La noche del terror ciego
| Tombs of the Blind Dead | |
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Original Spanish film poster
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| Directed by | Amando de Ossorio |
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| Written by | Amando de Ossorio |
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| Music by | Antón García Abril |
| Cinematography | Pablo Ripoll |
| Edited by | José Antonio Rojo |
| Distributed by | Hispamex |
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Release date
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Running time
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101 minutes |
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| Language | Spanish |
Tombs of the Blind Dead is a 1972 Spanish-Portuguese horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio. Its original Spanish title is La noche del terror ciego, which means "The Night of the Blind Terror". The film is the first in Ossorio's Blind Dead series, and its success helped kickstart the Spanish horror film boom of the early 70s. Ossorio has stated that Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's Gothic horror legend El monte de las ánimas (1862) and George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) both influenced the creation of this motion picture.
Legend has that in the abandoned medieval town of Berzano, at the border between Spain and Portugal, the Knights Templar (a fictionalized version of the real-life order that was dissolved in the 14th century following charges of witchcraft and heresy) leave their tombs at night and come back from the dead as revenants. The reanimated corpses are blind, because their eyes were pecked out by birds while their hanged bodies rotted on the gallows.
While on vacation nearby with her friend Roger, Virginia reconnects with her dear college friend Bet, who relocated in the area and now runs a mannequin factory. Roger immediately takes a liking to Bet and invites her along for a train journey, provoking Virginia's jealousy. Angry at both, Virginia jumps off the train and spends the night among the ruins of Berzano. The knights rise from their tombs and attack her, ultimately biting and ripping her flesh.
The next morning, Bet and Roger retrace Virginia's steps trying to find out what happened to her. They hear about the legend from some locals and meet two police investigators who inform them about Virginia's horrible fate. Later at the morgue, next to Bet's laboratory, Virginia's corpse comes back to life and kills a custodian, then flees to Bet's lab and is only stopped by Bet's assistant, who manages to set Virginia on fire.
In the meanwhile, Bet and Roger are investigating the legend with the help of Professor Candal, who indirectly send them to find his son Pedro, who lives near Berzano as a small-time smuggler and is suspected by the police to be the one who killed Virginia as a way to instill fear in the locals. Once they've located Pedro and convinced him to help them prove the knights are real, Bet and Roger return with Pedro and his lover to Berzano, to confront the knights once and for all.
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Wikipedia