Return of the Blind Dead Review

Return of the Blind Dead, 1973

Reviewed by: Dan s.

Director: Amando de Ossorio

Written by: Amando de Ossorio

Starring: Tony Kendall

Language: Spanish

Unlike its slow moody predecessor, Return of the Blind Dead aka Return of the Evil Dead is all about non-stop action and mounting suspense. Despite once again working with a very limited budget, writer/director Ossorio gets some good milage out of the cool Spanish locations and stages some impressive mayhem as his iconic Templers crash a fiesta with swords swinging. Utilizing more B-level gore, the zombie knights freely slice and dice their innocent victims with blood and severed limbs flying. There’s even a cool car vs. horse chase sequence through narrow atmospheric streets and a couple cheesy fist fights for the hell of it.

After the wild first act, the script settles into a Night of the Living Dead scenario with a small group of survivors held up in a besieged old church. Despite being cliche caricatures, the colorful characters are surprisingly effective, especially the sleazy overweight mayor who manipulates and uses others without remorse; a far cry from the boring non-characters of the original film. The unique “blind dead” gimmick is also much better exploited this time out as villagers frequently attempt to sneak past these cloaked menaces in sequences of almost unbearable suspense. Surprisingly, Ossorio even smoothly weaves some rather amusing dark humor into the script. And just in case this sounds to classy for you, plenty of busty women have their shirts ripped open for no other reason than to expose their breasts before their gory death.

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