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

Director:

Amando de Ossorio

Writers:

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

Release Date:

1976 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Model | Galleon | Ship | Publicity Stunt | Ghost Ship

Cast

Maria Perschy	...	Lillian
Jack Taylor	...	Howard Tucker
Bárbara Rey	...	Noemi
Carlos Lemos	...	Professor Grüber
Manuel de Blas	...	Sergio
Blanca Estrada	...	Kathy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Margarita Merino	...	Lorena Kay (uncredited)

Directed by
Amando de Ossorio

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Amando de Ossorio		screenplay
Amando de Ossorio		story

Produced by
José Luis Bermúdez de Castro Acaso	....	producer (as J.L. Bermudez de Castro)

Original Music by
Antón García Abril

Cinematography by
Raúl Artigot

Film Editing by
Petra de Nieva

Production Design by
Eduardo Torre de la Fuente		(as Torre de la Fuente)

Set Decoration by
Eduardo Torre de la Fuente		(as E. Torre de la Fuente)

Costume Design by
Lola Marquerie		(as Dolores Marquerie)

Makeup Department
Cristóbal Criado	....	makeup artist
Luis Criado	....	assistant makeup artist
Amando de Ossorio	....	special makeup effects artist
Carlos Paradela	....	makeup artist
María Carmen Sánchez	....	assistant makeup artist (as Maria Carmen Sanchez)
Consuelo Zahonero	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Manuel Muñoz	....	assistant production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Juan Antonio Arévalo	....	assistant director (as Juan Antonio Arevalo)

Art Department
Augusto Lega	....	set designer (as Lega-Michelena)
Félix Michelena	....	set designer (as Lega-Michelena)
Horacio Rodríguez	....	assistant set designer (as Horatio Rodriguez)

Special Effects by
José Luis Campos	....	special effects
Pablo Pérez	....	special effects (as Pablo Perez)

Visual Effects by
J. Santines	....	visual effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Fernando Espiga	....	second camera operator
Felipe López	....	still photographer
Miguel A. Muñoz	....	assistant camera

Editorial Department
María Elisa Valero	....	assistant editor (as Maria Elisa Valero)
R. Wood	....	synchronization

Other crew
Óscar Guarido García	....	production auxiliary
Marisol Martínez	....	secretary to director (as Marisol G. Martinez)
Pedro Sopeña	....	production assistant (as Pedro Sopena)

Production Companies

• Ancla Century Films
• Belén Films

Distributors

• Belén Films (1974) (Spain) (theatrical)
• Independent International Pictures (I-I) (1976) (USA) (theatrical) (dubbed)
• Astro Distribution (1998) (Germany) (VHS)
• Atlas International Film (1974) (worldwide) (all media)
• Blue Underground (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• CineHollywood (CH) (????) (Italy) (VHS)
• DMEG (2004) (Sweden) (video)
• Imagica TV (2006) (Japan) (DVD) (box set)
• Kinokuniya (2006) (Japan) (DVD) (box set)
• Mosaico Media (2006) (Italy) (DVD)
• Mosaico Media (2011) (Italy) (DVD)
• Super Video (1984) (USA) (VHS) (as "Horror of the Zombies")
• VPS Video (1982) (West Germany) (VHS)
• Video Marketing (????) (France) (VHS)
• Video Tours (video)
• World's Worst Videos (1988) (USA) (VHS)
• XT Video Entertainment (2005) (Austria) (DVD) (box set)

Other Companies

• Ballesteros  studios
• Cinearte  sound
• Fotofilm Madrid  laboratory
• Vazquez Productions  props

Also Known As:

"El buque maldito" - Spain (original title)
"The Ghost Galleon" - International (English title) (imdb display title), USA (DVD title)
"Horror of the Evil Dead" - USA (reissue title)
"Ship of Zombies" - USA
"The Blind Dead 3" - USA
"Zombie Flesh Eater" - USA (DVD title)

Runtime:

USA:89 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted | UK:15 | Germany:(Banned) (2000) | West Germany:(Banned) (1987) | Australia:PG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Italy:T (DVD) (original rating) | Italy:VM18 (DVD) (new rating)

Filming Locations:

Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

Company:

Ancla Century Films

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of blood on Noemi's face changes between shots as she is being dragged by the zombies back below deck.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987) (V)

Welcome aboard for a cruise into another dimension… of TERROR!

The Blind Dead leave the sanctuary of the Templar's crumbling monastery for the third in the series, the floating fright-fest Horror of The Zombies (aka The Ghost Galleon). If there was ever a film that's rooted firmly in the decade from which it sprung, it's this one. Oh, and Saturday Night Fever, but this one's from 1974: pre-disco, and post-taste.

Now, if we've all forgotten just how senselessly ugly Seventies fashions were, the opener will bring it all kicking and screaming back to us. It's at a swim-wear photo shoot, where top model Noemi is looking for her missing girlfriend. She's taken to a secret location by photo-frau Lillian (Maria Perschy) where the great mystery is revealed – her girlfriend Cathy and another model are out in the middle of the ocean as part of an elaborate publicity stunt to promote a weather-controlled boat, cooked up by cocky financier Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor).

Unfortunately for the girls, the fog rolls in (although, being the Seventies, everyone is huffing away on cigarettes and cigars, so how would you notice), and an ancient galleon, seemingly abandoned with rags for sails, floats into view. The girls radio the news of the Ghost Galleon back to base; the resident token egghead Professor Gruber goes a little strange, and despite his rigorous scientific training, suggests the legendary Ghost Galleon is from a another dimension outside of time and space. Clearly a huge fan of Eric von Daniken, Gruber seems to have read one too many supermarket paperbacks on the Bermuda Triangle, but, like I said, it's the Seventies – we ALL read Von Daniken. The girl's are here, he reasons, but they're not, and they won't be coming back. Nothing is real – the ship, the fog, you or I... A philosophical paradox, for sure, but the real mystery is this: how de Ossorio stretches such a flimsy premise to feature length truly defies all scientific explanation.

So of course they all go looking for the Galleon and the missing bikinis, or maybe Howard Tucker wants his speedboat back. Cue more fog, and the resurrected skeletons of the Knights Templar rising from their on-board coffins. We soon discover on a 16th Century boat, there really is nowhere to run. Or, you could swim, but wait for the water-logged ending to drown that theory. "Preposterous" is the key word here – de Ossorio asks a great deal of his viewers to suspend belief when what amounts to little more than chicken bones drags a fully grown woman down a flight of stairs to her complete and utter dismemberment.

Horror Of The Zombies features the two most popular stars in Spanish horror. Austrian-born Maria Perschy, and American expatriate Jack Taylor who starred in a string of no-budget shockers for Jess Franco and decided he couldn't go home ever again. And yet Horror Of The Zombies was the least successful of the Blind Dead quartet. Perhaps the film strayed too far from the formula, although how could you go wrong: girls in bikinis on a boat with zombies? Despite its limited scope, micro-cast and tendency to be stage-bound, it's still an entertaining exercise in tension, atmospheric and illogic, and the empty eye sockets of the Knights Templar are always a welcome sight.

All I can say now is "Welcome aboard" for a cruise into another dimension… of TERROR!… with the 1974 Horror Of The Zombies.