Innocence at Risk in: "Tombs of the Blind Dead"

EdAugusts

unread,

Apr 1, 2008, 6:48:55 AM4/1/08

to

It's been a while since I've seen "Tombs of the Blind Dead", a 1971
Spanish production, directed by Amando Ossorio. But I was thinking
about it for its effective use of dead Knights Templar, a most
controversial group from the era of the Crusades, as zombie-like
revenants and creepy killers, and for two, brief, exceptionally creepy
scenes, in which a rare cinematic moment that I call "Innocents at
Risk"(also known as 'Children at Risk') takes place, when a woman
aboard a moving passenger train is being killed as the train is taken
over by the Knights, and her blood drips down on the crying face of
her slightly chubby little (8 to 10?) year old girl, as she stands,
looking back, tightly hugging her mother.

There are actually two scenes involving the little girl. In the
first, she is standing at her mother's lap as the revenants press in,
killing all the humans in the railroad car. There's a scream, and
blood flows down onto the little girl's face. One outstanding feature
here is that the child is actually crying, she's not just making faces
for the camera, and well she might be terrified, at these creepy,
eyeless Knights Templar! In the second scene, a few moments later,
she is laying on her stomach and visibly sobbing, the blood still
covers her face, and one of the Knights hand is creepily reaching
toward her. But it may not be harming the child, it looks almost as
if it is trying to calm her. That's the last scene of that kind in
the film.

I think this very believable scene of a child actually at risk of
being killed by zombies (revenants), is exceptionally rare in horror
films where teenage girls and boys can be slashed beyond recognition,
and their guts torn out and used as garters, as the saying (by Bette
Midler in "Hocus Pocus", anyway!) goes, but very rarely, if ever,
would you see blood spilling onto a sobbing child. That's the kind of
scene that makes horror hit home in a powerful way, and it points-up
the contrast of what could be filmed with impunity in 1971, (in Spain,
at least!) with what would probably be judged highly improper
exploitation and most certainly cut out during editing in the U.S.A.
of a more modest and politically correct 2008 where nothing really bad
ever happens to the Little Ones. .

I'm thinking back on every Hollywood horror film I've ever seen, and
can't remember one where something so powerful, and creepy, as a
sobbing or crying child having BLOOD dripping down on its face, (from
its own mother, no less!) was ever shown in a movie theater or on
T.V. I'm especially sensitive to this kind of exploitation because I
have an e-book of short stories of mine called "Innocence at Risk"
that was inspired by the wicked reality of children and youth being
just as much at risk in real life, as their "sorority big sister"
blondes in the tight T-shirt slasher movies. We see lots of their big
sisters getting frightened to death and splayed apart by serial
killers who use various kinds of kitchenware and shop tools on them,
and the audience is beaming with pleasure and kicking the floor for
more, but you never see young kids getting demolished.

You often do see them miraculously escaping. If someone in the family
survives, it is probably the 3 year old. Even though both his parents
were killed, HARRY POTTER survived even the onslaught of evil magic,
didn't he? As a baby! But it is clear as clear can be, that nobody
wants to see the precious little ones get whacked, that is deemed
unacceptable. Someone, somewhere, has decided that matter. Instead,
you see the kids running off just in time to get help, or hiding
under the bed until the killer leaves, and so on, but I defy anyone to
come up with actual scenes in English-language films in which a child
is visibly traumatized and slain. I guess we can write treatments,
outlinesa and screenplays that contain such scenes, but they won't be
shown by M.Night Shymalan, will they?

In "Night of the Living Dead" the little girl turns into a zombie and
dispatches her mother, but I don't remember the survivors specifically
killing her, even when she became a zombie, even when she was going to
go after them, next. Maybe my memory about horror films isn't as
clear as it used to be. There was an unpleasant ending, as I recall,
to the obnoxious "Pet Sematary", in which both young teenage boys
featured in the movie are killed, but I don't recall that they were
drenched with blood, nor do they cry and scream as their killer closes
in on them. I believe their end was implied more than it was
celebrated..

