Director: Amando de Ossorio
Year: 1974
Country: Spain
Alternate Titles: El buque maldito; Ship of Zombies; Horror of the Zombies; Horror of the Evil Dead; Ghost Ships of the Blind Dead
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
After disappearing prior to an assignment, a model joins her boss and her employers after learning they were hired for a publicity stunt in the middle of the ocean, and when they find the girls have come across a floating galleon containing the undead Knights Templar the ever-dwindling group struggles to survive.
Review:
This is the underrated entry in the series, and it's not nearly as bad as some have made it out to be. Among the better features is that this is a great return to the Gothic feeling of the first one, with the spooky interiors of the ship being its best part. Barely lit, cobweb filled and just filled with the right amount of ambiance to give off the abandoned feel on its own, the ship is a masterpiece of mood that works wonderfully. Working just as well is the setups to use that imagery, having many extended scenes where people wander around aimlessly looking for something and they are particularly suspenseful as it takes a while to get to the Blind Dead themselves. It bears little mention that they again steal the show, the slowly shuffling horde are at their usual creepiness here with their decayed look, bony claws and rotting hoods are a near-perfect horror creation.
It was also a pretty creative move to place them on the ship here, as it ups the suspense considerably when you know there is no escape from a never-ending threat such as this. The setup of the ship comes to give the film some rather fun confrontations throughout here, and the different suggestions to how to deal with them are both creative in their thought and logical in their realization. From them swarming and overcoming the victim to turn them into a sacrifice to the chases into the bowels of the ship which are quite extended showing them slowly making their way towards everyone giving added suspense to the encounters which make for a great time. It was also a clever way of dealing with the ship, as its true nature is spelled out quite effectively and gives a couple of other really effective scenes. It also works well to add a little more suspense in the film, which is enough to hold this one up overall.
There are mainly two gripes against the film. The main issue is that the Templars have very little screen time, being restricted to come on only to kill off a character after an extended stalk sequence. A little more screen time for them would've gone a long way here, as this is a pretty slow film despite all the atmospheric touches. They’re restricted mainly to the opening stalking of the girls and then the final chase through the ship which is fun enough but means the film isn't as violent or action-packed as the second one. The Templars work well with extended sequences on screen, and here the slow pace doesn't allow a lot of time for them. As well, the effects here are laughable, especially the toy model being lit on fire which is cringe-inducing at best. Otherwise, I was quite entertained by this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
By fixing two problems, this becomes a much better film than its reputation deserves to be. It's the second most Gothic-influenced film in the series, and it features a lot more suspense than many give it credit for. Patient fans of the series may get a kick out of it, as well as old-school horror fans while most others who are turned off by the flaws won’t have much to like here.
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