Vengeance of the Zombies

Vengeance of the Zombies (Spanish: La rebelión de las muertas/ Rebellion of the Dead Women) is a 1972 Spanish horror film[1] directed by León Klimovsky and starring Paul Naschy, Mirta Miller, Vic Winner and Aurora de Alba. The film was shot in July 1972, but was only theatrically released in Spain (as La rebelión de las muertas) in June 1973. It was shown in Italy as La Vendetta dei Morti Viventi. The film was shown in Germany over the years under three different titles....Rebellion of the Living Dead (Feb. 1974 German release title), Invocation of the Devil (April 1974 German re-release title to compete with The Exorcist) and Blood Lust of the Zombies (1980 German re-release title to compete with Dawn of the Dead).[2]

Vengeance of the Zombies
Directed byLeón Klimovsky
Written byPaul Naschy
Produced byJose Antonio Perez Giner
Ricardo Munoz Suay
StarringPaul Naschy
Mirta Miller
Maria Kosti
Vic Winner
Luis Ciges
Aurora de Alba
CinematographyFrancisco Sánchez Munoz
Edited byAntonio Ramírez de Loaysa
Music byJuan Carlos Calderón
Production
companies
  • Profilmes
  • Promofilms
Distributed byProfilmes
CFC-Contact- Film
Release dates
June 1973 (Spain)
December 1973 (U.S.)
Running time
90 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish

It was released in the U.S. as Vengeance of the Zombies in December 1973, on a double bill with another Klimovsky film The Dracula Saga.[3] It was famously re-released in the U.S. later in 1980 under the title Walk of the Dead, with distributor Independent Artists adding a "Shock Notice" gimmick to the prints wherein inserted red warning flashes preceded each gory murder. It was reviewed as a "Dog of the Week" by Roger Ebert on Sneak Previews under that latter release version in the fall of 1980.

It is today available on DVD in its original uncut version as Vengeance of the Zombies.

Plot

In this zombie horror film, a mysterious masked man rampages throughout England killing unsuspecting women. Each time a victim is murdered, they are brought back to life by an East Indian mystic named Kantanka (Paul Naschy) to join his army of female zombies. Paul Naschy plays the evil Katanka, as well as his own twin brother, a benevolent mystic named Krisna. There is also a dream sequence in the film where Satan appears to his followers, and Paul Naschy also plays Satan in this brief nightmare scene.

Cast
  • Paul Naschy - in a triple role as Krisna, Kantanka, and Satán
  • Romy (aka Rommy) as Elvire Irving
  • Mirta Miller as Kala
  • Victor Alcazar (credited as Vic Winner) as Dr. Lawrence Redgrave
  • Maria Kosti as Elsie
  • Aurora de Alba as Olivia Mortimer
  • Luis Ciges as MacMurdo
  • Antonio Pica as Superintendent Hawkins
  • Pierre Besari as Ti Zachary

Release

All Seasons Entertainment released the film on VHS in the United States in the 1980s in its original Vengeance of the Zombies version with the red warning flashes removed,[4] while Vogue Video in Canada released it on VHS in the altered Walk of the Dead version with the red warning flashes intact.

Deimos Entertainment, a subdivision of BCI Eclipse, released a special edition DVD in 2007.[5]

Shout Factory released it on Blu-ray as Vengeance of the Zombies as part of their Paul Naschy Collection.[6]

Reception

Steve Barton of Dread Central rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "Sexy, erotic, scary, and disturbing, Vengeance of the Zombies has it all!"[7] Bloody Disgusting rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "Vengeance of the Zombies is an exemplary reason as to why we should celebrate forgotten films. The film manages to play off of its unoriginality in the most entertaining way possible, catering to fans of deliciously cheesy cinema."[8] Adam Tyner of DVD Talk wrote, "Naschy likened the movie to a drug-induced nightmare in his autobiography, and it's every bit as odd and incoherent as that suggests."[9] Rafael Gamboa of DVD Verdict called it enjoyably bad.[10] Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle called it "a plodding and unengaging zombie mystery".[11]

References
  1. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 196
  2. Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 76
  3. Newman, Kim (2011). Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 19–20. ISBN 9781408817506.
  4. Kane, Joe (2000). The Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope: The Ultimate Guide to the Latest, Greatest, and Weirdest Genre Videos. Three Rivers Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780812931495.
  5. Condit, Jon (2007-04-03). "BCI Brings Home Zombies, Werewolves". Dread Central. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  6. Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 318. ISBN 978-1718835894.
  7. Barton, Steve (2007-05-03). "Vengeance of the Zombies (DVD)". Dread Central. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  8. "Vengeance of the Zombies". Bloody Disgusting. 2007-05-27. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  9. Tyner, Adam (2008-06-29). "The Night of the Werewolf / Vengeance of the Zombies (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  10. Gamboa, Rafael (2007-06-15). "Vengeance Of The Zombies". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved 2015-02-16.
  11. Dendle, Peter (2001). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. pp. 176–177. ISBN 978-0-7864-9288-6.
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