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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
ZZZZZZZombies on a ship., 30 July 2006

Author: capkronos (capkronos00@hotmail.com) from Ohio, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

EL BUQUE MALDITO (GHOST GALLEON), third entry in de Ossorio's Spanish Blind Dead series, following up TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD (1971) and RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD (1972) and followed by NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS (1975), features the novelty of the skeletal Knights Templar at sea. It's an interesting concept, but sadly this film fails to make much of it. As part of a publicity stunt, a modeling agency puts bikini-clad models Kathy (Blanca Estrada) and Lorena (Margarita Moreno) in a boat way out at sea hoping they'll be rescued by a passing ship and make front page news. Unfortunately, both girls become lost in a thick blanket of fog, run across a large ghost ship and disappear immediately after boarding; first getting word out (via radio) what's going on. Fearing the bad press headed their way if they don't locate the girls and bring them back safely, photographer Lillian Perry (Maria Perschy), agency head honcho Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor) and his sadistic assistant Sergio (Manuel de Blas), who all spearheaded this odd campaign, decide to take Howard's yacht out on the sea to find them. Also going along are Professor Gruber (Carlos Lemos), who is schooled on the Phantom Ship legend and wants to see if there's any truth to it, and blonde Noemi (Barbara Rey), who lets everyone know there will be hell to pay if her roommate and best friend (Kathy) isn't found. At nightfall, the five enter into the mist (which is actually another dimension altogether and is invisible to radar), run into the galleon, board the boat and begin looking around. Their boat disappears and instead of finding Kathy and Lorena, they find a bunch of large chests, which are the coffin-like resting places of the hooded, skeleton-faced Knights Templar zombies. They rise from their slumber every once in awhile to spill some blood for Satan and are scared of fire and crucifixes. We also discover there's a hidden treasure on board the boat, but this revelation almost seems like an afterthought thrown in at the end to ensure the death of one of the characters.

The cult reputation of this series, as far as I can tell, seems to rest mainly on the fact they have cool-looking zombies. They're definitely the highlight of this movie; creepy and menacing looking as they rise up from their tombs, slowly shuffle toward their victims and reach out their bony hands at them. Raúl Artigot's cinematography and Antón García Abril's score are also worth praising and help to make it all fairly atmospheric. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is pretty much a boring mess. My biggest problem with GHOST GALLEON is that is lurches along with the same exact momentum as the featured shambling undead. The pace is deadening slow throughout... The annoying, thoroughly unlikable characters bitch, walk, sleep and stand around with their mouths gaped open for minutes at a time anytime anything weird happens. And when the ghouls corner a victim, if you're expecting a nice bloody killing to commence, then you're just s--t out of luck with this one. Almost all of the mayhem takes place off-screen, aside from one dismemberment murder which we only see about three quick flashes of (and this scene itself has been cut out of some of the video prints). I still have no idea why it's rated R. The dubbing and dialogue are both bad bad bad, not that I expected otherwise.

The Blue Underground DVD comes with a few extras (namely a poster and still gallery, a couple of trailers, a TV spot and radio spots). They also released a box set with all four Blind Dead titles.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Cool zombies, great concept, terrible screenplay, 24 August 2007

Author: lemon_magic from Wavy Wheat, Nebraska

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

First of all, "Horror Of the Zombies" (the title of the version I saw) makes it sound like the movie is about something that scares the living dead. This turns out not to be the case. If fact, these aren't conventional "zombies" at all; they are more like undead pirate skeleton mummies; and it turns out that this is actually a sequel in a franchise called "The Blind Dead". Now, if you ask me, "The Blind Dead" is a much creepier (and much less overused) concept and would stand out quite a bit from the usual overexposed run of undead horror flicks, so the distributor was missing on a good bet here.