Danny Lloyd, as the little boy in "The Shining" gets out alive,
without a scratch on him, which is a better fate than his black
benefactor, Scatman Crothers, received from the character played by
Jack Nicholson. I was hoping and hoping that Shelley Duvall, and her
bulging eyes and Olive Oyle appearance would end up on a meathook in
that movie, and the kid was starting to bug me, as well, but that
movie was based on a novel by Stephen King and for every 20 kids that
go on to grow up, only 1 or 2 kids get pulled down into the flooded
gutters by the evil sabre-toothed clown. It is related in that movie
how the twin little sisters were hacked to death by their father with
an axe, but their ghosts stand there in the hotel hallway looking
very solemn. That's the problem. If these kids were dispatched with
an axe, why do we have to hear about it 2nd or 3rd hand, and see no
more than their placid doppelgangers?

By the way, to return a moment to "Tombs of the Blind Dead", or "The
Night of the Blind Terror" it is also known: Here's a bit of plot: An
attractive young woman gets off a train and spends a night alone at an
old Knights Templar ruined castle or fortress, and the Knights rise up
in the middle of the night and kill her, then her friends turn up,
looking to see what happened to her. Things go from bad to worse. The
Knights come out in force, and somehow stop a train and get on, and
kill the passengers. That's the high point of the movie. I don't
remember the end other than the train stopping in its appointed
station, and the discovery being made that everyone aboard is dead. I
guess the little girl didn't get away, either!

I just realized from looking up this movie, that "Tombs of the Blind
Dead" was the first in Osorrio's "Blind Dead" SERIES. I sure never
heard of there being a SERIES of these movies! After this one was
distributed, maybe the rest were judged too raw and graphic for easily
frightened, easily corrupted, American audiences. If anybody's seen
the other films in this "Blind Dead" series, it would be interesting
to hear what curiousities they contain!

Cheers, ----Ed www.edaugusts.com

Killer Kane

unread,

Apr 1, 2008, 8:17:16 AM4/1/08

to

"EdAugusts" wrote:

What is your opinion on zombies that run?

bod

unread,

Apr 1, 2008, 2:18:34 PM4/1/08

to

"Killer Kane" <monkey...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:%IpIj.72737$6t2....@newsfet15.ams...

their ankles would snap.

--
regards from BOD!

"dont worry yoko, its only a friggin water pist...."
JOHN LENNON 1980

http://www.myspace.com/bodland
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bodland

Andrew

unread,

Apr 1, 2008, 6:46:28 PM4/1/08

to

EdAugusts wrote:

> I just realized from looking up this movie, that "Tombs of the Blind
> Dead" was the first in Osorrio's "Blind Dead" SERIES. I sure never
> heard of there being a SERIES of these movies! After this one was
> distributed, maybe the rest were judged too raw and graphic for easily
> frightened, easily corrupted, American audiences. If anybody's seen
> the other films in this "Blind Dead" series, it would be interesting
> to hear what curiousities they contain!

A box set of all the Blind Dead films has been released in the U.S. Not
all of them have the atmosphere of the original, and the back story of
the Templars varies from film to film, but it's a worthwhile series for
horror fans.

Andrew

kendall

unread,

Apr 1, 2008, 6:48:50 PM4/1/08

to

I've seen all the Blind Dead films and I think that, though cheap, the
zombies are very effective. It's basically the same movie each time with a
different setting.

And, the little girl does get killed in NOTLD. By the hero.

Kendall

Bonestructure

unread,

Apr 2, 2008, 6:34:04 AM4/2/08

to

"Killer Kane" <monkey...@aol.com> wrote in news:%IpIj.72737$6t2.28195
@newsfet15.ams:

> What is your opinion on zombies that run?
>

zombies don't run. They can't run. They're dead. They're all messed up.

