Personally, I love those dusty, shrouded, sightless skeletons. I just watched the whole series and loved it. I had previously seen Tombs of the Blind Dead, but only the edited American release. And while I thought it was pretty good, I didn't like it nearly as much as finally seeing the uncut version. After seeing the uncut version I hurriedly watched the rest of the series and found them all excellent.

Return of the Evil Dead - This one is not quite as good as the first. It's a bit too 'epic' for this. But there is still good atmosphere and the ending has a great understated quality to it.

The Ghost Galleon - Low budget shows, but I actually, really liked it. The setting is cool, it's so dreamy and bizarre that it won me over

Night of the Seagulls - this is my favorite of them. The atmosphere is palpable, it just oozes dread and is the least uneven of them all, I thought.

IMDb also lists Jesus Franco's Mansion of the Living Dead as a remake of the Blind Dead, but it really isn't. There are some vague similarities. But I would not call it a remake. It has its own gaudy, grotesque charm. It's more overtly surreal, but its my least favorite of all these movies.

What do you guys think of this classic horror series?

Now yer talkin'.

In its originality, creepiness, and brilliant simplicity, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD is a landmark of Eurohorror in the same way CITIZEN KANE was a landmark for cinema in general.

The Blind Dead flicks straddle a major transition in horror cinema, from the creepy, atmospheric Gothic horror that had dominated for more than a decade before them to the more modern breed exemplified by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. These are films that straddle that fence with spectacular results, taking the best from both worlds.

Of the four, THE GHOST GALLEON which is widely targeted as the worst of the lot, and, indeed, it does have plenty of big, obvious problems, mostly owing to budget, but for a movie made for practically nothing I thought it was a fine little atmospheric horror tale. You just have to sort of ignore the inane dialogue the characters are spouting. You peg NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS as your favorite, but while it can't, in my view, hold a candle to the original and could have used some editing, it's easily the best of the sequels--a great little movie. The only real clinker in the batch is the second film, and I dislike that one rather intensely. It's just a really bad remake of the original, with some NOTLD thrown in but it's faster-paced than the others, and in a world in which far too many have come up short in the attention-span department, that's often enough to earn it a degree of praise it does absolutely nothing to earn (including ludicrous assertions that it tops the original--whatever). I can't say a single original thing in its favor because there isn't a single original thing in it to praise.

An amusing footnote: The Blind Dead were Portuguese Templars because the censorship imposed by the Spanish fascists wouldn't allow things like monsters to be depicted as coming from Spain (this is also the reason Paul Naschy's wolf-man had to be a Pole, rather than a Spaniard).

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1971) – In a desolate, abandoned stone village, a cult of dead templars rises from the grave. The most endearing strength is the atmosphere, which uses the decrepit environment and eerie scoring to great effect. The undead are very different from zombies in that they are wraith-like skeletons shrouded in black cloaks. These ghouls also moan and chant in a gregorian manner, which is a nice touch. What results is a surprisingly creepy movie with a cool historical setup. The characters are thin and the sexual content seems misplaced, but the horror sequences are fantastic. 8/10

Return of the Blind Dead (1973) (Spanish Horror) – This is the second film in the “Blind Dead” tetralogy; not a direct sequel per se, but more like a re-telling of the original story with some variations. The templars and their victims are much greater in number, but a few moments feel like a B-grade action film instead of a horror film. For instance, the big battle (near the middle) is unsatisfying because the choreography, camerawork, and editing are lackluster. Nevertheless, much of this is enjoyable with the thick atmosphere, scoring, and focus on isolation that one comes to expect from this series. The latter half is especially strong. 7/10

The Ghost Galleon (1974) (Spanish Horror) – A group of half-naked models board a ship, are transported to an alternate dimension, and then stalked by those pesky undead templars. Yes, it’s quite possibly the coolest premise for a film, ever. Too bad the execution failed; and this despite the girls being tossed into the deadly predicament within the first 15 minutes! Yes, the atmosphere is good, but the horror sequences are badly staged, the deaths too few in number, and there’s too much time wasted on superfluous filler material (one dimensional characters having dull conversations). This is the third film in the “Blind Dead” tetralogy, but the only one that fails to provide at least a moderate level of entertainment. 5/10

Night of the Seagulls (1975) (Spanish Horror) – This is the fourth film in the “Blind Dead” tetralogy. To the credit of the filmmakers, this re-telling of the dead templars who rise from their graves is novel in terms of both story and structure. The horror elements are mostly backloaded to the 20 minute finale, and there is a greater emphasis on human sacrifice. Some may find it a bit slow compared to its predecessors, but when all is said and done it emerges as a satisfying experience. 7/10