Apparently this particular variety of skeleton mummy has a predilection for attacking European supermodels (or whoever the producers can afford to hire to pretend to be supermodels) and there is an ugly violent sexual undertone to much of the proceedings. This includes a nasty gratuitous rape scene near the beginning and two excruciatingly extended scenes where young women are dragged, screaming and begging for help, to their doom. None of this is visually all that explicit, but the soundtrack is mixed way up to capture every gasp, sob, and moan from the young women. I realize that this is a "grindhouse" film, and so that is a large reason for the film to exist in the first place, but it still means the film doesn't age very well.

On the good side: cool looking zombie designs, with the skeletal figures, tattered cloaks and empty, shadowy eye sockets; they're nicely framed and shot and the best parts of the movie consist of watching them advance like a wave of human leprosy. They really do look implacable and sinister (as opposed to the normal run of zombies, who are somehow pathetic in their advanced states of decomposition). Also good is the rest of the art direction and the set design for the main set of the ghost ship; the swirling fog and gloomy sets really do give the impression of a pocket version of Hell. And someone had the brilliant notion to accompany the march of the undead skeletons with some disturbing chants and antiphonal choral sounds; these add a great deal of ooomph to the impact of the actual zombie scenes. And the last five minutes or so deliver a nice, grim comeuppance of sorts.

On the negative side, the camera keeps cutting from the viscerally creepy and claustrophobic closed sets to one of the worst miniatures of a ship since...actually, these are even worse than the miniature effects in "Danger! Death Ray", which previously held that title. Looking at these travesties of a so-called "ghost galleon" completely undercuts all the atmosphere and tension, and the effects where coffins sink to the ocean floor are even worse. (Why didn't the director just show the coffins sinking into the water on the surface when he saw how awful the miniatures of the coffins on the ocean floor were? Was he that desperate for usable footage?)

But mostly, the screenplay just doesn't deliver. Most of the scenes leading up to the Undead's appearances drag like leaden galoshes. The characters (with the exception of the professor) are not likable or admirable at all (it was nice that "Supermodel" Noemi was concerned about the fate of her best friend, but I was almost happy when she got killed off after 50+ minutes of watching her). The logic of the film is constantly falling apart - since when does a professor "just know a little bit about exorcisms", and since when did exorcisms involve brandishing a flaming cross? If the zombies only attack at night, why did they rise off the ocean floor in the middle of the day? If the zombies come up from the hold when they attack, why didn't the party find a way to seal the hatch? And the "acting" is barely there - all though I will admit that the dubbing here is not as awful as you would normally expect in a cheapie like this. Maybe the guy who did the sound design for the zombie attack sequences had a hand in the ADR and mixing of the vocals for the English version.

Based on this entry I might conceivably watch the first "Blind Dead" movie if it appeared on a cable channel or something. Mummy skeletons in cloaks are never a complete waste of time...but this one comes close. If not for the final three minutes of the film (which are reminiscent of some of John Carpenter's grimmer tales), I'd rate it even lower.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Plodding Blind Dead entry is the worst in the series, 20 December 2006

Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The idea of The Blind Dead is often more fascinating than the reality of watching them plod through scenes so drawn out, you could take a nap and wake to find them still pursuing the same victim. This, the third in the series, is pretty awful. The set-up is clichéd and dull. A rich fashion victim named Tucker (Jack Taylor) creates a publicity stunt that involves stranding models in a speedboat out at sea. As the hapless ladies radio for assistance, they crash into a crewless "ghost galleon" that is the current resting place of the Knights Templar, slow-moving carcasses on dried bones whose only mission is to stalk and attack young ladies in various states of undress. There are male victims, too, but director Amando de Ossorio isn't too interested in them (which isn't a complaint). The interior of the ship is quite nicely art directed and the constant stream of swirling mist does enrich the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the miniatures of the galleon are beyond awful and a sequence in which the caskets of The Blind Dead are consigned to the ocean floor approach Ed Wood territory for sheer amateurishness. A couple of the models look tasty in swimsuits and the long, protracted assault on a blonde who is pulled into the cellar of the ship smells of potential sexual violence, although it doesn't deliver any. The pacing is slow and and wrong and the performances are all over the place. The climax sees The Blind Dead back on land where they tie up some loose ends. It's a last hurrah for cinematic redemption that proves to be too little much too late.

