Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Scarecrow-88 Deranged voodoo zombie film with a serial killer on the loose in London, stabbing bourgeoisie types, performing rituals using a wax effigy, pouring blood over it, setting it on fire, causing those dead to become unwitting undead slaves. Those attacked knew each other, their relationship dating back to an infamous incident in India, and the one mutilating them dresses like Jack the Ripper, wearing strange Halloween masks, carrying a medical bag containing his materials used for resurrecting those he kills. The film also follows red-head Elvire(Romy), who is infatuated with a charismatic Hindu spiritualist, Krisna(Paul Naschy), soon joining him at his retreat in a notorious castle in a village called Llangwell, the estate known for housing a group of Satanists who communed there. Kala(Mirta Miller), maid Elsie(María Kosty)and a local train depot guard all attempt to ward Elvire away from the castle, with no such luck because she's head-over-heels for Krisna. Soon the psycho shows up in Llangwell, and his identity is closely associated with Krisna. Meanwhile, Elvire's London friend, Lawrence(Víctor Alcázar), a journalist and occult scholar is called in by Scotland Yard regarding his expertise in voodoo among other strange rituals, their hoping he can be of assistance in catching the fiend.Delirious script penned by Paul Naschy and directed by he long-time collaborator León Klimovsky, this film is certain to please gorehounds and it's evident of the influence in regards to Hammer studios for it features bright, textured film blood and plenty of sharp metallic objects penetrating flesh, including one memorable scene where a head nearly comes off, hanging barely as the crimson bubbles forth. Regarding the use of voodoo, you can tell Naschy did some homework and his script heavily elaborates in details the methods involved in utilizing such powers to harm. When the zombie girls attack, Klimovsky's camera shoots them in slow motion, with them often approaching screen. There was a direct emphasis on trying to spook us with these zombies, but the make-up rarely works and may instead cause unintentional laughter.The zombie girls, slaves ordered around by Kantaka, the evil twin brother of Krisna, are more akin to the ghouls you see in Carnival of Souls, except their heavy discolored make-up doesn't quite work(..the key to the success of Carnival of Souls is that the ghouls, under heavy make-up, is shot in glorious B&W photography). Kantaka(..and his underling, Ti Zachary, portrayed by a creepy looking Pierre Besari)was badly burned in a fire purposely set, which ties into the main story as to why the voodoo is being used on certain selected victims, and Naschy's make-up provides him with a hideous pasty face(..reminiscent of an Italian zombie in an 80's Fulci flick).Seeing Naschy dressed in Indian attire(tunic and head scarf), takes some getting use to, but at least he tries something new, in a change-of-pace role. The filmmakers go to great lengths to put as much of London in the film as possible, footage probably shot illegally. Not sure why it's titled so since there's no vengeance of the zombies, they are tools for another's revenge. A nice try, but ultimately unsatisfying voodoo chiller.

Michael_Elliott Vengeance of the Zombies (1973) ** (out of 4) Bizarre but mildly entertaining Spanish horror film has Paul Naschy playing a mystic who uses his powers to have women return from the dead and kill his enemies for him.Sometimes a second viewing can make you see a film in a completely different light. The first time I watched Leon Klimovsky's VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES it was from a public domain disc and the colors were drained. I gave the film a BOMB rating because I just found the entire thing to be deadly dull, poorly made and at times laughable. What changed on this second viewing? Well, being able to see a fully restored print certainly helped but I also managed to enjoy the film a lot more because I knew what I was getting into.If you're expecting George A. Romero type of zombies then you're getting into the wrong movie. The zombies here basically just have some face paint on them but I found them to be mildly effective and especially with the light blue tint and how well it looked on the restored print. Another plus were the slow-motion scenes of the zombies approaching their victims. I usually can't stand when slow-motion is used but here it's actually quite effective. The gore isn't all that high but there are a couple gory scenes including a bizarre one where a can is used as a murder weapon! Fans of Naschy will be happy to see him playing three different roles here. The scene with him wearing horns as a Satanic leader is certainly an eye-opener and for the most part he's good. The supporting women are all beautiful as you'd expect in a Naschy film. There are certainly some flaws here including the pacing of the picture as well as the rather bizarre soundtrack. I'm not sure if this soundtrack was used to make the film appear hip but it's quite distracting to say the least.

