Return of the Blind Dead/Return of the Evil Dead (1973)

500 years after they were blinded and executed for committing human sacrifices, a band of Templar knights returns from the grave to terrorize a rural Portuguese village during it's centennial celebration. Being blind, the Templars find their victims through sound, usually the screams of their victims. Taking refuge in a deserted cathedral, a small group of people must find a way to escape from the creatures.

REVIEW: Return of the Blind Dead, also known more-so as Return of the Evil Dead, is the second movie in the 1970s Spanish horror Blind Dead series, of which I've already reviewed the first one.

Some aspects I feel this entry does much better than the first Blind Dead movie. It has actual likeable and fleshed out characters, an easy to follow coherent plot, it uses the actual 'blind' aspect of the Blind Dead better, and pretty much everything else from a writing standpoint is done better, plus most of the acting is better as well.

However there's just as many aspects I feel it didn't do as good as the first movie, such as the thick level of atmosphere and creepy factor that 'Tombs' had is almost non-existent in this one, there's no dead victims coming back to life zombie-style, which I actually kinda liked in the first movie, the music isn't nearly as memorable, and the ending is nowhere near as impactful. So overall I’m still giving this one the same score as the first movie, but for completely different reasons.

Also, this entry (and from my understanding all of the entries in this series) is totally its own separate story, unconnected to the first movie (and any other movie in the series) outside of using the same basic concept of the Blind Dead adversaries. I like to think of this series more-so as an anthology series of movies, where the only thing in common is the use of the Blind Dead in each entry. In addition to not realizing that right away, there are also some returning actors from the first movie but they're playing different roles, so I was a bit lost for the first chunk of the movie until I realized that this ignores the first movie and is its own separate entity outside of the use of the concept of the Blind Dead themselves.

6/10 rooms in the Psych Ward