Night of the Seagulls (1975)

- La noche de las gaviotas
Effective, but sadly unoriginal, 8 October 2005

In the fourth movie in the Blind Dead series, the Templars are terrorizing a small village whose inhabitants offer sacrifices of young women on a regular interval to appease the blind dead. It's obvious that de Ossorio had run out of original ideas by the time he made Night of the Seagulls. While many of the scenes are effective, we've seen it all before. The main original idea found in Night of the Seagulls is the virgin sacrifice. But if you've seen enough horror movies, it really wasn't new or creative either.

Among the moments in Night of the Seagulls that stand out to me are the scenes where the people are trapped in the house and the overall feeling I got from the people in the small village. A "people trapped in the house" scene is nothing new. It's been used any number of times. de Ossorio used it effectively in the first two Blind Dead movies. The scene in Night of the Seagulls is comparable to those. As for the feeling I got from the village, it's a depressing place, well filmed by de Ossorio and obviously authentic. You just don't build sets like that.

Night of the Seagulls, unfortunately, also contains the worst moment of any of the Blind Dead movies. The ending is so disappointing. After the masterful finale to Tombs of the Blind Dead and the visually stunning end to The Ghost Galleon, the last scenes in Night of the Seagulls are pathetic. There's a great build-up as our two heroes are chased by the Templars. They seek shelter inside the Templars lair. As the blind dead ghouls move in, the couple turns over a statue destroying the Templars. Roll credits, end of movie. What a letdown.

5/10