MARÍA ELENA APRÓN & MARÍA SILVA 'TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD'

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD Year: 1972 Rating: ***1/2

Two years before TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, a gorgeous woman is sacrificed in the same Spanish director Amando de Ossorio's NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS... there it's a missionary from the early 1900's while this goes way back to The Middle Ages, where the extremely gorgeous Carmen Yazalde never rises again...  

Instead there's a horde of sinewy Medieval Knights, facially resembling prototypes of the Iron Maiden logo, having been buried in an abandoned monastery, looking as terrifically gothic as those antagonists that wind up stalking gorgeous girls, seeming straight from another kind of horror flick...

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Set in the present-time 1970's as full lipped Spanish beauty María Elena Arpón, broken hearted about sophisticated beauty Lone Fleming being contentedly hooked up with a stalwart César Burner, literally leaps off a train to aimlessly wander into this formidable monastery where the scariest scene occurs: involving the stalked/screaming ingenue moving nightmarishly-sluggish while attempting a last-minute-escape...

That never occurs as she's predictably captured and killed... only later rising as a ragged zombie/vampire aggressor, chasing uptight Catholic girl Verónica Llimerá through a surreal room filled with fire-melting mannequins...

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Providing a modernly colorful Italian-Giallo aesthetic against the grainy antique central monastery... where leading lady Lone Fleming winds up, randomly cat-fighting an investigating detective's aggressive girlfriend (María Silva)....

Which is even more actively intense (and character-driven) than those neck-devouring zombie knights: trudging through a low-budget Spanish production combining body count slasher/horror with ultra-violent sword-and-sandal fantasy, and, with either genre, only the scantily-clad ladies really count.

Carmen Yazalde in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Carmen Yazalde in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD with Verónica Llimerá

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming and María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

Lone Fleming in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Elena Arpón in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

From TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD

María Silva in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD