Zombie movies existed prior to 1968, of course, but the success of that year’s seminal Night of the Living Dead appeared to really open the vaults. For another in this genre, we go to 1972’s Spanish effort Tombs of the Blind Dead.

By happenstance, Betty Turner (Lone Fleming) runs into her old college roommate Virginia White (María Elena Arpón) at a seaside resort. Virginia’s semi-boyfriend Roger Whelan (César Burner) invites Betty on their train trip, a choice that irritates Virginia.

As the journey progresses, Virginia grows increasingly miffed due to this potential love triangle and she literally leaps off the train. She winds up in an area terrorized by the undead corpses of satanic 13th century Templar Knights, a fact that threatens both her safety and that of her pals when they come to find her.

One would expect that sort of mayhem from a movie entitled Tombs of the Blind Dead. I guess it could simply offer some form of archaeological adventure ala the Indiana Jones flicks, but the horror bent makes more sense.

That said, Tombs does little to build this theme in its first act. Indeed, the film resembles a romantic drama more than anything else, one complicated by a scene that illustrates Betty and Virginia enjoyed their own sexual fling in college.

Oh, we get the occasional hint that Tombs will pursue something more than the nascent love triangle. Immediately after the opening credits conclude, we see a woman scream due to no apparent provocation, and on the train, the conductor refuses to stop and retrieve Virginia for no explained reason.

But the audience needs to wait a good chunk of the film’s running time to actually meet the titular “blind dead”, and I feel fine with that – in theory, at least. Modern horror movies tend to become impatient, as they clearly believe that if they don’t deliver scares right out of the gate, audiences will bail.

Which might be true. Filmmakers today create for an audience with a shorter attention span than was the case 50 years ago.

Also, 50 years ago viewers consumed movies primarily in theaters, where they were “committed” to the story even if it moved more slowly than they’d like. Today people seem more likely to move on quickly to another streaming channel if not captivated immediately.

As much as I understand this modern desire to pack a punch early, I nonetheless don’t like it. That makes the gradual pace of Tombs enjoyable, as it builds organically and doesn’t feel the need to shove terror down our throats right off the bat.

That said – and you knew you’d get a “that said”, didn’t you? - Tombs might become a little bit too languid. I don’t feel that way because the movie waits a while to deliver horror, however, for as noted, I appreciate this side of the film.

However, even after the titular supernatural monsters emerge, Tombs still tends to lollygag. After the ghouls massacre one of the leads, we find ourselves stuck with a fairly banal mix of romantic drama and detective tale.

All of this drags and feels contrived. Tombs allows the remaining main roles to return to civilization, so that means it must find some weird way to send them back into danger.

Actually, Tombs comes up with a potential solution, as it turns the dead lead into a zombie. This allows us to believe the newly zombified character will create mayhem and infect others.

However, after a couple short scenes of violence, this comes to a close. This perplexes me, as it makes no sense to set up the threat of newly-created ghouls and then abandon it.

So this means the survivors then need to head back to the countryside where the blind dead roam. Again, this feels hokey, especially since the aforementioned possibility of “infection” in town gives the story a logical purpose.

Even without this strange choice, Tombs just lacks momentum. It diverts for bizarre romantic detours, some of which take the movie into unnatural places that make no sense.

It feels like those behind Tombs didn’t want to create Just Another Zombie Flick so they packed in these other elements. Unfortunately, the choices don’t work and they make what should become a fairly straightforward horror movie a weird mix of genres that fail to mesh.

Heck, even the requisite flashback to see the origins of the “blind dead” feels clunky. It pops up about halfway into the movie and drags the tale, as a quick synopsis would work better than the too long/too late piece of exposition.

When it focuses on horror, Tombs shows promise. The depiction of the “blind dead” makes them creepy and ominous.

Unfortunately, too much of Tombs fails to explore its titular characters and it gets bogged down in weird tangents. Though the movie shows promise at times, ultimately it lands with a thud.

Tombs of the Living Dead appears in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though a little dated, the image appeared generally positive.

Sharpness usually seemed solid. Occasional instances of softness interfered at times, but those moments appeared modest, so most of the movie brought appealing delineation, if not something I’d call razor-sharp.

I saw no examples of moiré effects or jagged edges, and the presentation seemed to lack evidence of edge haloes. Outside of a few specks and some telecine wobble during the credits, source flaws failed to create distractions, and grain remained natural, without signs of digital noise reduction.

Colors came across as fairly full. The movie opted for a reasonably natural palette – albeit a little brown - that largely appeared pretty dynamic.

Black levels usually stayed deep and dense, while shadow detail showed positive consistency. Ultimately, Tombs provided a mostly good visual presentation.

