This was my first entry into the
films of Paul Naschy, director León Klimovsky and the Spanish horror
of the 1970s (with the exception of Tombs of the Blind Dead which I watched
with my mother too many years ago. She loved it.). So excuse me for knowing
nothing about this, but seriously what the hell was that? I had to read a
few reviews in horror blogs to see if I was nuts. I guess so since many of
them loved the film though admitting it was a minor Naschy outing. By most
accounts Naschy is a major horror cult figure born Jacinto Molina Álvarez
who acted, directed and scripted tons of horror films; in particular a bunch
of werewolf films and was directed by Klimovsky who was from Argentina in
about a dozen films. And that is the extent of what I know about these figures.
This film was pretty bad, but intriguing enough to explore some more when
the mood for gore, bad filmmaking and craziness strikes me. Not sure when
that will be.
The plot makes little sense till a lengthy
expository narrative near the end, the acting (ok, dubbed) is atrocious and
the action is laughable. The finale says it all. Scotland Yard shows up to
save the heroine, does so, sees a room filled with the dead and the undead
and just pile back into their cars and all drive away. Guys, shouldn't someone
stay behind? What partly saves the film is the overall mood of weirdness
and the nicely shot killings. Oh, and the pasty female zombies. A small group
of female killing zombies. Female bonding at its best.
So let's see. In London, a figure in a black
cloak and a mask is bringing back the dead to wreak vengeance. He has studied
the black arts of voodoo. It is pretty simple. Pour blood on a doll and there
you go. The blood needless to say, has to come from a recent victim. Probably
best not to try this though till you finish the correspondence course. One
of the relatives of a recently dead friend (and undead) goes to an Indian
guru for spiritual solace. She is Elvire (Rommy) and the guru is Krisna played
by Naschy. After she survives a zombie attack, she goes to stay with Krisna
in his country estate.
Maybe not such a great idea. Krisna
and his servants all seem to be involved with the cloaked figure. And the
zombies keep popping out of their graves. None of this is even mildly scary
or creepy and the too bright lighting and jarring score don't help. A nightmare
that Elvire has about the devil is so strange and badly shot that it is hard
not to giggle. The zombies move slower than I do with my bad leg, but as
traditional horror dictates, always catch their prey. Throw in some nudity,
decapitated heads, sliced throats, grave robbing gone very wrong and Naschy
in three roles and you have . . . something weird comes this way.
