Dead can be read as an analogy of the rising up of old Spain against the permissive generation um, but also the repressive fascism of the Franco regime versus the youth of the day. So that that does sound it's kind of like I've read about the appeal of the movie Patent, about how it was able to be two different films

to two different demographics. Oh okay, so you can imagine like, uh so some very old conservative people would be sort of siding with the Blind Dead and and being happy watching them punish young people for partying. But you could also be the teenagers going out to see the movie. Who you know, You're you're getting your frights and thrills from identifying with the teens who are partying and are

being chased by these monsters exactly now. A. Sario's final film was The Sea Serpent, which is apparently kind of a dream project for him, involving a giant monster attacking the Spanish coast. The sut ultimately included both Timothy Bottoms and Ray Milan, but the lack of budget once again frustrated him, and he he basically retired after that film. And I think he went on to to use some he used to He went on to like paint blind undead templars to sort of supplement his income sell those

two fans. And it's interesting and that he apparently used those kind of paintings to pitch the film to begin with, because again he he was a painter as well. Uh. And then he finally tried to get a film titled The Necronomicon of the Templars off the ground, but that project never came together either. Now, the main character in this movie, played by Tony Kendall is I think this is a first for me in films, is a pyrotechnician.

His job is that he's a fireworks expert. And I cannot recall that ever being a job for a main character and anything I've seen, No, I don't think i've seen it either. I guess it kind of works because the whole thing is this this small town uh that is supposed to be in Portugal. Uh. They're about to have this traditional festival that they have every year in

which they burned templars in effigy. Uh So, as it's the case often the case you bring in an outsider if you're gonna do fireworks, you know, it's like some it's not the local fireworks guy. But in this case, yeah, it's not even it's not just an out of town or it is an American. It's American fireworks expert Jack Marlowe. This role was written for John Saxon. H Yeah, I mean clearly like this, this is what I was thinking too.

It's like, this seems like the perfect role. It was written to bring in some sort of like a B lister from Hollywood to be your your big star in this picture and sort of you know, pump up you know, international um viewership. But yeah, it's just played. It's played by a Spanish actor. Uh but I don't know, maybe that was easier. I think this is an actor that Sorio had worked with before or ended up working without another picture, so maybe you know, the connections were there

where the producers liked him. Who knows, he's a very handsome man. Yeah. Former model turned actor did quite a few Spanish action films. He was in seven movies in nineteen seventy three. Um. He was in a string of commissar x action movies in the sixties, and he went on to do a lot of Spaghetti Western work. He was in some Chollo films, he was in Mario Baba's The Whip in the Body, So he seemed to to wound up in just about every genre of film possible

at that time. Now, as we mentioned, apart from the main character I played by Tony Kendall here, basically all of the other dudes in the movie are just these unbelievable like creeps and dirt bags. And I'd say that the one at the top of the heap is good old Mayor Duncan. This is played by someone named Fernando Sancho, who I want to give a bouquet of flowers to this man, like he does not hold back. He was like, you know, he is committed to making the audience hate

him more than they have hated anyone ever. Yes, yeah, he has a total heell um, he's basically I was thinking about this as we were putting the notes together. He's He's everything Mayor Wimby is on The Simpsons, except you know, the like the nineteen seventies small Portuguese or Spanish Town version of that. Yeah, but without the charm that makes Yeah. Yeah, this guy is not watering the plants in his closet and stuff. Yeah, this this guy

is a selfish brute. Um. The actor himself of Fernando Sancho. He uh, he worked in a lot of spaghetti westerns, you know that sort of film. Apparently he has an uncredited role in nineteen sixty two Lawrence of Arabia. But this, this seems to be I don't know, as far as

movies I've seen him, and this is his crowning achievement. Now, his character has a fiance and she's a major character in this, uh, and that is a Vivian, the mayor's fiance, played by Esperanza Roy born five and as of this recording, I think she's still still alive. I'd say she's the other main character apart from from Jack Marlowe Tony Kendall. Yeah, yeah, she's our I don't know if you want car the heroine um or or just the the love interest. But

I don't know, she's not. It's not the worst role that you could imagine in a film of this caliber. You know, She's she's not a complete damsel in distress like she seems she has a certain amount of strength and character to her. Um and uh and apparently she I haven't. I don't think I've seen her in anything else, but I've read that she she has a chance to showcase her skills more in films like nineteen is a

