It's fair to say that "Virginia" (María Elena Arpón) isn't the sharpest tool in the box when she gets fed up with the flirting of her travelling companions "Roger" (César Burner) and "Betty" (Lone Fleming) and abandons their slowly moving Portuguese train in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, she stumbles upon what looks like a ruined monastery and having built a pretty impressive fire from a few twigs, settles down in her sleeping bag for a good night's sleep. No chance. Barely have her eyes closed than things are going bump in the night. The bodies of the condemned Knights Templar buried on the site resurrect themselves and are are thirsty! Feeling a little guilty next day, her two friends try to trace her movements but are ill-equipped for what they find - especially when their horses take flight. Soon the police, some local smugglers and a comically staged cat-fight provide a little entertainment as these wraith like versions of Richard the Lionheart continue to wreak havoc... It's actually quite fun, this film. By no means can it be called good and the acting (and writing) is pretty woeful, but it does make use of it's creepy monastic surroundings quite well, with loads of creaking and dimly lit passageways. There's some fun to be had in a mannequin factory (they don't react too well to fire) too, and there's loads of hysterical screaming - from both sexes. It's way too long with far too much padding, but it's still quite an entertaining horror that can make you laugh.

**_“A pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades followed close behind him”_** After a young woman in Portugal (María Elena Arpón) has a horrifying experience at some mysterious ruins by a remote graveyard, her two friends try to find out what happened to her (Lone Fleming and César Burner). Big mistake. A Portuguese/Spanish production, “Tombs of the Blind Dead” (1972) was originally called “The Night of the Blind Terror” (translated from Spanish). It spawned three sequels in the next three years: “Return of the Blind Dead,” “The Ghost Galleon” and “Night of the Seagulls.” “The Ghost Galleon” is the only other one I’ve seen, which is wisely a standalone flick. This is slightly superior. The story is interesting, but it basically rips off plot elements of the Dracula story, just replace Harker with Virginia and the undead Count with the Templar mummies. The structure also brings to mind “Psycho” and obviously so. Nevertheless, the Iberian locations are great, the characters interesting, the women lovely, the antagonists creepy and the locomotive a nice addition. Unfortunately, I lost a little respect for the flick when the train conductor's assistant tries to help a distraught female get on the train. You’ll see what I mean. Then there’s the issue of the horses. I guess you’re not supposed to overthink things. While watching the skeletal Templars riding horses, I couldn’t help think of the apes on horses in “Planet of the Apes.” Some distributors thought the same thing and so reedited the film, releasing it as “Revenge from Planet Ape,” to take advantage of the popularity of that franchise in the 70s. It played at various theaters in America and even Guam. It runs 1 hours, 41 minutes, with an edited American version called “The Blind Dead” butchering it to 1 hour, 23 minutes. It was shot in Portugal (Lisbon & places nearby: Palmela, Setúbal, Sesimbra and Estoril) and Spain (Monastery of Pelayos in Madrid). GRADE: B-