The Iberian peninsula spawned an eldritch monster in the terrifying form of director Amando de Ossorio's vampiric mummified revenant warrior monks the muertos sin ojos, better known up here in the Anglosphere as the Blind Knights Templar. First appearing in all their sepulchral glory in 1972's Tombs of the Blind Dead, they would rise again to shamble and slaughter their sightless way through Ossorio's sequence of sequels Return of the Evil Dead (1973), The Ghost Galleon (1974) and Night of the Seagulls (1975) before making additional - possibly non-canonical - appearances in the 1975 Cross of the Devil (directed by Hammer Horror stalwart John Gilling, and scripted by El Hombre Lobo himself Jacinto Molina), Mansion of the Living Dead (helmed by low budget Spanish genre legend Jess Franco, 1982) and Graveyard of the Dead (Vick Campbell, released in either 2007 or 2009 - facts seem a little hazy on that one).
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After just six (or eight?) years the 7th of March 2015 saw Island of the Blind Dead, Emma Dark's faux trailer for an imaginary movie (aren't they all?). Dark, an actress and director with a penchant for horror - I'm sure most of us can relate - who would go on to win multiple awards at Northern Ireland's Yellow Fever indy film fest and the Stormy Weather horror festival, devised the concept of a 'lost' fifth instalment of the series; presumably ignoring / decanonising / retconning Cross, Mansion and Graveyard. Which is perhaps understandable in the case of the latter two, but a bit harsh on the former. Ossorio purists I guess. So we get not a feature film, but a 'rediscovered' trailer for a non-extant movie - co-conceived, written, and directed by Dark and frequent collaborator Merlyn Roberts whilst on a trip to Corfu's St George South (which Mr Bond fans may know best from my fourth favourite Bond movie*, 1981's For Your Eyes Only). Originally meant only as a recce trip wherein they'd get some test shots on the very beach where Charles Dance ran over Pierce Brosnan's wife (in the Bond film, not a real life murder), being trapped in a hotel room for days by inclement stormy weather meant that Dark and Roberts had ample time for brainstorming sessions that germinated the idea of recruiting local Greek actors from the amateur dramatics society for their impromptu "couple of days" shoot.
Opening with a caption dedication to Amando de Ossorio which stresses the unofficial fan made nature of the piece and that it "is in no way affiliated with the Tombs of the Blind Dead official works (because I guess you've got to cover your arses even when it comes to relatively obscure Euro horror I.P.s), we are treated to a nostalgic feast complete with film scratches and grain and an evocatively '70s title caption font. It being presented in the form of a trailer - or since we're evoking the 1970s cinema experience, perhaps 'coming attraction' would be a more apposite epithet - in which we get the bikini-clad Jeannie (Dark) frolicking on the beach and interacting with Professor Theopolis (Elias Loumakis), whose wife (Sharon Loumakis) and daughter (Athena Loumakis) - isn't it nice that the local talent involved seems to be a family affair - are being menaced in and outside their home by a pitchfork wielding Blind Dead (Roberts) whilst a drunk (Victor Kavadias) dances upon some stairs t the strains of a choral 'O Fortuna' cantata and a blacksmith (George Catavatis) finds himself confronted by another Templarios sin ojos. Specifically the monster with the ginger beard. There's a Tom Cruise / Nicole Kidman joke there, I feel sure, but it's decades out of date.
Conveying a strong sense of the period and an authentic feel for the material, it certainly - for me at least - does its job of making me wish there were an actual extant film I could watch. Available to watch on Ms Dark's YT channel here.
(*Oh alright - if inquiring minds simply must know, my top five: OHMSS, Casino Royale [2006 obviously, not 1967!], The Living Daylights, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia with Love)
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