Vengeance of the Zombies


Vengeance of the Zombies is a 1972 Spanish horror film 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 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, Invocation of the Devil and Blood Lust of the Zombies.
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. 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 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 as Elvire Irving
  • Mirta Miller as Kala
  • Victor Alcazar 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, 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.
Shout Factory released it on Blu-ray as Vengeance of the Zombies as part of their Paul Naschy Collection.

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!" 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." 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." Rafael Gamboa of DVD Verdict called it enjoyably bad. Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle called it "a plodding and unengaging zombie mystery".