Horror of the Zombies (1974)
"El buque maldito" (original title)

The living corpses of the Satan-worshiping Knights Templar hunt for human victims in a 16th century galleon.

Director:

Amando de Ossorio

Writers:

Amando de Ossorio (screenplay), Amando de Ossorio (story)

Stars:

Maria Perschy, Jack Taylor, Bárbara Rey

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maria Perschy	...	Lillian
Jack Taylor	...	Howard Tucker
Bárbara Rey	...	Noemi
Carlos Lemos	...	Professor Grüber
Manuel de Blas	...	Sergio
Blanca Estrada	...	Kathy

Storyline

The model Noemi questions her employer Lillian about her roommate Kathy that is missing after receiving a call from Lillian, and she tells that she will go to the police. Lilian explains that Kathy is in an afloat boat in the Atlantic with another model participating of a publicity stunt, and she brings Noemi to meet Howard Tucker and his henchman Sergio that have idealized the advertising campaign. Kathy uses the radio to report that a ghost galleon without crew has arrived and Tucker sends a helicopter to bring the models back; however the pilot does not find them at the location. Tucker contacts Professor Grüber that studies the Sixteen Century galleon and they use a boat to reach the ghost vessel with Sergio, Lillian and Noemi. Soon Professor Gruber learns that the damned galleon is stranded in another dimension and the crew is composed of excommunicated Templar zombies. Now they try to leave the galleon and return to their own dimension. Will they succeed in their intent?

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Plot Keywords:

model | galleon | ship | publicity stunt | ghost ship | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Horror of the Evil Dead

Filming Locations:

Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

Box Office

Gross:

ESP 12,440,177 (Spain)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ancla Century Films, Belén Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the boat catches fire near the climax of the film, the fire is too large and reveals the fact that it is a model that's burning, not a real ship.

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Connections

Referenced in The Dead Hate the Living! (2000)

User Reviews

Can't touch the first two Blind Dead films

I absolutely love the first two films of the Blind Dead series. While not necessarily too scary per se, they have great atmosphere, music and photography that does make for a good horror viewing.

This film though, which I saw as "Horror of the Zombies" pretty much can't come close to those first two. Two pretty girls get stranded on a 16th century galleon (supposedly in another dimension the victims accidentally slip in) which happens to house the Templar zombies. When others (involved in some publicity plot) investigate, they too are under attack of the Templars.

The main thing is, this film is pretty darn dull. There's an awful lot of walking around looking for things, and those scenes get real slow. And since the Templars themselves are very slow, unless the film making is decent (like in the first two movies), there's never too much suspense, especially when who they are chasing sometimes just kinda looks at the oncoming zombies kind of nonchalant.

The film is pretty cheap looking and bad. The galleon is VERY obviously a model, it looks like there was zero attempt to even make it look remotely believable. (And having shots of the you galleon ship that go from that to a real ship don't help the illusion.) There's always a lot of light seemingly to go around on the galleon. It's in another dimension, but there are live rats on board. Templar rats? The ending however is somewhat interesting. The version of this flick I saw was on the "Drive-In Movie 50-Pack Collection" and is ten minutes less then other versions, such as the cool Blind Dead coffin collection. So I will watch this one again as I'm sure the version in that is a nice print and complete. But for now, unless you really like the first two films and want to see what happens next (not much), it's best to maybe avoid this one.