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6 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
"I was tired of being a vegetable." Rubbishy third instalment of the Blind Dead series of films., 25 December 2005

Author: Paul Andrews (poolandrews@hotmail.com) from UK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

El Buque Maldito, or the more common English title of The Ghost Galleon along with various other's like Ghost Ships of the Blind Dead, Horror of the Zombies, Ship of the Zombies, The Blind Dead 3 & Zombie Flesh Eater, starts in a modelling studio owned by Lillian (Maria Perschy) who has been hired by rich businessman Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor) to supply two girls for a publicity stunt to promote his new boat. Kathy (Blanca Estrada) & Lorena (Margarita Merino) are the chosen two, they are to be stranded out at sea, rescued & then tell the waiting world how fantastic Tucker's boat was in their bid for survival. A perfect plan right? Well no because Kathy's best friend Noemi (Barbara Rey) threatens to call the police so Tucker's goon Sergio (Manuel de Blas) has to kidnap her & while out at sea Kathy & Lorena run into a ghostly galleon that sails in perpetual fog. Soon all contact with the girls is lost, fearing bad publicity for his boat Tucker decides to sail out there himself & look for them on the quiet, along with Sergio, Noemi, Lillian & a meteorologist named professor Gruber (Carlos Lemos) who has heard tales of the ghost galleon before. They quickly find the galleon (despite the whole Atlantic ocean to search) & board it but fail to find the girls, that night from deep within the bowls of the ship the undead Knight Templars rise seeking fresh blood for their cannibalistic rituals...

This Spanish production was written & directed by Amando de Ossorio & was the third instalment of the Blind Dead series of films & it's not very good. The script by Ossorio is awful, it's painfully slow, lacks any sort of exploitation & blood or gore has terrible unlikable character's that irritate immensely & is a chore to sit through which is a shame because I really liked the central idea of a ghost galleon travelling the sea in a cloud of fog. Every character & most of their actions in El Buque Maldito are so dumb it's unbelievable, the stranded character's quickly discover that the Knight Templars only rise at night (which begs the question how can they emerge from the sea at the end in the middle of the day, but that's another question) which would give them a reasonable amount of time to try & figure out a plan right? I'd say 10 hours at least, so why does it take until half an hour before the Knight Templars are due to rise before someone finally has the ingenious plan to throw their coffins overboard? There is a scene that comes from nowhere when the weather professor casually says that he knows a little bit about exorcism, yeah right because that's the sort of thing everyone knows a little about isn't it? Especially meteorologists. So it continues with some of the dumbest scenes & dialogue you can think of. El Buque Maldito will put most people to sleep, it's over half an hour before we see the Knight Templars & even when they do make an appearance they don't do anything much, except walk, slowly, very slowly.

Director Ossorio creates a wonderful atmosphere on the galleon, the creaking wood, the torn sails, the period decor & fixtures, the dirt dust & the whole look & feel is quite unique, it's just a shame Ossorio made such a lame film around it. The Knight Templars look exactly the same as the rest of the series minus the slow motion horses while the gore is virtually none existent. During the entire film there is one on screen murder & it's actually a good one, someone has there neck sliced with a sword, the Templars then also get to eat their victims severed hands & drink some blood. Unfortunately one decent kill can't compensate for the rest of the film.

Technically El Buque Maldito is OK but the one thing that spoils it are the absolutely awful miniature ghost galleon effects, they really are that bad, they look like a paper boat in a bathtub & just wait until you see it burn & sink at the end, very funny & completely destroys the mood. The acting & dubbing are both poor as one would expect.

El Buque is a pretty awful film except for a couple of good ideas & some nice sets. There is very little here to recommend, Euro horror fans might like to give it a try but anyone else would probably be bored rigid & be more likely to laugh than scream. However, I still can't quite decide if this is the worst in the series or the next one Night of the Seagulls (1975).

