THE GHOST GALLEON
Reviewed by Steve Biodrowski
The second of three sequels to TOMB OF THE BLIND DEAD (which introduced the world to the titular eyeless menace -- mummified Knights Templar who rise from the grave and locate their victims by sound), THE GHOST GALLEON is an effort to do something new,relocating the Templars on board a Flying Dutchman-type ship that appears mysteriously out of the fog. Unlike RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD, which improved on its predecessor, GHOST GALLEON is a disappointment, rehashing much that has been seen before but with considerably less impact, thanks to uncharacteristic restraint on the part of writer-director Amando DeOssorio: lacking nudity and short on bloodshed, GHOST GALLEON is about as tame as the censored PG version of TOMB OF THE BLIND DEAD -- a major mistake in an exploitation flick with little in the way of subtlety going for it.
The film gets off to an interminably slow start with bikini model Noemi (Barbara Rey) accusing her boss Lillian (Maria Perschy) of knowing something about the disappearance of Noemi's roommate Kathy (Blanca Estrada). It turns out that Kathy, along with another bikini model have been intentionally stranded in the middle of the ocean (where they are likely to be found by passing cruise ships) as a publicity stunt to promote a new boat designed by entrepeneur Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor). The two stranded models encounter an 18th century sailing ship in a mysterious fog, and soon meet their fate at the hands of the Templars, who rise from coffin-shaped boxes on board. Tucker and Lillian -- along with Kathy and Tucker's sleazy right-hand man Sergio (Manuel de Blas) -- mount a rescue operation -- not out of concern for the women but in order to avoid the bad publicity that would result if their failed stunt were to come to light. Enlisted in the search is Professor Gruber (Carlos Lemos), a scientist with an unexpected interest in the legends of a ghost ship haunting that part of the ocean. The team encounters the fog, then boards the ship within it; soon their own yacht disappears. Professor Gruber finds a log for the galleon, from which he deduces that the ship contains the remains of the Knights Templar, who escaped by sea to avoid the executions that befell many of their breathren on land. Looking for Kathy, Noemi is captured by the Templars and beheaded. Professor Gruber, who also knows a little bit about exorcism, manages to send the Templars back into their coffins with the help of a burning cross; then he and the other men throw the coffins overboard. With the Templars gone, the spell (seemingly) breaks and the fog lifts. Using a lose plank, three of the survivors try to swim for shore, but Sergio insists on trying to take some of the Templar treasure (found on board) with him, and Lillian is forced to kill him when he nearly drowns Tucker. Gruber who remained on ship because he does not swim, dies from an apparent heart attack when the infernal powers of the Templars set the ship afire. After the galleon smolders into the sea, Lillian and Tucker drags themselves ashore, thinking they are safe -- but then the water-logged Templars rise from the ocean and surround them as the film fades out!
The first act of the film is interminably slow, wasting lots of time while Noemi tries to figure out what happend to Kathy. DeOssorio further drags things out by having Tucker and Lillian imprison Noemi to keep her from telling the police what she has learned about the failed publicity stunt. As if that weren't bad enough, in order to explain Noemi's concern for Kathy, DeOssorio throws in a flashback sceme of the two models in their apartment -- sort of an extremely mild version of the gratutious lesbian flashback in TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, only this time the Saphic undertones are merely implied.
When the rescue team finally boards the titular ghost vessel, the film does get a little more interesting, with its creepy maritime atmosphere and a nicely claustrophic feel -- thanks to the confined spaces, there is nowhere to flee when the Templars rise! The Templars belong to the category of slow-moving movie monsters, so it's nice to put the human charactrers in a situation where they cannot simply outrun their pursuers.
Unfortunately, the setting deprives the film of one of the series' signature elements: the sight of the cadaverous blind knights riding their undead horses in slow-motion across the country side (on the plus side, this means that this film is not filled with the sometimes obvious day-for-night exterior shots of the Templars on horseback).
