THE GHOST GALLEON (1975)

THE GHOST GALLEON is probably the weakest of the three BLIND DEAD films (if you haven't read about the other films, check my previous blog entries first!), a fact which can be largely attributed to the absence of many of the factors that made the first two so good.

The plot involves some kind of incomprehensible nonsense about a fashion shoot, but all you need to know is that it ends up with a couple of swimsuit models and a few other folk on an abandoned galleon in the middle of the ocean... a galleon that only appears in a thick fog that weather stations can't pick up. And did I mention it contains the corpses of a certain nasty group of Templar knights?

It sounds like the perfect recipe for more spooky goings on, leaving aside the fact that the previous films have been largely ignored again, but it's let down by a number of factors.

Firstly, the setting is too claustrophobic (which sounds ironic for a horror film) - the sight of a courtyard full of these (excellent) zombies in RETURN OF THE EVIL DEAD or the sight of them strutting across the field on horseback in the original movie were far more impressive sights than having a bunch of them squeezed into a tiny ship.

There's also the fact that the galleon is so obviously a model that the long shots of the ship in the fog are just not as effective as they could be, which is a shame as the set-up, as mentioned above, sounds perfect for a spooky, atmospheric horror.

The characters are all one-dimensional half-wits too, which doesn't help, but I think that the biggest gripe I have is that because they're on a ship that means - yep, you've guessed it - they don't have their horses! Damn it, that's why they're so cool! Zombies! On horses!

There are still plenty of shocks and it's a fun little time-waster but it's a bit of a let down when compared to the previous two films in the series. If you're going to have zombies at sea, then you should at least include a cameo appearance by the decaying, waterlogged corpse of Glenn Miller, coming back from the dead to lead an undead orchestra in a rousing performance of "Moonlight Serenade"... before eating someone, obviously. Or maybe it's just me.

To be concluded...