Don’t expect much from the dated LPCM monaural soundtrack, as it seemed unsurprisingly meh. As often happened in this era, all the lines were dubbed, and they vary in terms of fidelity.

While all the dialogue seemed “canned”, some lines seemed more natural than others. A semi-roughness dominated, however, with more than a few edgy bits along the way.

Effects followed suit, as they tended to seem a bit distorted, though not badly so. They lacked much range and clarity, however,

Music felt decent, with acceptable reproduction, albeit without a lot of dynamics. Ultimately, the audio of Tombs seemed passable for its source and age but nothing better.

This set includes the original Spanish cut of Tombs (1:41:18) as well as an alternate US theatrical version (1:23:16) entitled just The Blind Dead. The latter resides on a second Blu-ray. Other than English dialogue, how do the two differ?

Not only does this edition lose 18 minutes of footage, but it also restructures parts of the story. For instance, the movie now opens with shots of the Knights from the past, whereas this flashback doesn’t occur well into the original.

I actually like that choice, and I think the decision to lose some of the flab from the longer edition works. However, the US version probably goes too far, and this means it tends to feel jarring and without flow.

I don’t much care for the Spanish original, but it remains superior to the butchered US cut. The latter simply removes too much of the overall narrative.

Alongside the Spanish edition, we find three separate audio commentaries, the first of which involves film historian Troy Howarth. He delivers a running, screen-specific look at the project’s origins and development, cast and crew, differences in the US cut, production notes, genre domains and his thoughts about the film.

We usually find Howarth with his commentary partner Nathaniel Hawthorn, but Troy handles the chat just fine on his own. As always, he proves engaging and informative as he leads us through a lot of worthwhile elements connected to the film.

For the second commentary, we hear from actor Lone Fleming. Along with moderator Calum Waddell, we find a running, screen-specific examination of Fleming’s career and aspects of the Tombs production.

Howarth actually offers a few minutes of info from Fleming that he got from her, and I feared that her brief overview there would summarize the meat of her Tombs memories. Happily, we get plenty more material from this full-length discussion.

Fleming provides a lot of good insights and covers ample ground. Waddell offers some of his own historical/genre notes and queries Fleming well, so this turns into a pretty solid chat.

Finally, we find a commentary from podcasters Rod Barnett and Troy Guinn. Both sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion of genre domains, cast and crew, production elements, alternate cuts and related topics.

At the start, Barnett and Guinn promise that they won’t repeat info already provided by Howarth. That doesn’t prove totally accurate, but they usually find new insights into similar subjects, and that allows this to turn into a pretty useful chat.

Called “Revenge from Planet Ape”, we locate an Alternate US Opening Sequence. it spans three minutes, 24 seconds.

Used to capitalize on the popularity of the Planet of the Apes franchise, it offers an intro that implies the movie will show the revenge of the ghosts of murdered super-smart simians. It becomes a silly change but I’m glad the disc includes it.

Awakening of Spanish Horror Cinema runs 14 minutes, 25 seconds. The featurette brings notes from Professor of Film Studies Marcus Stiglegger.

Conducted in German with English subtitles, Stiglegger discusses director Amando de Ossorio as well as aspects of Tombs, some history behind its fiction, genre and themes. We get a fairly solid take on these topics.

A documentary called Marauders from the Mediterranean spans one hour, 28 minutes, 55 seconds. It delivers info from Waddell, Fleming, Night of the Living Dead writer/producer John Russo, Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival Deputy Director Mike Hostenech, critic John Martin, filmmaker Jorge Grau, filmmaker Paul Naschy’s son Sergo Molina, academic/writer Steve Jones, author/critic Kim Newman, and actors Helga Line, Jack Taylor, Antonio Mayans and Manuel De Blas.

“Marauders” looks at Night of the Living Dead’s influence on Spanish horror as well as notes about de Ossorio, aspects of Tombs, sequels, and related films.

The documentary bites off a lot, and it can’t quite chew it all, so the program becomes a bit scattered. We also find information about Tombs already mentioned elsewhere.

“Marauders” still acts as a moderately enjoyable overview. It just seems like the show can’t discuss the mix of topics as well as it should because it attempts to cover so much.

A music video (3:22) from “Salem’s Pop” appears. The song “Templar’s Tears” turns into the focus.

The video plays the atmospheric tune over movie shots. It seems wholly forgettable.

In addition to the film’s US trailer, we conclude with a Still Gallery. It shows a running montage with 39 images from the movie. Don’t expect much of interest from it.

When Tombs of the Blind Dead focuses explicitly on the horror its title implies, the movie fares reasonably well. Unfortunately, the film comes padded with reams of unnecessary detours that make it a perplexing mess. The Blu-ray delivers pretty good picture, mediocre audio and a strong array of bonus materials. There’s a good movie to be mined from this material, but this ain’t it.