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Slow as molasses., 13 March 2009

Author: acidxian from Haddonfield, IL

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The Blind Dead films are really an acquired taste. They require a certain masochistic tendency to get through; in fact, most of Amando De Ossorio's films are like that. The Blind Dead series is especially irritating, though, because the films are populated with characters who are almost too stupid to be human. They allow themselves to be cornered and killed by the most slow moving villains in cinematic history. A killer glacier would move faster than the Templar Knight zombies in these films, and never is it more pronounced than in "The Ghost Galleon".

A pair of fashion models are cast adrift in a boat as a publicity stunt for their agency. Why? Well, there is no logical reason for it, except that it serves the script; the models are at sea because they have to be menaced by the Templar Knights, who for some reason are now aboard an ancient, dusty galleon floating around the sea. The ship is shrouded in a spectral mist that conceals it. Only small, unarmed boats will encounter it. The natural thing to do when you find your small boat enshrouded in unnatural mist next to a large spooky galleon would be to board the galleon, right? Well, no, of course you wouldn't, but the characters in this film do. Apparently the Templars have been claiming victims in this manner, so it seems the seas are just full of stupid people looking to get killed by goateed skeletons.

All horror movies depend on characters who make ridiculous choices when faced with certain death. For instance, slasher movies have female victims who run upstairs and hide under the bed instead of leaving the house when a masked maniac appears. But in the Blind Dead films, the mostly female victims are just begging to be massacred. They shriek non stop, which is a bad idea when your enemy can find you only by sound. Even worse, they suddenly forget how to walk and sometimes require a nearby man to carry them. One victim in "The Ghost Galleon" is grabbed by the throat and half-strangled by a skeletal hand. Although she gets away, the wound on her throat has caused her legs to stop working, and she can only drag herself by her hands. It's interesting to note that even though she is technically pulling the entire weight of her body along by her hands, the zombies aren't quite able to catch up to her until she's almost at the top of the ladder to safety.

Then we have the problem of the Templars themselves. They are basically skeletons draped in robes. They look spooky alright, but when they reach out for you, their hands look like spray painted Halloween props. To be blunt, THEY ARE NOTHING BUT BAGS OF BONES. What's to stop any of these people from breaking them apart just by knocking them over? A well-placed thrust to the chest with the heel of your hand would probably shatter these things into a million skeletal pieces. So why doesn't a single person even attempt to do this? Nobody fights back.

Of course none of this mattered much in the first two films. There was a weird atmosphere to them, and the Templars were something new that hadn't been done quite that way before. But this third time is not the charm. The ship setting is innovative to a point, but the contrivance of getting fresh victims aboard the galleon proves to be a stretch the movie just can't support. You have to give your horror movie somebody to root for, or else there's no reason to really be caught up in what's happening. Aside from the zombies, we only get a trio of ditzy fashion models, a wacko professor, an icy bitch photographer, and two reprehensible men, one of whom is a rapist. These are our heroes? So why give the movie four stars at all? Well, the camp factor has a lot to do with it. The establishing shots of the galleon itself are hilarious, an obvious model boat in a small tank of water. When the ship bursts into flames at the end (gosh, I ruined it for you), it melts more than burns. And despite the goofiness, I have a soft spot for the director's gratuitous use of fog and cobwebs. The dim photography comes off surprisingly good. The sets and locations are otherworldly, even the scenes that don't take place on the ghost ship. And the violence is suitably nasty, typical of De Ossorio's other films. For these reasons I give it four stars.

It's a shame that "The Ghost Galleon" is sunk by its dreadful, coma-inducing pace. It would have been great if the director had pulled it off in spite of the script problems, because there are elements here for a much better exploitation horror film.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Best of the 'Blind Dead' films..., 11 July 2008

Author: burbs82

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is the best of the 'Blind Dead' films... but that's not exactly a ringing endorsement. If you're going to sit through any of them, I'd recommend you be on some sort of heavy narcotic. Morphine or any opiate derivative would probably be best, as this will slow down your brain's response time enough to match the pace of the film, and unlike alcohol, you'll be too languid to get up and find something better to do. A sense of humor will go a long way in getting you through the film as well.