Candle for the Devil. But she was a Spanish actor trained dancer, and then I think later she was married to an important Spanish film producer. Now, if you have a character like may Or Duncan, you've got to have a thug. And the flug in this film is Howard played by Frank Brana, another exquisite scumbag. Yeah Live nineteen thirty four through two thousand twelve. And this guy has been in a number of Spanish genre films that that

we have seen, some of you have may have seen. Uh, and that are just some exquisite she Oh wait, he was in some one peak Simon movies like pod People. Yes, he was in pod People, which I think the original title was Extraterrestrial Visitors as from nineteen eighty three. But he was also in Slugs from n eight, which is indeed a nature attacks film about slugs that will either you know, crawl on your body or crawl up the toilet. And then also a filmed titled Pieces from nineteen eighty two.

I don't recall if I know anything about that one or not. I think it's a chainsaw film, I believe. But okay, which one is the one you've seen? But I've seen pod People, and I think I've seen slugs. Okay, I think with Pieces, I think I've seen Pieces. But you've seen another chainsaw film that I sometimes get confused with it like a Spanish chainsaw film, maybe an Italian chainsaw film. Torso is that the one? Like a really

weird one? Well, I mean to be honest, Sometimes I see these movies I later don't recall with the title is because they all have multiple titles. Yeah, but wait, which guy is he in Pod People? Is he one of the trappers in the woods or not? Because their hunters? Yeah, hunters or poachers? I can't remember, which has been a little while since I've seen pod People. But he has Uh,

this guy has a real sam the Eagle looked to him. Yeah, silver hair, a strong brow line, and and he looks like he could do some do some real cruelty, like you know, the brow turns inward that way. Yeah, show that he has no heart. Yeah. So this is the guy who played a lot of police inspectors and enforcers that sort of role. Oh but hey, we're not done with the creeps. Oh yes, because this film has a terrific central creep in the form of Murder and Murder

is played by jose Kana Lejas, who lived. Yeah, this is probably the most outlandish role in the entire film. Murdo is the caretaker of the ruined abbey, out of which the undead blind dead are going to emerge. Uh. He's sometimes described as the Villege idiot. He reminds me a lot of Ron Pearlman's later portrayal of Salvatore in the adaptation of the Name of the Rose. I would kind of describe him as a disturbed Stephen King look alike with the with the mono brow. He does kind

of have a king look to them to him, doesn't he. Um, Yeah, he's oh man, this this guy is so great in this film. Um and and uh. We'll get into some of the differences here in a bit. But if you if you go with the Spanish dub, I mean, if you go with the English dub on this, you're gonna miss out on on the creepy voice of Murdo because the dub has a creepy voice. But the authentic Murdo voice is just excellent. Oh. I love the voice acting

in this. So you know, this movie got me thinking about how each language has its own standard vocal tropes for representing the voice of an evil or creepy person. And there's some similarities across languages, but but there are also some peculiarities to each language. And and I feel like, I really like the Spanish language is way of doing

an evil or creepy voice. Uh. There there's a through line between like the way the Templar Warlock in this movie talks and the way Murder talks, and like the vocal performances you get from the NPCs and Resident Evil four. How do they sound? I don't think i've played Resident Evil for I mean, they sound a lot like characters in this movie. Okay, um, well, before we keep going, let's go ahead have a quick sample of of Murdo's voice. There's from a particular spot in the film that I

thought was just excellent. I'll reference what he was saying here in a bit, but this is a great scene where he's encountering Vivian and Jack Marlowe in the ruins. Now kind of Lais was a Spanish actor and he seems to have played a lot of hinchmen in a lot of westerns. If you just look up pictures of him, you'll most often see him with a beard and a cowboy hat. He even shows up in a fistful of dollars and for a few dollars more. These are Clint

Eastwood spaghetti westerns. As he this guy's just showing up his uncredited gang members and both um. But yeah, so he generally was playing heavies. But he also directed a couple of Spanish comedies in the mid seventies. But in this he's just a fabulous creep. Now, one of the templars at the beginning of this movie is played by somebody who looked familiar to me, but I couldn't place him. But now that you've done the research, I think I know where I know him from, and that's Luis Barbou. Yes,

he plays the executed templar. He lived seven through two thousand and one. It's not a huge role, but you do get to see him drink blood and or consuming human heart. But this is a guy that had a hundred and twenty five credits and does pop up in some big Western films like Conan the barbe Arian, in which he plays quote unquote red hair. I think I recall him here. Yeah, he's like a he's like a

