Night of the Sea Gulls (1975)

(And yes! 'Sea Gulls' is spelt that way here.)

     Amando De Ossorio’s Blind Dead return again for their fourth and final film of the series. This time, they reside in a castle by the coast of a remote village.

     Our story opens with a new doctor and his young wife settling into his deeply rural and remote coastal appointment. As rumors of mystery abound, a old church bell tolls, and weird noises are heard one evening, the couple witnesses a strange ritual down by the shore. Dismissing it as an old local custom, they return home none the wiser.

     Unbeknownst to them, (and yes! I love using the word ‘unbeknownst!’) the Blind Dead are a-rising! And even more surprisingly, (*Spoiler Alert!*) the whole town knows!

     It appears that sacrifice is demanded to keep the Templars at bay - seven girls, every seven years. Soon, the doctor and his missus must decide: Escape & live, or try to stop the madness!

     Once again, De Ossorio employs his tried and true, (and to be honest, fairly perfect,) grave emerging scenes from the first two films. The atmosphere, like its predecessors, is creepy and stark, making the glacially-slow movements of the Knights all the more intense. That, their blindness, and their thirst for blood victims seems to be the only constants from previous films. 

    You see, once again, this appears to be an entirely different story and mythos from the previous three movies. So, to call it a sequel would be an inaccuracy. 

    For example, no more are the Knights satanic. In this installment, they seem to worship some ancient, pagan, deep-sea god, whose stone image seems like something straight out of a Lovecraft novel!

See what I mean!?!

     So, as usual, I referred to my Zombie Movie Rubric  for an objective and irrefutable rating. Here, NIGHT OF THE SEA GULLS landed a 2.0 out of a possible 4. 

     Now, I know that this seems to be an average, middle of the road rating, and, as such, makes it far better than oh-so-many terrible zombie films, but still, to me, it is the weakest entry in the Blind Dead series. Worth a watch, if only to complete the tetralogy.

In fact, a very long trailer, found on YouTube might even be enough to sate one’s dead, evil, Templars appetite. 

So, Here is just that! NIGHT OF THE SEA GULLS.