The decaying corpses of the Templar Knights have given up their time-honored hobby of horse riding for boating in this one, and actually their creepy old Spanish galleon does manage to provide a rather foreboding atmosphere (that is, when it's not a poor scale model filmed in a bath tub). Also, some exposition about the boat existing in some sort of Bermuda Triangle-ish, alternate dimension which is inescapable once entered adds to the almost non-existent fun. But the nautical folklore only goes so far, and the film plods along.

It's a decent setting, and a basic premise that John Carpenter did wonders with in his classic 'The Fog', but obviously, De Ossorio is no Carpenter. This barely even works as camp, but that's really the only way you can view it. The characters are all stupid beyond belief, which usually works in a campy film's favor, but the movie moves so slowly, and the dialogue is so sparse that it sometimes takes a full ten minutes for a character to do or say something that you can laugh at. Also, it takes the Templars what feels like an hour to kill someone, and they go kicking and screaming the WHOLE way. I'm all for Scream Queens, but may I recommend a cut to the other characters HEARING them scream, or a really cool death scene to justify it all instead of just a little bit of blood drooling out of their mouth?

There's no nudity,which is a terrible shame as there is no shortage of hot models, but they do spend the whole film in bikinis, so that's kind of a plus. So, yeah, watch it for the creepy pirate ship atmosphere (with cool wind sounds and all), extremely stupid girls in bikinis, clunky dialogue,and of course the skeletal Templars, who were wearing hoodies and making it look good several hundred years before you were born. Or don't watch it and save yourself the anguish. But if someone's holding a gun to your head and forcing you to pick between this or the follow-up, 'Night of the Seagulls', for God's sake, PICK THIS ONE! 'Night of the Seagulls' will swallow your SOUL!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
not the standout in "The Blind Dead" collection, 12 April 2008

Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

The first two "Blind Dead" films are pretty good, and the first is a classic of sorts. Not so for this one. A woman, who is a model, goes in search of her roommate, who is also a model, but seems to have disappeared. She's part of a super-secret advertising campaign for designer sporty life-boats or something (yes really), and she and another model have stranded themselves somewhere in the North Sea near the shipping lanes so that they can supposedly be rescued in style. The two women are supposedly stuck in one area, and surrounded by fog & tropic heat, and then they spot an old galleon, but stupidly expect to be rescued & have absolutely no qualms in hopping aboard this derelict ship. And guess who is on board? Why, it's our old friends, the walking dead Templar Knights. And you know that no good can come of that. To the rescue, though, is Lillian (Maria Perschy), the head of the sporting goods conglomerate, the woman looking for her roommate (Noemi), and some professor of something....who wants to see this ship, although supposedly it doesn't exist. He's a professor that apparently has a B.S., because that's certainly what he spouts. There's all kinds of stuff like talk of "other dimensions", etc., but why are rats running around a ship in another dimension with nothing but dead Templars on board? Got me. The dialog is totally ridiculous, to the point of being hilarious, especially when the professor is holding forth on his theories. And when the Templars make themselves known and are driven back "to the hell from where they came" (which in this case is apparently the hold of the ship), there's some kind of notebook or something sitting on the hatch that slides down inside before the hatch finally closes....was that the script? Could have been, oh well, I don't think anyone was using it anyway. A hoot for bad movie fans, but a real come-down after the first couple "Blind Dead" movies, which are actually worth seeing. 4 out of 10.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Second sequel Templars dead developed into a ghostly vessel, 14 February 2007

Author: ma-cortes

The Templars Zombies return in this mediocre sequel,now in a medieval ship.Two models with advertising aims embark in a yacht when find the damned vessel.Later a diverse group(Jack Taylor,Maria Perschy,Manuel De Blas,Carlos Lemos and Barbara Rey)on board and sail to look for them and again encounter the ghastly ship drifting like the Errant Dutch vessel.