warrior type guy. Is he like one of the sort of father figures to Conan after he has abducted Well, now he's the guy who like buys Conan the Barbarian trains and to fight as a gladiator. That's right, that's right, I remember him now. But anyway, this is the guy that shows up in a lot of Spanish genre films of this time period. Now, one thing I noticed about this movie is that it has it has a very distinctive musical theme. It has like a melody that you

can hum walking out of the movie. But it also the melody really reminds me of like the theme song of an anthology horror TV show, Like it sounds like it would be the theme song of Tales from the Dark Side or something, which which one a you're talking about the more melodic uh yeah, the one that plays over the end credits. Okay, Yeah, let's have a quick sample of that. Yeah, see, I think that it's it's very contemplated. This is a this is a walking off

into the distance bit of music here. But then of course the other, uh, the the other types of sounds we hear. The other main really the main character of this soundtrack, which you I believe heard in the trailer is this kind of cacophonous um masonic chanting, synthy uh, just kind of just sounds from hell, like the sort of synth music that would arise from the crypt alongside of dark riders and slow motion. Yeah, a lot of a lot of evil, laughter and size and echoee noises

with digital post processing on them. Right. And this is the work all four films, all four of the Blind Dead films, is the work of ant On Garcia April who lived nineteen thirty three through two thousand and twenty one. And that that COOLABA article I referenced earlier included an

interesting tidbit about this uh quote. Osorio's film is adorned by a soundtrack by Anton Garcia Abro, who did a brilliant job with limited resources, repeatedly recording the name of the production manager of the film Tomb of the Blind Dad Perez Guinner and then running the tape backwards to create a sound treatment with the addition of a chorus made up of only two people. Wait, so was this was this in honor of the production manager or in mockery of him? I don't know. I guess it depends.

It depends how he received it. Um. But but yeah, that sounds incredible because the end result is very atmospheric, very very doomy and gloomy, and I think absolutely holds up. I do think it is a shame that so many of these, especially you look at Italian films. Uh, there's been there have been some really classy vinyl releases of those soundtracks and and we've mentioned these before on the show when they pop up. But I don't think the music from the Blind Dead movies has ever been released

in any format. I was looking around on discoids to see if it even came out on any format back in the day, and as far as I can tell, it has not. Well, it could be wrong. I don't know if I noticed as much variation in the musical content and this one as you might find and say, you know, the the Italian jello movies of the era. True, yeah, but you know they could at least put out a

single right or or put it on a compilation. I don't know, because ultimately, the other thing about it is that the Anton Garcia April was an acclaim Spanish composer and musician. Um, I don't know if I gave his days. You know, he was born ninety three and died this year, so he was around for a while long time head of the Department of Compositions and Musical Forms of the Madrid Royal Conservatory. And if you look him up on your favorite digital music source, you'll find numerous releases of

his work. And he also did a number of scores from film and TV over the years as well, So you know, he's not an obscure figure. But uh, this, like I said this, this, these these particular sounds have

not been rereleased in any format that I could come across. Uh, there was there there was a bug in my ear when I was watching this movie, which is that one of the sounds in the sort of blind Dead Caafhey theme is something that sounds exactly like a sound that they make in that SNL musical skit, the creep when they say, ah, it did that multiple times. There is a shocking ha sound that occurs. I wonder if there's

any connection there a murder would have been. It would have been a great creep he would have been he kind of does creep video. Yeah, he definitely could have done a verse. All right, we'll show we get into the plot of this one a little bit. Okay, Now, this is one of those movies that is they're not going to take their time. They're gonna kick things right off with high action from frame one. So from the

very beginning, we have pitchforks folks. Um My version started with a bunch of fourteenth century villagers all armed with classic pitchfork torch combo, rounding up templars and a frenzied mob saying to them, you are evil warlocks. You must die, and then burning their eyes out with fire. Uh. And they give a reason for that. Actually, when when they grab the templars and they're like, you are evil warlocks, spring kill you, the templars promise they will return from

the grave. They say, we'll rise from the grave for revenge and raise this town to the ground. And when they make this promise, you know we'll rise from the grave and get you. The villager responds, well, you know, we'll put a stop to that will burn your eyes

out and you'll never find this town again. It's one of those things that it's very like magical movie logic because what they do after this is they just completely burned the templars, in which case I think their eyes would be burned anyway, but like first they poke them in the eyes with their torches. Yeah, that's now. I guess there are a couple of things going on here.

