Leofwine_draca Forget the naysayers - RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD is everything you could want from a cool Spanish horror movie. An attractive cast, fun dialogue, a smattering of gore, fast pacing and exceptional photography highlight Amando de Ossorio's own follow-up to TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, as well as the fact that the film is actually scary! Yes, the undead Knights Templar are back in another separate story and with lots of screen time to their credit they're just as terrifying as before - especially when Ossorio dubs them in with weird supernatural cries and creaking noises. Okay, so the story is familiar and the film holds few surprises for the horror fan, but everything is done so efficiently you don't mind the clichéd feel.The opening is a superb mini-movie in itself, as we witness the Knights Templar cutting open the breast of a captive girl and draining her bright red blood into a bowl, from which they then drink. They're interrupted by the classic group of torch-wielding villagers, who actually put their torches to good use this time by burning out the eyes of the Templars in an extremely graphic fashion! The evil knights are then burned alive for good measure just as the credits begin to play.What follows is familiar stuff: the Templars return from their graves (only fifteen minutes into the film, so no waiting around!), and attack an isolated house inhabited only by a man and a girl. He is throttled, she narrowly escapes by stealing one of the undead horses in an exceptionally thrilling - and frightening - scene, in which the space she has to escape keeps getting less and less until she's forced to jump out of the window onto a nearby horse. She escapes to the town square, where party revellers are enjoy plenty of booze and fireworks. Minutes later the Templars arrive and slaughter half of the townsfolk in an excellent-shot massacre in which you can almost smell the blood and steel, as it puts you right in the thick of the action.After the actions of a brave few who put up a fight, the rest of the townsfolk escape into the countryside (later on, in another solemn and horrific shot, we see a field littered with the bodies of the dead, exemplifying the hopelessness of the situations our characters are in). A group of survivors escape on their jeep only to be pursued by the Templars on horseback through the streets of the village (an excellent chase sequence which was ripped off in JURASSIC PARK, with a Tyrannosaur replacing the zombies). They escape into the refuge of a church, and the film enters familiar NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD territory as the zombies surround the place and attempt to get in.This is a pretty mean spirited film. For instance, one sub plot shows two characters painfully unblocking a tunnel for what seems like an age, and finally escaping into a remote graveyard only to be instantly killed by the waiting Templars for all their hard work. Loads of cast members are brutally murdered in graphically gory scenes which have been excised from the UK print (not sure why, as they're gory for the time but not THAT gory these days) for maximum impact. The interesting, twist ending (with more than a nod to THE BIRDS) has the Templars being caught in the rays of sunlight and literally disintegrating before the eyes of our heroes.The group of survivors holed up in the church are an interesting bunch. Firstly, we have the hero as played by Italian star Tony Kendall, more at home in European spy and adventure flicks, who supplies the film with much-needed masculine energy and heroism. He's supported by a trio of Spanish beauties who inevitably end up being menaced by the zombies. Other folks include the village idiot, Muerto, an exceptionally creepy guy with one dead arm who spies on people making love; an ill-fated family; the selfish and cowardly mayor, who causes others to die in his own attempts to escape; and the mayor's right-hand, who has a change of heart and helps our heroes, before his sexual desires get the better of him and he attempts to rape the heroine.The gory effects are cheap but hit home, thanks to a good use of shocking music at the right time. There's an excruciating hand-lopping sequence, a surprise decapitation, an impaling, and lots of dripping blood and other splattery stuff to enjoy. The effects of the Knights Templars, on the other hand, are excellent (with the exception of the two "guards" who are blown up by fireworks, and just look like scarecrows), and once again Ossorio uses slow-motion to capture and highlight the eeriness of his zombies as they rise from their graves with their skeletal hands and ride through the countryside on horseback. RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD is a fine Spanish horror yarn, a good example of the genre and matching the best that Britain and America had to offer at the same time. Lots of action, lots of fun, and a jolly good viewing experience.

Fella_shibby I first saw the English version of this in the mid 80s on a VHS. The shopkeeper told me that there is a prequel n sequels but not available with him. Revisited the Spanish version recently on a DVD. The movie has plenty of genuinely chilling moments (and plenty of silly ones, too) and some effectively creepy zombies (skeletal caped figures wielding huge swords), Return of the Evil Dead is worth a watch if you dig this kind of thing. The film throws in some nifty splashes of gore including some graphic stabbings, decapitation, heart removal scenes, eye burning, etc. The plot is similar to Night of the living dead. Several people holed up in a church, each making various attempts to go it alone in order to escape the blind dead who have them surrounded. Ther is a very silly scene, two people trying to sneak out from a tunnel n when one of em is beheaded by the the evil Templar standing above the hole, the other person is still standing next to the hole. The guy who played the mayor looked like Ron Jeremy. This movie may have its flaws, but Amando De Ossorio does a great job using slow-mo and an eerie score to intensify the film. The editing was shoddy. The skeletons attacking the village people n the aftermath fighting was tedious. The ending however is a complete disappointment, there's no spectacular showdown, the zombie skeletons just killed by sunlight. The ending of the first part was much better than this.