In this second following(the first sequel was ¨Return of evil dead¨) from the original ¨Tombs the blind dead¨ also we find the famous blind dead zombies which rise from the tombs 500 years after to wreak havoc upon a beautiful bikinied Euro-babes.The zombie-like pack of ancient warriors priest awake and rising from the graves to kill and torture the unfortunate victims.They were condemned and eternally dammed by cult practising human sacrifices and blinded by crows.They encounter their victims by means of screams and sounds. This is a cheap Spaniard production with lack luster and low budget.Special effects are ridiculous and embarrassing,like the ship, an absurd toy-miniature into a bathtub that is frankly lousy.In the film appear known Eurotrash actors as Maria Perschy (¨Fumanchu castle,Hunchback of Morgue,Exorcism¨ ,however played for Howard Hawks in ¨Man's favorite sport?'with Rock Hudson) and Jack Taylor (usual player for Jess Frank: Eugenie,Count Dracula,Necronomicon,Commando Mengele),posteriorly he worked for Amando De Ossorio in ¨Hydra,sea serpent¨. Creepy,eerie music especially when the Templars clergymen appear is in charge of Anton Garcia Abril and atmospheric photography by Raul Artigot.This is a mediocre attempt to cash of following exhausted medieval warriors saga.Followed by another inferior sequel ¨Night of the seagulls¨also titled ¨Night of the death cult¨.

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Scooby Doo's Ghost Galleon of Ghouls, 2 August 2003

Author: Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) from New York, USA

This is another one of those "lost Eurohorror treasures" I read about for years before finally stumbling upon in Brentwood Home Video's HORROR RISES FROM THE GRAVE bargain bin set, which is worth EVERY penny. One of the forces that championed this film to me was Cathall Tolhill and Peter Tombs' IMMORAL TALES -- a highly Squonk Approved compendium on European erotic horror & exploitation films 1962 to 1982 or so. The nice big color reproduction of the EL BUQUE MALDITO marquee poster was what really caught my imagination though: The image of the bikini'd lovely being carried to her death like a life-sized holy communion is very striking, and in fact restaged in the film in a really eerie moment.

But when I first saw the print Brentwood digitized I kind of wondered if Cathall & Pete had been referring to a different film. Along with their writings, posts to various message forums on Eurohorror and contact with folks who knew it inside & out had sort of created this expectation of an insane, bowel eviscerating excersize in borderline pornographic horror.

What I found, instead, has been FAR, FAR more precious: this is one of the most gloriously goofy movies ever made, and now a genuine Guilty Pleasures favorite -- especially when viewed in it's 'UNCUT' 90 minute form available online from a number of sources, though forget about Amazon. The preferred English Language version to find is a long out of print re-issue for home video from the mid 1980's called HORROR OF THE ZOMBIES. Unfortunate choice of titles; one of my thesis statements on Ossorio's work relates to how irresponsibly his work has been marketed. Sorry to nitpick, but the Blind Dead aren't "zombies", they are Templars. Members of the Knights Templars sect, based on a legend of a band of blind monks who banded together to protect the innocent from the ravages of the Spanish Inquisition [which No One Expects!!, by the way]. [Sorry had to do that once :D]

Ossorio changed that legend and made the Templars a group of Knights who had learned the secret of eternal life while on Crusade in the middle east: Torture and ritually slaughter a gorgeous Spanish supporting actress, then feast on her still warm blood and flesh. If anything they have more in common with vampires -- very much in vogue for 1970's Eurohorror. They sleep in graves or coffins between blood rituals, cannot be harmed by conventional methods other than burning, and according to EL BUQUE MALDITO, fear exorcismic incantations & flaming crosses. Good thing they had a Professor from a local science institute with them to act as an "Expert" figure who just happened to be versed in the Templars.

And right there is the beginning of why this is such a fun movie. Movies used to be fun. Now there has to be some message, some underlying theme to redeem the $20 million dollars wasted on the garbage flooding the cineplex screens. They are painful to sit through, and look like they were painful to make.