First of all, in general about this film being right to the action, since it is it's you know, it's not directly connected to the first film, and I think basically all the Blind Dead films are standalone films. But you could make an argument that this is the prequel, that this is showing like where they came from. And at any rate, they dispense with any kind of, um,

you know, mystery about what's going on. You know, it's the Blind Dad, so they're they're not even gonna pretend that there's any mystery regarding what they are or where they're coming from. They're gonna go ahead and also establish why they're blind. Oh and the other movies is it like a mystery, like we don't know what these things are. Suddenly they're just zombies riding horses poking us with swords.

In the first one, I believe, and I didn't rewatch the first one in its entirety, but I kind of poked around in the film, you know, like zoomed around with the slider, and I believe it has a much lower rollout of what's going on, so it has a much slower pace until you start getting some some some

undead templar action. Well, anyway, in this prologue, the villagers then burn a bunch of extremely obvious mannequins dressed as templars, like like really obvious mannequins, to the point where I was thinking, wait a second, are they just supposed to be burning mannequins? But no, I think it was just not super convincing as humans. But hey, that's okay, yeah one of these things where were these are supposed to

be real humans being burned? But in the same picture we see people burning what are supposed to be effigies all of the of the same templars, So uh, you know, it creates unfair comparisons for sure. But then immediately it's present day or present day at the time of the film, and it looks like the villagers are preparing for some kind of festival. So it turns out it is the five hundredth anniversary of the village's defeat of the Templars.

So you see people out there messing with some I think they are Templar effigies right that they're going to burn in the town square, Like that's what the festival is, Like, I remember when we burned these warlocks. Well, we're gonna burn statues of them and then we're gonna drink and there's gonna be dancing and American fireworks. But quite immediately as the preparations for the festivities are going on, we

meet Murdo. He's sort of creeping and and peeking around a corner and uh, and immediately some children are just like, hey, look there's murder. Get him and yeah, and what what is going on here? Yeah, because these kids they throw I think they throw rocks, and then they managed to knock him down and just start kicking the crap out of him. Like it's a brutal beat down on murder.

And we haven't seen Murder do anything wrong yet. I mean, we will later on, but so far, he's just this guy who looks kind of weird and like a bunch of eight year olds are kicking this guy to death. Like the the implication is that these extremely evil children would have killed this guy except a very nice lady comes and intervenes and she kind of chases them off. Yeah, the brutality of the kids attacking him. I kept thinking about it because this this seems like a very intentional choice.

But what does it mean? Or is it to make us feel for murder? Like he's this outsider character who's kind of weird, and hey, maybe you'd be weird too you have kids attacked you on site and try to kill you? Or or is it something about the town itself? Like this is what the children are like in this town? Um, can you imagine what sort of like the local business culture, local government, what that that they grow up into? Like, maybe this town is just you know, cursed from the

from the seed up, I guess. I mean a large number of the adults are also very bad. Yes, Now, did you make anything of Murdo's monobrow here? We talked about in Mr. Vampire? How the the one eyebrow priest, that we think that that eyebrow was supposed to be a sign of like respect, like that, you know, the one eyebrow shows that he's strong, long, that he's serious,

that he means business. Yeah, and this I don't know, I guess it just kind of feels like they did a random assortment of physical characteristics that would make their weird character stand out as a weirdo in a film of this caliber. Yeah. But anyway, from here we get the basic situation of the plot. This is not a very plot driven movie, so there's not a whole lot to explain in terms of here. We we might just pick a few things here and there to talk about.

But the basic situation is that they're going to have this festival here in the town, and the town has summoned an American fireworks expert named Jack Marlowe to do fireworks stuff, and he was hired on behalf of the Mayor Duncan by Vivian, with whom Jack the fireworks guy, has a history, and so she is the mayor's assistant and she is engaged to him, but she does not really like him, and she has summoned Jack to the town as their Fireworksky, presumably because she wants to reignite

her relationship with him. Yeah, and and escape the town like this, this is a possible way out of this place, which I think. You know, this place sucks, the kids are awful. Um, you got murder creeping around and then, uh, nobody knows this is going to happen. But the dead are going to rise from the grave and start butchering people in the streets tonight, right, And then that's what

happens while Marlowe is there. The blind Dead rise from their graves and set out on their quest of warlocky vengeance. Now it's a question. I think it's a difference in the different versions of the film will give you different understandings of why the blind Dead rise. Yeah, so the version I watched so so to be clear, so you can't find this film just everywhere right now. It seems like it should be streaming everywhere. But I had to rent a digital copy through Apple like Apple Movies or

whatever it is. And the version I watched that the film called Yourself was pretty good, but it was dubbed into England is with no option for the Spanish, and uh, there were there was like one minute of footage cut with your version versus my version. So I didn't see some of the blood that you saw. I didn't see a woman's heart ripped out and bitten like an apple. Um. But but then the other thing is it totally changes Murder's role in everything and exactly why the dead have risen.

