Vengeance of the Zombies/Review

A deadly curse has found it's way from India and into England. British family members who had once lived in colonized India are suddenly turning up dead in the regions they are now located at. The latest to be attacked are members of the Irving family. A cousin of the Irvings, Elvire Irving (Rommy) is frightened over the mysterious deaths, but manages to find tranquility from an Indian guru now named Krisna Sanatan (Paul Naschy). But things soon get over Elvire's head once she hears a rumor that the house that Krisana resides in was once the site where a pact was made with the devil. Sure enough, Elvire experiences some strange nightmares involving zombies. But there's no denyin that the dreams appear to be real and the deadly handiwork that is responsible for exterminating the various families are being committed by acts of voodoo. All logic points to Krisana for the being the puppetmaster of rising zombies to life and ordering the deaths of many. But is he really the mastermind?

I really gotta hand it to the production value of this one. Though it's done on the cheap, the visuals in this are quite striking. Ranging from the costumes, makeup, and most of the set-design succeed on really making this look like an EC comic book brought to life. Sights like this could have even made Mario Bava blush! There's no doubt that this really is one of the better-looking horror films I've seen that has come out from this era. Unfortunately, I really can't give as much praise to the rest of the finished product. One of the big detractors of this is the music score. Now, don't get me wrong. I liked the music. But this was the wrong movie for it! The funky, musical score just felt totally out of place and took me out of the movie one too many times. The movie also just seemed to be a bit over-crowded with characters that didn't serve no purpose other than to just see them get killed. But I still can't condemn this entirely because I've seen much worse. Feel free to give this one a shot, but just don't go in expecting to be blown away.

Reviewed by Laydback