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Return of the Evil Dead (1973)

Reviewed by Matt
Posted on September 2, 2007 
Filed Under Movies, Sequels, Series, Zombies

Confusingly, Return of the Evil Dead has nothing to do with Sam Raimi’s trilogy of horror movies. Instead, it’s the rather odd english title given to Spanish director Amando De Ossorio’s follow up to his blind-zombies-on-horseback magnum opus Tombs of the Blind Dead. Made two years later, it’s a rather less original effort than its predecessor; nevertheless, it ups the pace of Tombs and is actually a lot of fun.

In the second film, De Ossorio slightly revises the back story of the Templars, stating that they were defeated by some angry villagers who scalded their eyes before burning them at the stake. Fast forward 500 years, and the same village is preparing to celebrate the anniversary of their victory, but the festivities are cut short when the skeletal Templars return, hungry for blood. It falls to a small, motley group of villagers, holed up in the local church, to try and find a way to defeat them.

The characterisation in Tombs was pretty functional at best, but here it’s taken to a literal extreme. The characters are defined only by the skills or traits that will later help them overcome - or succumb to - the Templar onslaught. Thus the hero Jack is, hilariously, a navy captain turned firework salesman; this back-story seems bewildering at first until it becomes apparent that he’s good at organising people in a crisis, and inevitably he’s able to use fireworks to hold back the zombie onslaught. He also manages to convince the mayor’s wife, an old flame, to leave her husband in record quick time, and their public revelation of their affair - in front of the mayor himself - is eye-poppingly cold. The mayor is a fun caricature of a corrupt public official - an obese man in a suit, complete with sweaty brow and bushy moustache - and his devious attempts to save his own skin are great fun.

Once the survivors reach the church, we’re in familiar territory; the character conflict in a confined environment (with zombies!) is lifted wholesale from Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, and the final break for freedom at the end is heavily reminiscent of Hitchcock’s The Birds. But if you’re going to steal, why not steal from the best? De Ossorio directs proceedings with sufficient aplomb that it’s easy to forgive the familiarity of the setup. The Templars themselves remain impressive, and are imbued with sufficient menace to carry the film.

On the minus side, Return lacks the epic scope of the original, and the confined setting means there’s not much variety to keep the viewer entertained. It’s also abundantly clear that De Ossorio’s budget has been slashed, with the shots of the Templars emerging from their tombs re-used from the first film. Ultimately, Return of the Evil Dead is a very minor horror film, but is a worthy sequel to the original if somewhat throwaway by comparison. And compared to the depths that the series would plumb next, it’s a positive masterpiece…

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