In the version I watched, it's um implied or even stated through some of the the the added dialogue in the dub that the Templars or Templars were always going to come back five years later and denied his five years later, like this is just something that was always going to happen, and Murdo kind of knows that it's going to happen, perhaps because he hears the sounds, you know,

beneath the abbey, that's sort of thing. But he's basically like, oh, yeah, they're coming back, and I'm looking forward to it, and they're going to be my friends. Uh, you know, I'm creepy about it. He's more like Ralph in the First Friday movie. He's just kind of like creeping around, going you're all doomed, yes, exactly. But in the version I saw, Murdo is more an active villain of the film who summons the blind dead by performing a human sacrifice in

order to make them rise from their graves. Oh yeah, yeah, in the in the version you watched, and then I went back and watch parts of again, Like, Murdo is a kidnapper and a cold blooded murderer who wants to who engage is in blood sacrifice in order to have the Templage rise from the grave and destroy the town that he hates. And maybe he has every right to

hate it. I think you can make that argument. But he is a kidnapper and a murder And the version I initially saw, um, it's just kind of like, oh, well, he's you know, he's just there. He's he's here to watch, but he's not. He certainly hasn't killed anybody. Now the version you saw, though, you said that he thinks they're his friends. One thing is he's hanging out when they first rise from their tombs and he's like, hey, you

remember me, I'm Murdo, I'm your friend. Like he literally said that in in the subtitles, at least to the part I watched. Did your version have that? Yes, it did, so he was saying that. But the one area I noticed where where the dub was totally different versus what

he actually said was the very end of that. So there's a sequence where Jack and Vivian go to the abbey Ruins and you know, it's it's the abbey ruins are all grown up and it's you know, it's it's kind of green and lush, and so they start to reacquaint uh with each other, and she's like, She's like, I still love you. Let's run away together, right, and Murdo is just hardcore on Murdo is watching from the bushes. Uh, And then they see Murdo and they end up having

a conversation with Murdo. And at the very end of that uh. In the version I watched in the English dub, she says something dismissive to Murdo and he's and he just responds with something like, oh, they never listen. But in the original, Murder is super creepy because she's saying, you should forget all this and just go get a girlfriend, go dance at the at the festival, and then he says in Spanish, I already have one, and there's this evil snicker and then a jump cut to Murder murdering

the woman that he has kidnapped. So it's a it's a really creepy moment in the film, and one that I'm really surprised that they cut, because I feel like you don't tremendously sanitize the film by taking that out. It's like it's already a penlody. Yeah, so I don't it's like unless it was just like the Murder Appreciation Society, whether like, no, Murdo needs to be a good person in this film, where I don't quite understand why you would do that. Again, you're just cutting a minute off

the runtime. I mean, perhaps it seems incongruous because later in the movie Murdo does appear too genuinely try to help the lady who saved him from being murdered by the mob of eight year old's earliest and maybe that they thought it wouldn't make sense for him to be trying to help her if he had already murdered somebody

earlier in the movie. I guess so I could see that being the case, because, yeah, later on in the film, you're kind of expecting Murdo to to turn on her or something, but he doesn't, or at least he never gets the chance to Oh, yeah, maybe he would have if they if the Blind Dead had not cut his head off spoiler. Oh. But also here we get a flashback where we learned that the Templars learned secret rights that allowed them to achieve eternal life. Uh. And a

couple of observations about this. Again, Like I said, the the immortality that they're able to achieve does not seem very pleasant. But the other thing is that the quote secret rights appear to be simply doing a human sacrifice, drinking somebody's blood and then pulling their heart out and just like eating it, just biting into it like a

big turkey leg. Now, to to complicate things, not only did my cut of the film not have the heart biting us seen, it also positions this human sacrifice right at the beginning of the film, before we see the villagers kill the Templars. So, uh, it's interesting. Doesn't make a huge difference, I guess, But I guess it comes by virtue of also moving around that murder, removing that murder human sacrifice part Oh, I see, okay, but whatever the mechanics in in any version, the talents folk are

having a big party. They're all dancing in the town square, everybody's drinking, having a good time. Jack and Vivian are planning to run off together that night, and then the Blind Dead awake, they come out of their graves. We get a great subtitle that says, Masonic chanting intensifies. Uh, murder is like, hey, I'm your friend. And then they run off toward the town to start knocking on doors and whacking people with swords. Yes, and oh yeah there.

So I saw one review of this film which was like pointing out that the the Blind Dead are basically they get a lot of screen time. They're almost constantly on the screen, especially after they rise, and so you see a lot of them, and sometimes they look very good. I think sometimes they do have that kind of scarecrow puppet appearance as well. I think the Blind Dead actually I think they look pretty good, pretty scary, and they would have looked scarier if you saw less of them

in the movie. I mean that they're given too much screen time. This is a classic mistake in horror movies, and you show your monster too much. Yeah, I think some of my favorite scenes are of them riding though, because despite the complexities of having to use an obviously live horse, they cover the horse pretty well. They put these kind of like same grave weathered garments over the horse. And then the nights the blind dead are riding these horses, um in kind of a slow motion effect with that

super effective creepy music. And then they're also shooting day for night in most of these scenes. Oh yeah, yeah, I noticed that too, um, which, of course that's not unique to this movie. I mean tons of movies, especially movies we talked about on this Uh on this show do day for Night show and uh, some of the

ones in here look okay, other ones are less convincing. Well, it's it's weird when I when I think about day for Night because I think, as we may have pointed out before, it's harder to shoot at night, and in many cases it's easier to shoot during the day and and make it look like night by under exposing the scene in camera or darkening it during post production. And sometimes you can kind of lean into the disbelief, like willingly disbelieve that that you're looking at a daytime shot

and just just go, Okay, it's night. I'll accept it. Um. And sometimes that's easier to do than other times in a film. But then in this film particularly, I found that the day for night shots had kind of an unreality to them that I kind of liked. And it's like, oh, it's kind of daylight, but it's not. It's um it's it almost has this this weird nether realm kind of equality to it, And for that reason, I don't know,

it kind of works for me. Oh, it's definitely better than the ones in Like, when I think about the worst examples of day for night shots, I think of, for example, the movie made famous on Mystery Science Theater Werewolf, where it seems that they have shot nighttime scenes in broad daylight, not just daylight, but like bright bright daylight, with like maybe a blue gel over the lens or something. Yeah. Yeah,

Sometimes it's it's really hard to accept it. It's like no, no, like the brain will just not shut it off, Whereas like in these films, it's almost like there's been an eclipse or something like it feels it feels cosmically wrong, like it doesn't feel like day, but it also doesn't feel like night. It's it's it seems it seems like this is the sort of environment into which the dead

might arise. So I end up buying right now. Plot wise, as the blind Dead continue to close in on the town square where everybody is celebrating and dancing at the festival, um, you get this like the mayor and all of his goons become increasingly aware of what's going on, and there's this strange subplot where they were I think maybe two or three times even in the movie, they call somebody who's like the higher up in government, the I guess

the local I don't know, the provincial administrator or something, to get him to send in the army and save them from the blind Dead. And he is completely dismissive of them. You see him. He's also just another scumbag, and he's just like, yeah, whatever, you know, you're all drunk, and just hangs up the phone. And I was wondering again, like, okay, I'm wondering how to read the the nineteen seventy three

Spanish politics of scenes like this. Yeah, yeah, this film that this feels very intentional, because I think in the Dead version it's the governor they're calling. So you have the local politician who's totally corrupt and um and cowardly

and no help at all to the situation. But he reaches the point he's like, I better call the next guy, better called the governor, and the governor is is equally unhelpful and is it seems seemingly equally like morally corrupt, Like it's it's either stated or implied that he is hanging out in a room with his perhaps mistress the whole time, and it just ends ends up just missing them all as drunks and tells him to go pray

about it at church. Yes, yes, that's right, he says, yes, pray for and then he asked them to pray for him, say pray for us, pray for your leaders. But also so the mayor. There's this great scene where, uh there the mayor and Jack and Vivianne and the mayor's main henchman guy are standing up on this balcony and they watch as the blind Dead ride into the town square

and just start killing everybody at the big party. And the mayor and I think Jack is like, I sort of lost track of who was saying what here, but I think Jack is like, we got to go down there and organize them to fight, and the Mayor's the mayor says, let the slaughter continue. I'll stay here, Yeah, he's he's so the worst, and then you see him there, you see him just like opening up a safe and

