Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

This Naschy offering, in which the Spanish force of nature played three characters, is an odd spectacle. Anyone heading in for the z-word will probably be disappointed. Rather than the staggering, brain-devouring undead we all know and love (and will soon be quite sick of, I'd wager), the "zombies" in this film exist as puppets for an evil occultist. You can probably guess who plays him, and who also plays the devil in a later scene.The surprising choice of Naschy's was also to play an Indian mystic named Krishna. This is surprising not just to see the role of an Indian played by the Spanish Naschy, but also because the character itself is an odd fit for the movie. The origin of zombies is explored in the Voodoo religion that birthed them (and of course, dolls are harmed in the making of this movie), but why the Indian character, and reference to the Thuggee cult? Naschy was known to often mix genre staples, eg. werewolves against vampires, but I'm not sure what he was going for in invoking that particular barbarity.The film is, overall, more a giallo than a typical zombie flick, with a masked man dressed in black sneaking around killing to a psychedelic soundtrack. The garish colours and bold compositions of giallo are here, too. I say check it out... but don't expect Night of the Living Dead.

I got this movie on a whim. Just wanted to see a zombie flick that had the old school voodoo zombies rather than the viral ones that are all the rage today. The way this movie was made out it sounded like it may be good as they made it out to be quite disturbing on the back of the package and on the description used at amazon. Suffice to say, the only thing really disturbing about this piece is the fact it seems they killed a chicken on screen for the film. The film was very reminiscent of another European horror called Scream and Scream again, in that it had a lot of plot points coming together at the end. This film is a bit easier to follow than that one, but that one was by far a more enjoyable flick.The story opens up with a couple that are going to rob a tomb. Why? Who knows as these people are just in the film to show us the awesome power of the strange man who can summon the dead to do his bidding. A couple watch a show featuring a man from India showing an audience his ability to control his body. Meanwhile, more killings take place, the female that watched the show is attacked, her father murdered and she goes to the spiritualist's house that also happens to be a place where ritualistic killings were performed in the name of Satan. The killer seems to have a strange motive and is not working alone and the female is falling in love with the spiritualist while her boyfriend tries to find a reason for the killings. He suggests to the police it is voodoo and that they are dealing with zombies and the police are more accepting of this theory than one would think they would be.Just a bit much going on, but it keeps your brain entertained as they flash here and there throughout the film. About the only thing the film has going for it as the kills are okay and the story falls apart at the end as a character that had not been established at all becomes all to integral to the plot. The lead female is an attractive redhead and is the focus for a lot of the film, but she disappears for a large bit as does the man that was her boyfriend. Meanwhile, I am left wondering what was so shocking about this film? Perhaps it is the fact that the one redhead saw a woman's head fall off and then it is ten minutes later and she is seducing the object of her affection. I did not see that coming, I would think a person's head coming off would put one out of the mood for a bit longer!

And the winner for best "Death by small can" scene in a horror movie goes to "Vengeance of the Zombies." Not that there was a whole lot of competition outside of "Undead." Anyways, there have been many a times in which horror movies seem to forgo anything resembling logic in their quest to scare or entertain. Sometimes this works (The films of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci for example), sometimes it doesn't (the films of Dante Tomaselli), and then there are goes films that aren't good and make little sense, but you find yourself enjoying them anyway. Leon Klimovsky achieved this in 1973 with the Paul Naschy vehicle "Vengeance of the Zombies." Indian Mystic Krisna (Naschy) has things going his way. He's pretty popular, the ladies love him (Yep, this is a Paul Naschy film alright!) and nothing bad seems to be happening. That is, until his girlfriend Elvire (Romy) starts having nightmares involving Satanic rites (with Naschy playing Satan), a masked killer being on the loose, and a group of vengeful female zombies roaming around. Oh, and Krisna's deformed brother (Naschy again.) There are numerous flaws to be found here (plot holes, a completely inappropriate lounge score, mediocre direction and acting), but "Vengeance of the Zombies" manages to be pretty fun for what it is: dumb exploitation made for undemanding viewers. In a way, the ultimately silly nature of the whole thing works more than it doesn't. There's just something nice about a movie that has such a "let's put on a show" attitude, and the added nudity and gore (including a nifty decapitation) adds to the experience.Another reason the thing works better than it should is because it basically throws in everything but the kitchen sink to entertain viewers. Satanic rituals? Check. Sexploitation? Check. Voodoo spells? Check. Zombies? Check. Black gloved killer? You get the point. It's like watching a smörgåsbord/greatest hits collection of Euro exploitation from the period, and it's hard not to smile at most of it. Plus, how many times to you see someone get killed with a small can in horror movies? "Vengeance of the Zombies" is anything but a good movie, and more serious minded genre aficionados will probably cringe through most of it. Those who love dumb exploitation and "so-bad-it's-good" movies will be more forgiving, and probably enjoy the stupid enterprise on display.

The opening sequence is very cool and quite scary. An evil couple is apparently robbing the dead of their jewels at the mausoleum. And, in a nod to karma, they are killed by an avenging zombie. Abruptly, the film begins and the locale changes completely--and you really aren't sure what this has to do with the rest of the film.A woman is naturally feeling troubled following the murder of her father (whether or not this is the man in the opening scene, I don't know) and so she seeks solace from an Indian mystic. However, she is attacked several times by zombies (what a bummer) and ultimately is carried by one of them into a weird Satanic ceremony filled with green-faced zombies. There, the Indian mystic is dressed like the Devil (the outfit and makeup are pretty cool but they later refer to him as 'Baron Samedi'--the voodoo spirit of death) and the lady is stabbed and he drinks her blood. But, just as she's about to die, she awakens to find it's all a dream. Despite this freaky dream or vision or whatever it was, the lady remains at the mystic's home--proving she's pretty dumb.In the meantime, various murders take place--orchestrated by the same masked person you saw at the beginning of the film. As for the murders, by today's standards they are tame--they were, for their time, very bloody and graphic....and featured a bit of gratuitous nudity. This is probably NOT a film to show your mother-in-law! After these killings, you finally learn from some Scotland Yard folks that those killed were all somehow related. It seems that they all came from British families of people who remained in India following independence in 1947. In 1957, some sort of evil event occurred--and the families returned to India and did not talk about this incident. So, it appears that perhaps the mystic is using Haitian voodoo to exact revenge for this 1957 incident. Tune in if you want to find out where it goes next.This story has a lot of good and a lot of bad. The killings are pretty graphic and there are plenty of scary moments. But, the plot often makes little sense (such as why the lady never called the police and why all the victims of the zombies just stood there waiting for the slow-motion killers to get them!). If you love Spanish horror films, this is worth seeing--otherwise, it just didn't quite work. The writing certainly should have been better.By the way, in one scene a guy is apparently killed by a can--yes, a can. How this killed him, I have no idea--it sure seemed pretty stupid as well as impossible. Also, a live chicken is actually beheaded for the film--a rather cruel way to get some chills.