Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)

Movie Info

Seriously…this is worse New Age retreat I’ve been to

When a woman named Elvire Irving (Romy) witness her father killed in their London home, she retreats to stay with her mystic guru Krisna (Paul Naschy).  As Dr. Lawrence Radcliffe (Victor Barrera) investigates the series of bizarre murders, he suspects that a person practicing voodoo is involved, the voodoo priest needs a final sacrifice, and Laurence suspects Elvire is the next target.

Directed by Leon Klimovsky, Vengeance of the Zombies (La rebelión de las muertas) is a Spanish horror thriller.  The low-budget movie was originally released in Spain in 1973 and received a limited release in the United States.  It is in public domain and can often be found in movie collections.

While Vengeance of the Zombies has a lot of cliché zombie movies, the basic movie is a weird, weird mix of zombie storytelling.  A lot of low-budget zombie movies are quite bad…but Vengeance of the Zombies is actually somewhat ok.

Could it be….SATAN?!?!

I won’t argue that Vengeance of the Zombies is a “good” movie, but it does have some surprising moments.  The basic set-up of the story has an Indian man practicing classic Caribbean voodoo which is already an odd set up (so it isn’t the brain eating zombies).  The movie does have a couple of twists near the end that are predictable in the big picture, but a bit better than you’d expect from a cheap movie.

The movie is a starring role for Paul Naschy who also wrote the script.  Naschy was a rather well known horror star in Spain and plays three roles in the movies.  Rommy (who is also credited as Romy in movies) plays the woman caught in the zombie trap.  Victor Barrera (credited here as Vic Winner) is a rather lame and underdeveloped “hero” of the film.

I’ve got my favorite new zombie-do!

The movie’s visuals actually has their moments.  There’s the creepy dream sequence with Naschy playing the devil, but in every zombie movie, the zombies are the most critique and highlighted.  Here, the zombies have odd (and slightly unnerving) smiles to complement their bluish skin tone.

Vengeance of the Zombies is a quick watch.  It is a B-Zombie Movie, and it is low-budget so you can’t necessarily expect a lot.  If you go in with this attitude, Vengeance of the Zombies is pleasantly surprising.  There were plenty of areas for improvement and in that sense, Vengeance of the Zombies failed…but it could have failed a lot worse.