Erotic Nights of the Blind Dead — Erotic Nights of the Blind Dead( DVD)
Erotic Nights of the Blind Dead( aka Graveyard of the Dead, El Retorno de los Templarios) was written and directed by Vick Campbell- who has seemingly been involved with a handful of extremely cheap, and not so cheerful horror films from the early to mid-2000s. Initially when I put the film on I thought it was shot on video, but as it continued the production/camera use stepped up slight- so I’m unsure/ unclear how cheap this is. The film is in Spanish with really badly spelled English subtitles, I’d say you’d say this is a less arty blend of latter day Jess Franco, german splatter, and Spanish roughie. And I came away from the films just over seventy-minute runtime feel very much split in my option.
Things don’t start off well, as we a seeming pointless & unconnected to the rest of the film car journey going on under the credits, as we get vaguely creeping chanting monk soundtrack- these credits/ journey seems to go on & on, but in reality, I’m guessing it’s only a few minutes. Then we get date card of 1310 Spain, as we follow a group of monks( dressed in frayed & synthetic look white gowns)- the again the pacing is so, so slow, as it seems to take an eternity for them to walk down a path, up a hill and along a bit…finally they come across two men( dressed in similar bad peasant dress) these two get whipped( for a long time), then one gets his hand looped off. The monks finally find a rundown village- they take first one, then another young woman from the village – each they rip their tops, and start whipping/ slashing there arms/ chests. Fairly soon a group of villages decided to take revenge- killing the group by sword & noose. Then we get another date card this time it’s 1974 Spain( though it looks like 2000’s Spain, due to the dress, CD cabinets, etc)- and we meet the troubled family of late teen Mirada- her father is an unpleasant & brash businessman, her mother is Stern & bossy, with seemingly only her old brother been the only one looking out for his sister. From here the plot & it’s timeline in the ’70s gets decidedly confused- as we get Miranda lost near an old castle, her at home been letched over then late rather unpleasantly rape by her father, a group of friends( who may or may not be connected to Miranda) dancing to cheesy pop in the woods. Then lastly we get( around the forty-minute mark) the appearance of the resected monks- aka Blind Dead, who appear with cheap skull masks & rubbery bone arms.
There’s no doubt that when the Blind Dead do appear Campbell mangers to capture the feeling of eerie and creepy dread the 70’s film had. And when they attack we get cheap-but-competent enough gore- taking in gut ripping/ munching, limp rippings, and even a effective enough legs- ripped-off-a-body effect. The sexualized violence/ rape scenes go from nasty to quite unpleasant with the young actress playing Miranda making it seem believable. So much like the original series, there’s a mix of misogynistic torture/ gore, and ghoulish stalking- the issue is the pacing/ plotting of the whole thing which will test the patience of most.
It’s great to see Wild Eye dig up cheap & gory horror sleaze like Erotic Nights of the Blind Dead with their Raw & Extreme series. I’d say if you’re a fan of the original Blind Dead films this might be worth a watch, equally if you enjoy blends of sexualized violence, gore & dread give this a go…just be prepared for often lengthy dwells in boredom & bad plotting.