Not this one. This must have been a riot, mostly because Ossorio apparently shared the insight with those involved that what they were making was GARBAGE, and as such the film is better than it had to be but still produces some great laugh out loud "That is sooo fake" moments that are just plain "fun". If anything, the movie looks like it may have been inspired by that old SCOOBY DOO WHERE ARE YOU? adventure with the Ghost Pirate on his sunken galleon in the Sargasso Sea [or wherever]. The film starts with a rather pointless introduction that includes an unpleasant sex assault scene [flavorings of a women in prison flick?], but once the main action moves above the galleon set Ossorio was able to utilize the interest level picks up.

Fans of Godzilla films and other classics of miniature trick shot cinematography will be WOW!'ed by the gripping images of a model boat bobbing in a bathtub. Those familiar with the churning force of the sea will be impressed that Ossorio found himself the one spot in the Medeterranean to film this where THERE IS NO WIND, waves or other natural forces that might ruin a shot. The scenes on the galleon were actually shot on what looks like a closed television soundscreen, and bring to mind the stunning realism of Hammer's PREHISTORIC WOMEN, set in the treacherous reaches of Pinewood Studios, where they made a fake jungle. I love stuff like that! Give me Ossorio's model boat destroyed by being lit on fire by a cigarette lighter over another Jar Jar Binks movie any day & I will be a happy man.

Of the legendary scenes of sex and GORE that are often whispered about, forget it. Yes, Brentwood's appropriated print has shortened the sex assault scene and did cut the one "big" gore moment, where the ditzy blond lesbian fashion model is hacked to bits by the Templars as a mid-voyage snack, but the results of finding it intact will probably leave the GORE fanatic non-plussed. "That's it?" was my reaction after seeing it "uncut" for the first time. And yes, that's it. No nudity at all registers on this print, and it is not a "covered" take, though the theory that it appears to have been made for television is salient; That would explain the broadcast media style "videotaped" look to the majority of the soundstage scenes, where the first two and last installments of the series are all photomechanical film down to the last frame.

So with no boobs & very little blood [the two first blood rituals happen off-camera, and we aren't even treated to a viewing of the messy aftermaths], the main interest in the film is related to who made it and how. Ossorio was a very visually oriented director, and posters of comments are 100% correct when stating that the images involving the Templars skanking about in their rotting robes & drooling all over the fashion models are mesmerizing ... There is a juxtaposition going on, with bikinis and Go-Go boots on one side, rotting skeletal vampiric Templars on the other, that creates a sort of "Gee I wonder" impression. The mind takes over, fills in the gaps, and PRESTO! A film that suggests perhaps more than it actually depicts.

But that is what leaves peope feeling short changed; one trusted colleage whom I had sought an opinion on this said it was "boring", but I think we come back to my thesis: Nobody really knew how to market Ossorio's movies and lumped them in with crapola that deserves titles like ZOMBIE FLESH EATER, when in fact he was making modern Spanish art with film, circa 1973. The best images he arrived at are just as beautiful, horrible, repulsive and hypnotic as anything Goya ever painted, and made him a whole heck of a lot of cash.

Seek out those Brentwood sets [it is also available on a 5 disc 10 movie set called DEADTIME STORIES that has his final BLIND DEAD film on it as well] and be prepared for skinny fashion models being menaced by goons, shuffling templars on a boat, a burning model in a bathtub, and you should be all set. "Zoinks!"

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7 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
These zombies don't eat much flesh., 28 May 2004

Author: Aaron1375 from Alabama

I saw this movie under the title "Zombie Flesh Eaters", but do not let the title fool you, this is not a gory zombie movie. In fact it is a really boring zombie movie. It is part of the series "The Blind Dead", and from what I saw here I am not going to rush out for the first two installments unless someone tells me they are a lot better. This movie has these two bimbos stranded on a boat and they run across a toy ship in a bathtub (well that is what it looks like). Something happens to them and a rescue team comes to find them. On board the toy ship are the slowest moving zombies ever to be seen on film...and they don't eat their prey, instead they drop their prey or they take an hour to drag their prey down stairs. The plot, the story, and everything about this film is very dull and boring for the most part.

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