cramming a bunch of jewels and cash into a suitcase. Yeah, which may me think of the uh the episode of The Simpsons where Quimby is basically doing the same thing, where he's like, I propose that I use what's left at the town treasury to move to a town without zombies and run from mayor and uh, once elected, I will send for the rest of you. Huh. Yep, that's about right. But he doesn't get out. They try to escape on a car, but then they all end up

getting stuck in a church. Oh but before they do that. One thing I thought was interesting was that um Jack and the other henchman guy do briefly rally the townsfolk to fight the blind dead and confirm if I'm right here, Rob, I think the townsfolk here are using the exact same pitchfork props that the villagers from five hundred years earlier we're using in the opening scene. Oh wow, I think you may be right. Yeah. These are very antique looking

wooden pitchforks. Yeah, some of them just have like two prongs. Some have three, some have four, but I did not expect this film to have as much battle between the modern villagers and the zombies. They battle for it, but then the zombies sort of win, and then the main characters have to retreat to the church, where it turns more into the classic, you know, building under siege by zombie story, like like the original Knight of the Living Dead.

But but I really liked some of these scenes too, because I don't know if they shot it in an actual church or or whatnot, but there's all this religious stuff setting around, like various religious decorations and iconography, and it feels like a like the storeroom of an old, stuffy church. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that too. Um, and there's some funny stuff here too. So, like I said, the appearance of the Blind Dead is a very mixed bag.

There are some shots where they look very creepy it's it's effective horror cinematography, and there are other ones where I have to say, they look very funny and what and so Like some of the funniest stuff is when they're doing stuff with their swords, like when the main characters were retreat into the church. There's a very funny shot of the zombie swords like poking in through the

window shutters and wiggling around. Do you remember this, Yeah, Like they're kind of trying to pick the window with a long sword. And in fact, the whole way that the zombies hit things with their swords generally looks funny. There's this kind of stiff arm motion like the I was thinking what it reminded me of, and it really kind of looks like the karate chop action figure arm. Oh yeah, yeah it does. It does make me wonder though. It's like the filming of this, I'm trying to imagine

the the the the stunt choreography such as it was. Um, where you're you're dressing some people up in these these undead blind dead costumes, which I'm guessing might have been difficult to see out of, and then you start handing out the long swords right right. You can imagine that

these these actors are probably somewhat encumbered by their costumes. Um. But so here I think we also learn some things about some of the rules of the blind dead, right, Like, I think this is when the characters start to figure out that they can hear but they can't see. And

also the the zombies are are defeated by fire. Yeah, but that makes sense, right, I mean, you had templaris that were burned at the stakes, so they would they would need to have a weakness to fire, and two papple bulls um and so there are a number of things that go on here. Of course, the scummy characters continue to be scummy. The mayor at one point decides to use a child who is hiding in the church

as zombie bait he gets. He goes to the little girl and he's like, hey, your father is across the street with candy for you. Oh, he's also already gotten the kid's father killed, and he already got killed already, so he's responsible for her father's death. And he's like, and then he's going to use her is essentially a human shield to try and escape all by himself. Yeah, he's like, child, you run across the street. Your dad's over there with candy. I'm gonna go over here now.

But of course it does not work, and the mayor

ends up getting his come upance. Eventually, murder recruits the lady who helped save him from the eight year old's earlier in the movie, too escape through a tunnel in the church, though that kind of doesn't end up going anywhere because they like but he ends up poking his head out of the tunnel at the end and the blind Dad are waiting there for him, and they just chop his head off, and uh, they've got a funny scene of his head severed from his body and lying

there on the ground, and he's got this creepy grin on his face. Yeah, he's got this signature Murdo grin, which is the first thing we see, the first facial expression we see from him, where he's smiling to an obscene level with half of his face. Uh. And so yes, we are introduced to him that way, and that's also the way he leaves the world. Now. One thing I thought was interesting is that at the end of the film, the the good characters who are left, Jack and Vivian

and the child, the little girl. Uh, they get to escape the church, but they don't really have to do anything. The blind Dead appeared to have just been defeated by dawn breaking. Am I right about that? Yeah, it's like

they have made it through the night. The sun has come up the rock, the rooster is cockadoodle doing and of course, it's kind of like Night on Bald Mountain at that point, right, Like the sun has risen, the power of the undead, the power of the demonic forces has ended, and are our heroes who now have this kind of accidental family formed by tragedy that you see in films like this. Sometimes it's like, sorry, kids, you lost both your parents in one just horrific night of