--
Save gas - fart in a jar

http://www.bonestructure.net

Dr Walpurgis

unread,

Apr 2, 2008, 4:07:51 PM4/2/08

to

On 2008-04-01 11:48:55 +0100, EdAugusts <Augus...@aol.com> said:

> "Tombs of the Blind Dead" was the first in Osorrio's "Blind Dead" SERIES.
> I sure never heard of there being a SERIES of these movies!

You need to get out more.

--
I have just looked in here for the first time, and I shall be unlikely
to return. - PJ Jenner, 13/8/01

Jared

unread,

Apr 2, 2008, 7:06:04 PM4/2/08

to

On Apr 2, 9:48 am, "kendall" <kendallkeel...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> And, the little girl does get killed in NOTLD. By the hero.

Presumably not the first time she had been killed either, if she was a
zombie.

Ditto for PET SEMATARY where I believe toddler vs semi-truck is a
fairly key plot point.

Lan...@webtv.net

unread,

Apr 2, 2008, 8:00:19 PM4/2/08

to

Kendall wrote...

<<And, the little girl does get killed in NOTLD. By the hero.>>

Watch it again.Ben throws her on the couch,before retreating to the
cellar,he doesn't harm her.(Unless you're thinking about the Savini
remake,in which I believe he does shoot her)

Ed Augusts

unread,

Apr 3, 2008, 4:50:34 AM4/3/08

to

On Apr 1, 5:17 am, "Killer Kane" <monkeyfuc...@aol.com> wrote:
> "EdAugusts" wrote:
> > It's been a while since I've seen "Tombs of the Blind Dead", a 1971

> > Spanish production, directed by Amando Ossorio....
>
> What is your opinion on zombies that run?- Hide quoted text -
>

Zombies that try to run tend to fall over, and the only thing that can
really get them back on their feet again is the smell of FRESH BRAINS!
in the air.

Even if they could run, they could not hide.
Nor would they have the brains to hide. Not their own brains, anyway.
--e.a.

Ed Augusts

unread,

Apr 3, 2008, 4:54:14 AM4/3/08

to

I remember a Templar, Simon Templar!
Hmmm, No more innocents in peril in the other films in the series,
eh?
What a shame! Perfectly good Blind Dead movies, nearly gone to waste
from a lack of innocent victims, although the first one made such a
good beginning!

--Ed www.edaugusts.com

Ed Augusts

unread,

Apr 3, 2008, 4:59:51 AM4/3/08

to

By God! She Does! Someone would have HAD to kill her, or she would
have been gnawing on the ankles of the adults (since she was too short
to really reach anyone's brains unless they conveniently tripped &
fell over). She would have been pestering them like a rogue chihuahua
for the rest of the flick!
The dispatching of the zombies is usualy done TOO quickly, with a well-
placed bullet, whereas the zombie or zombies get to swarm, grapple,
bite, munch, etc. It just isn't fair!

--Ed www.edaugusts.com

Ed Augusts

unread,

Apr 3, 2008, 5:03:37 AM4/3/08

to

On Apr 2, 3:34 am, Bonestructure <b...@1s.net> wrote:
> "Killer Kane" <monkeyfuc...@aol.com> wrote in news:%IpIj.72737$6t2.28195

So, um, maybe zombies that run are a new breed of zombies, the mad
scientist spliced some Roadrunner genes into the otherwise
zzzzzzombies. Or, some zombies are SMARTER, FASTER than others! They
run faster, they jump higher, they are brain-powered. They ate the
brains of some Olympic champions, perhaps. THEY are the zombies we
have to really watch out for.

---e.a. http://www.edaugusts.com

Ed Augusts

unread,

Apr 3, 2008, 5:08:27 AM4/3/08

to

I like that idea -- throwing her on the couch! The director was a
genius! There is a healthy respect for ambiguity there. Does he kill
her, or --what? Maybe the implication is, an old couch would have a
few springs sticking up out of it, and the child adhered to a jagged
spring or two, and was unable to do more than sit & spin for the rest
of the movie.

----Ed. http://www.edaugusts.com