Michael_Elliott The Return of the Evil Dead (1973) *** (out of 4)The second film in the series starts off by showing villagers taking the Templars and tying them up. Before killing them they burn their eyes out making sure that the Templars will never be able to find their village. Flash forward hundreds of years and the village is celebrating their win over the evil men but soon the dead Templars rise from the grave for revenge.The first second to TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD isn't a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but director Amando de Ossorio does a nice job at giving fans what they wanted. It seems that the director saw what was good in the original film, the Templar knights, and gave fans much more of them. Not only are the knights given a lot more screen time but they also make sure that there are many more victims to be slaughtered.The violence, which is missing in the American version of the film, is certainly one of the reasons to watch the film as there are some pretty graphic moments including a woman being sliced open and drained of her blood. It gets even gorier when a knight rips out her heart and eats it! There are several murders like this but along with the gore the director gives us that atmosphere that was so rich in the original movie.THE RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD also has its share of flaws including a rather dicey pacing, which drags the film at times but it's still very much worth watching.

Scarecrow-88 The dreaded Templar knights rise from their graves, on their undead horseback, during the night of a festival commemorating their execution at the hands of the villagers of Bouzano, as present-day citizens dance, drink, be merry & watch an amazing fireworks display, thanks in part to the local village idiot Murdo(José Canalejas)who actually sacrifices a young woman whose blood revives them. Jack(Tony Kendall)is hired by Mayor Beirao(Ramón Lillo)to put on a fireworks display for the festival, thanks to some help from a former lover(and now the Mayor's fiancé)Vivian(Esperanza Roy)who put in a good word for him by falsifying references on his resume. When Jack and Vivian meet for the first time, sparks return and they are soon contemplating a brand new relationship despite her current proposed plans to marry the Mayor for his wealth and bourgeoisie prestige. The Mayor's right hand lieutenant Dacosta(Frank Braña)also carries a secret torch for Vivian having watched over her every need since becoming the boss man's squeeze. Moncha(Loli Tovar)is almost killed by the Templar knights when they raid her home..they do finish off her beau who paid her a sexual visit while papa was at the festival. Duncan(Fernando Sancho;another paid lackey for the Mayor to do his bidding), his wife & daughter are all attending the festival. These characters will somehow escape a massacre when the Templar undead soldiers storm the festival, within an enclosed plaza, causing a frenzied panic where the villagers try endlessly to find a way out. Jack is able to free the gateway by exploding some leftover firecrackers into the bodies of two guardian knights freeing those citizens who were able to flee from the slashing long strokes of the Templar swords. As certain Templar soldiers on horseback bunched villagers into a bundle, faces met the hacking blades. Dropping like flies, Jack bands some courageous men together, with wooden pitchforks, to battle with the knights on their horseback with far better weaponry. But, those citizens who are indeed able to rush out from the plaza gateway will not get very far..trying to flee we see that the Templar knights have struck them down in a long-shot of dead bodies lying in mass over the country-side. Jack, Duncan(..his wife and daughter), Vivian, Dacosta, Moncha & Beirao, however, are able to hold up in a nearby Bouzano parish as the Templar knights await them outside. Jack, as leader, will try to find a way to see the group through the horrors that possibly lie in wait as others plan their own escape routes, especially the mayor(this guy is a real piece of work, I'll tell you, he even tries to use a little girl as a distraction to escape)who only wishes to escape without one care in the world for the others in the church. Murdo, the very one responsible for the terrors taking place, is found hiding in the parish..he has a plan to guide Moncha through a secret tunnel, not letting any of the others in on it. Will the group make it out of the parish alive? Or, will the Templar knights eventually wait for them to merely fall apart at the seams?To be honest, I myself found this second film of the series to be far superior to "Tombs of the Blind Dead". I think this film is more focused and scarier with a better cast of characters. I even felt the Templar knights are scarier in this sequel than the original..their slow walk isn't a major problem in this sequel because there are so many of them. I couldn't help but compare the Templar knight zombies to those seaweed ghouls of John Carpenter's THE FOG in how they seem to be everywhere with little room for the characters to escape. If one thinks about it, the church sequences in this "sequel" and THE FOG resemble somewhat as well..characters trying to remain level-headed in quite a terrifying situation, holing up in a church while undead monsters seeking revenge for what happened to them in the past await outside. This sequel has lots of bloodshed..swords are always plunging into stomachs, chests, or slashing across faces. The Templar knights are pretty much the same as they were in the original film, but no less effective. I think their better utilized in this sequel/remake because of the set-pieces set up in the film...the massacre in the plaza and the hold-up at the parish. Director Ossorio certainly has a flair for shooting those creepy Templar knights as their rotted skulls peek out from those dusty cloaks. They rise from their graves essentially the same way they do in the previous "Tombs of the Blind Dead"..but, as before, this sequence is quite eerie and effective. If you can tolerate the melodrama between Jack, Vivian, the Mayor & Dacosta, there's so much to enjoy. I just think this is a good little Gothic zombie flick. Easily the film's most graphic scene comes when we see the Templar knights in human form as one of them removes the heart from the chest of a poor female sacrifice eating it! Good beheading in this flick as well.