lemon_magic Shades of Jess Franco...this one has all the marks of a classic Franco hack-a-thon, and comes out of Spain. As with almost everything Franco did, this director obviously had the knowhow to create a decent film, but he couldn't be bothered to go back and polish all the rough parts. And the movie seems to be nothing but "rough parts" all the way through. The result is like watching the "rushes" for a talented neighbor's home movies for a script he hacked out in a day, if your neighbor had a photogenic wife (like "Rommy") and a 35mm camera. The plot is completely lurid, which actually part of the movie's charm. It starts out with a masked guy (very "Phantom Of the Opera") reviving dead women as zombies to do his bidding, which mostly involved strangling people who obligingly just stand there and let them get on with it. (I have to admit that the make up on the zombies is pretty effective and one of the real reasons to watch the movie.) At least that's the opening scene. And before you know it, the plot has become a freeway pileup of Indian mysticism, serial murder, topless women, stylized slow motion assaults, zombies (of course), Satanism, ritual sacrifices, hallucinatory nightmares...have I left anything out? Oh yeah, all done to a swinging heavy jazz soundtrack that starts a new theme every two or three minutes, stops in the middle of a musical phrases whenever a scene ends, and in general seems to have nothing to do with the action on the screen.The DVD print I saw (part of a "Drive In Movie Classics 50 pack) was awful; it was a full screen "pan and scan", but managed to consistently leave out one or all of the actors in a given shot, instead giving us revealing shots of the middle of the set.And mixing for the sound was apparently done in the bottom of a steel barrel. The overall sound managed to be muddy but was nevertheless so shrill and tinny that I was afraid it might make the neighborhood dogs start to howl. This was a shame because the dubbing for the dialog actual was one of the better efforts I've heard from this era - the dialog is still stilted and clumsy, but it seemed as if the ESL voice actors might have been allowed to actually rehearse a little before they had to jump into the studio. And again, the jazz music was mostly very sprightly and vivid - sort of the stuff you'd hear in a TV commercial for the new model Lamborghini or something; it would have been nice to hear it the way it was performed. My guess is that someone in production intentionally mixed things to sound best coming out of the speakers at a drive-in movie. Either that, or they hated us and wanted us to bleed from the ears and die in torment. So yes, it's a mess. But somehow, it's an enjoyable mess, if only for the ambition of the lead actor, who casts himself in three different parts and the director, who tries to mix three or four different horror genres in one screenplay, and some hard working supporting actors who try their best to give the proceedings some dignity. Do NOT pay money to see this, unless it's part of a collection. If you pay more than $5 to own a DVD of this movie by itself, you will probably be looking around for a throat to slit when it is over.

Leroy Gomm Vengeance of the Zombies is a head on collision of seven different horror genres. A hodge podge of gore, nudity, black gloved killers, voodoo, Satanism, surrealism , and unintentional camp. Naschy plays a dual role as the good Indian Guru Krishna,and his evil twisted and deformed voodoo doll making, Satan worshiping , masked killer of a brother. Obviously the plot is muddled. It reminds me of the old poverty row horror films but filtered through the distorted mind of Jess Franco. The most Franco like aspect of the film however is the jazzy score, which remarkably made the film a lot more tolerable for me. Naschy tosses in a few homages here, he's doing Blood and Black Lace in one scene, Curse of the Crimson Altar in another, things that are fun to spot. If you are in search for a good "bad" horror film with everything but the kitchen sink tossed in then you won't do much better than this.