RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD

Amando de Ossorio's BLIND DEAD films are an oddity. They went from vastly unknown to vastly overrated in seemingly no time flat thanks to Blue Underground and their ingeniously designed collectors set. Everyone I spoke to threw their arms up in admiration. Superlatives were tossed about. "Brilliant!" "Masterful!" "Amazing!". I met their admiration with a shrug and a sigh. "Well", I'd say, "one of them was pretty good and the rest were garbage". Needless to say, my two cents were not appreciated. And, truth be told, I was being a little hard on these films. I can now revise my statement: "two of them were OK, one was garbage, and one was great". Which one was great? Gee, I wonder...


Return of the Evil Dead

The film begins in the 13th Century in the small village of Bouzano. The townspeople have managed to capture the group of Templar Knights that had taken over their village and hastily burn their eyes out before setting them ablaze. Jump forward a few hundred years and Bouzano is preparing for a grand celebration to remember the event. An outsider named Jack has arrived to set up the fireworks display, much to the dismay of Duncan, the town's Mayor, who notices the stranger has taken notice of his fiance, Vivian. Turns out Jack and Vivian share a past. During a walk in the old monastery, they talk of leaving the town together. They are interrupted by Murdo, a half-wit cripple, who reminds them of the Templar curse - they vowed vengence as they were being prepared to die, their eyes removed to ensure they would never find the village again. Murdo later sacrifices a young woman on the graves of the Knights Templar bringing them to life. Revived, the undead Knights ride off to the village for a massacre.


Human sacrifice in Return of the Evil Dead

Obviously patterned after Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD - with a nod to Hitchcock's THE BIRDS at the finale - de Ossorio's film features a larger group of characters than you'd expect, each with their own trappings and desires. Once the film moves to it's halfway point, the personality play becomes much more engaging and the characters really come to life. The creepiness picks up as well, including a stand-out sequence in which the sleazy Mayor sends a young girl outside to draw the attention of the Knights while he tries to escape. The film also packs quite a visceral wallop with plenty of red stuff flying about. And then there's the Knights Templar themselves. Impressively creepy and flat out cool, the undead Knights are clearly the strongest visual in the film. de Ossorio keeps his creations on screen for most of the film's running time - a mistake in the previous film where they were strangely missing - and it's a stronger film because of it.


Amando de Ossorio's Return of the Evil Dead

As varied and engaging as this film is, it does have a few problems. The undead Knights, according to director de Ossorio, exist out of sync with our time. So they move real slow. This might be the only way to account for the fact that it takes them freaking forever to get from the monastery to the village - which is only about a 10 minute walk. I also cannot explain why they all have horses. And although the Knights are incredibly wicked to watch, de Ossorio makes one very distracting mistake in how he films them. If you have a bunch of rotting corpses in long robes swinging swords, make sure you design your make-up accordingly. All too often, as a Knight raises his sword, we can see where the make-up ends, revealing a long healthy patch of normal skin. A little picky, you may say, but distracting nonetheless. Also why does everyone vomit a huge mouthful of blood when they die? de Ossorio's version of "Oh, I am slain!", perhaps?


RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD is the strongest of the BLIND DEAD films and the only one I would recommend without reservation.