The scare scenes are reasonably well-handled, although a bit toned down from the previous films: the first two deaths take place off-screen; later, after an agonizingly long sequence of the Templars dragging her below deck, Noemi's actual beheading and dismemberment fly by so fast that they almost don't register.
The story is undermined by the unsympathetic characters. There was no depth in the previous two films, but viewers were able to feel sorry for at least some of the victims (i.e., those who were not set up to get what they deserve). In GHOST GALLEON, Howard Tucker, Lillian, and Sergio are ruthless and immoral; and they get most of the screentime. Noemi should be sympathetic (at least she cares about Kathy), but Rey plays her as a complete bitch. Professor Gruber should be at least interesting, but the character is ridiculous: initially introduced as a scientist, he instantly turns into a mythomaniac at the mere mention of the ghost galleon, and the third-reel revelation that he knows a little "something about exorcism" is laughable. The film seems cheaper than its predecessor. There are none of the actual ancient architecturtural locations that lent realistic Gothic atmosphere to TOMB and RETURN; instead, there are a handful of modern locations and just a few setings. The full scale sets for galleon are very well rendered (it is a completely appropriate setting for the Templars), but the portrayal of the ship is undermined by some bad miniatures. The first few glimpse are are forgivable, because the vessel is shrouded by foggy darkness, but subsequent clearer views reveal it to be nothing but a toy boat. The effect is exacerbated when the ship burns at the end: the "raging fires" strongly resemble the flames of a matchstick, and the fakery is rendred even more ridiculous by the sound effects, thanks to the disparity between what we're seeing and what we're hearing.
Despite these flaws, the film does have a few good moments, particularly the Templars' surprising resurrection from their watery grave in the final scene, rising from the waves with ocean water draining out of their empty eye sockets. Although it does not stand very well on its own, it is acceptable as a further entry in the series -- an occasionally interesting variation on a familiar theme.
TRIVIA
Despite the presence of the Templars, THE GHOST GALLEON is not, strictly speaking, a sequel to either TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD or RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD, as there is no direct story continuity. Also, unlike the previous films, there is no flashback to show the Templars while they were alive or explain how they became the "Blind Dead." The script just assumes the audience knows who the Templars are, and throws a new set of human victims in their path.
Although never explained in the films, writer-director Amando De Ossorio said in interviews that the slow-motion movements of the Templars were due to their existing outside the normal space-time contiuum. A similar concept is actually voiced out loud in GHOST GALLEON, when Professor Gruber opines that the vessel exists outside of normal time, in another dimension, appearing only to attack its victims. This is supposed to explain the presence of the anomalous fog and tropical heat that presage the galleon's appearance -- as if the door to another dimension has opened up, allowing unlikely meteorological effects to enter the normal world. Unlike Blue-Underground's DVDs for TOMB OF THE BLIND DEAD and RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD, the disc for THE GHOST GALLEON contains only one print of the film, which can be viewed with the choice of either Spanish or English dialogue (and optional English subtitles). Unlike the subtitling, which seems to offer a fairly faithful rendition of the Spansih dialogue, the English dubbing adds several wisecracks (for example, Lillian dismisses three models she doesn't like by calling the "Groucho, Harpo, and Chico").
The bonus features are limited to some publicity materials: a trailer, TV and radio spots, and some posters and lobby cards.
The trailer, which is in English, displays the title THE GHOST GALLEON, but the narration insists on shortening the title to simply "Ghost Galleon." The two television spots, and the radio spots, are from the film's American release, where it was retitled "Horror of the Zombies." These spots feature a narrator with a more effectively dramatic voice, and the music sounds like stock library cues, not the score from the actual film.
The gallery of art includes several posters and some German lobby cards, along with video box art and glimpses of the Independent Internation press book for the film's U.S. release -- but no actual still photographs. The press book is mildly interesting because it features a synopsis that mistates the plot as being about models on a "pleasure cruise" who encounter zombies on the high seas. (Actually, this plot device would probably have speeded up the film's slow first third, eliminating all the convoluted skullduggery about the mysterious publicity stunt gone wrong.)
Search This Site For More - Powered by FreeFind
