Night of the Death Cult (1975)

Last entry in the “Blind Dead” series of films has a young doctor and his wife moving to a rather secluded seaside community. After some time in the village it soon becomes quite apparent that the young couple and their “modern medicine” are not wanted, and the good doctor soon starts to suspect that Mayberry this ain’t. And indeed it’s not, for this village is haunted by the evil undead Templar Knights, who will massacre the entire village unless they are offered some of the towns young virgins for sacrifice every seven years, for seven straight nights. Awakened one night by the screams of seagulls, the young couple is startled to see a bizarre procession of black robed figures carrying a young girl in white down to the beach. Now, to me that just screams “satanic cult sacrificing virgin here” but our bright doctor confidently assures the little lady that it’s probably just some “harmless tradition” and there is no reason to be afraid. However, when the same thing happens the next night and then the next, Dr. Dimwit catches on to the villager’s dark secret, and eventually comes face to face with the undead Templar’s.

At this point in the loosely related series (the director and zombies are the same, but the story lines are always different), certain aspects have become rather cliche’ by now. I did find the idea of the Templar’s worshiping a very H.P. Lovecraft styled water God fairly interesting, and the undead Knights themselves are still as cool and eerie as hell. The scenes of the Templar’s riding on the beaches, swords held high in anticipation of virgin flesh, are truly trippy and atmospheric. And, as always, their appearance is accompanied by the customary spooky chanting that by this point we all know and love. The gore was very minimal, though the version I viewed was the R-rated Sony Video version, so I’m sure there were some trims here and there. The heavy gothic atmosphere more than makes up for any lack of the red stuff however. As is the case with the previous films, the characters, while not as annoying as usual, still speak and do the dumbest things possible so you really don’t care if they get “Templarized” or not. What else is new huh? Crummy characters and acting aside, fans of the previous films should get a kick out of this one.