Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971)

Figured I was overdue to finally sit down and check out the first entry in the "Blind Dead" series (and, eventually, the rest of the films). I'd, of course, heard numerous favorable opinions on this Spanish zombie flick over the years, but just never quite got around to giving it a watch and, honestly - I hate to say it - this one was a bit of a let down.

Two girls and a guy are on a train heading to a camping destination. The one chick starts getting friendly with the dude - who the other girl has her on - so she decides to bail out of their vacation by jumping from the slow moving train. Where she ends up just so happens to be some ancient ruins where some medieval cultist Crusaders used to sacrifice virgins and drink their blood. Now, they tend to frequently pop out of their graves, stumble around blindly (their eyes were plucked out by crows after they were executed...) and ride around on horseback, looking for more blood. So, when the friends who she ditched on the train discover that she'd been found all dead and chewed up, they start investigating the likelihood of the old, sightless zombie lore.

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" does have some pretty decent atmosphere and the robed zombie ARE fairly creepy, especially when shown on horseback with this ghostly, slowed down kind of effect that I found cool and eerie. So, the overall 'feel' of the film is on point, I have to say. The biggest downfall, though, is the notable lack of sleaze/gore. Based on my own personal hang-ups, '70s Euro-exploit/horror really tends to suffer without the aide of some blood, guts and newd babes and "Tombs..." felt REALLY tame due to such a noticeable absence of these elements. However, I still gotta give it a pass for the darkly atmospheric tone and it's ghoulish blind zombie hordes. If only they'd been a bit more 'active', in terms of gut-munching and flesh-tearing then it's safe to say that this movie would've been firing on all cylinders.