supernatural terror. But Jack and Vivian are here, so everything's cool. The victim of mayor Shenanigan's yeah, oh yeah, And I guess like Jack's the mayor now too, right, I mean I don't by default, right, that is a part of every town charter. Right If if all local government is killed, the nearest fireworks expert ascends to the to the office. It also means they're probably all three of them are

on the planning committee now for next year's festival. So that's going to be a challenge, Like how do you how do you bounce back from a festival like this and you know, and still make sure it's fun for everybody? Okay, A question, um, how come the characters once they figured out that the blind dead operate by hearing, why didn't they take their shoes off. Well, um, I guess that would work. That would have worked okay for indoors, except okay, if it's an old church, maybe it's creaky. Maybe the

floorboards would have creaked anyway. M Well, no, I mean when they were trying to sneak by them outside. There's multiple scenes where they're trying to sneak by the zombies in the street. But they're making noise and the zombies can hear them. It seems logical they should have taken their shoes off. Well, maybe they could be could have been graveled, There could have been bits of fireworks left over, the fireworks have already gone off. I think that you know,

there was drinking and dancing. There might be glass in the street. Oh that's a good point. Yeah, I gotta be careful with your been a big party, Yeah, take care of your feet. But that would that would make for a good scene and one of these films. I wonder if that's been done in any of these other films, is that, like in a quiet place? Do they ever take their shoes off in that I don't recall. Yeah, I have to say this was Ultimately I found this to be a really fun flick at um. It's it's

the pacing. I feel like it's pretty good, especially for for a film from this this time period. Uh, and to feature creatures like enemies that are slow and plotting, um like they're able to explore that kind of enemy without having it results in a slow and plotting film. And then you have numerous human characters of interest, most of them deplorable but never boring. True. True, Okay, but

here here's one question. The zombies in this film are not like the normal shambling, completely brain dead George Romero type zombies. They can operate tools. I mean, you know, they have swords and so they can use them, and they can ride horses, so they've got something left going on in their brains. Should they have been able to speak, well, I mean, I guess they don't really have the apparatus for speech anymore. They look pretty desiccated. But but yeah,

it's a good point. Are not just mindlessly pawing at the doors they're stalking around? They're they're also capable of just waiting outside. They're all these scenes where they look outside the church when they're they're barricaded inside and the dead are just waiting like waiting them, for them to make a break for it, besieging them, you know, so they gets to a certain extent, at least some of those, like the military prowess of the Crusades has survived in

their their their their their rotten minds. But they don't. Yeah, they could have. I guess they could have taken their swords and written in the gravel if they needed to try and like lay out terms like okay, look, you need to surrender, but we will allow I don't know, two people to go free, or you know the I guess they could have, I guess. But the thing was, they had no terms. They just wanted to kill everybody. That's what they were here for. That's what they came

to town for. They're evil warlocks. Man. You can't reason with them, can't. You can't reason with that. All right. If you're wondering, well, where can I watch the Blind add movies? Well, return to the Blind Dead again. I found it on Apple Movies. I think there's some rips of them just floating around on the internet, on YouTube and so forth. You can get some of them on DVD.

I think Blue Underground put out a DVD of this movie at one point there was a four DVD set you could get in in like kind of a box set that was shaped like a casket. And I think there's a blu ray of of one of the later films, maybe The Ghostly Gallon or Night of the Seagulls. So I don't know. They kind of go in and out of production, but if you want to get out your hands on a physical copy of it, you can probably find it in. Digital copies are relatively easy to find

as well. I think at Lanta's own video Drune Video Store has at least the first two Blind Dead films. Viewer discretion is advised, yes, yeah, do do research these a little bit before just diving in. Um, yeah, because these are these are ultimately horror films out of the early nineteen seventies. All right, Well, we're gonna go ahead and close it out there, you know, seal the sarcophagus for this week, but we'll be back next week with

another film. I think, unless chance plans change, we're doing another film from the exact same release here, So we're gonna be stuck in the seventies again. So I hope you're okay with that, everybody. Um, if you want to check out other episodes of of a Weird House Cinema it publishes every Friday, and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed We're primarily a science podcast, with episodes airing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Artifact episode on Wednesday, and

listener mail on Monday. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind's production of I Heart Radio for more podcasts for my heart Radio, but at the heart Radio app Apple podcasts are Where are you listening to your favorite shows?