The Ghost Galleon (1974)

Great Film overall

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Absolutely brilliant

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is an old 70s Italian movie with awful dubbing in the English version. Even ignoring the terrible dubbing this film is pure trash. The pacing is pitiful. The actors are just awful. The zombie effects are, even by the standards of the 70s, laughable. There are no actual scares, no actual gore and the slowest death scenes I have seen in ages.

This 3rd entry in the Blind Dead series may be the weakest link, but it still has a lot going for it. First of all, like all the films in the series, Ghost Galleon has some of the most original looking zombies ever committed to celluloid. We get to see plenty of them, but at times their presence on a dark boat can be obscured. They also don't turn in any kind of high body count which is what fans expect from a zombie film. This makes it kind of the oddball in this fine quadrilogy, but perhaps De Ossorio was being influenced by Italy's Giallo films at the time and was going more for atmosphere. I say this because this movie is almost pure creepy atmosphere with it's shapes, shadows and sounds. The main setting of the haunted, centuries old ship is also terrific even if the miniature version of the boat looks more like a 4th grade class project. Despite the lack of death, blood and serious action I never once felt the film was boring. The feel of dread and hopelessness kept me wondering who would win the day and the magnificent ending made me proud to be a horror fan.

This is the third entry in the Spanish "Blind Dead" series. I thought the first one had its moments, and while I didn't see the second entry, it has to be better than this third entry. It's a really cheap enterprise, for one thing. There are some unbelievably bad special effects, and the galleon set looks pretty flimsy despite the filming in darkness and fog in an attempt to hide the tackiness. But that doesn't sink the movie - what sinks this movie is the fact there is hardly anything that could be considered true horror. In the first hour of the movie, there are only TWO moments that could be considered horrific, and there's not much more in the last half hour. It certainly doesn't help that the characters are thin and shallow, though the dubbing of one character brings a chuckle because the dubber gives the character a voice that at times sounds like the Mr. Burns character on "The Simpsons".

Plot Synopsis: Sporting goods magnate Howard Tucker sends two models in a speedboat into the Atlantic for a publicity stunt. Contact with the pair is lost, but not before they report being stuck in a fog & coming into contact with a 16th Century galleon. Along with another model, his modelling agent, a henchman & a scientist, Tucker organizes an expedition to find the missing models. They board the galleon where they encounter the blind zombies of the Knights Templar, who were banished to the sea for devil-worship.Film Review: The Ghost Galleon (known in some countries as either Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead or Horror of the Zombies) is the third film in Spanish director Amando De Ossorio's Blind Dead saga. The original film, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD, was one of the finest zombie films that Spain has ever produced, only matched with the relatively recent effort REC.In keeping with the series' tradition, The Ghost Galleon is less a sequel than an outright remake. As was the case with all the sequels, the rules are changed with each film – here the Knights Templar are devil worshippers who are condemned to sail the seas for eternity.None of the films in the Blind Dead series particularly stand out in terms of script quality, but the writing for The Ghost Galleon is noticeably shoddy. One may get past the idea of a platoon of zombies roaming the seas in a derelict ship, but the idea of a salesman sending a pair of models in a speedboat into the Atlantic shipping lanes for a publicity stunt is ridiculous to say the least – what is the point of this? The models aren't displaying anything & only have a small boat to stay in. Not to mention the fact that the visual effects shown here are ridiculously unconvincing, with the model galleon shown in wide shots being a toy model, while the coffins being thrown overboard look like small Tic-Tac boxes painted brown & being dropped into a pond.The characterisations are, for the most part, decidedly mixed. Jack Taylor & the scientist both switch their opinions as soon as they get on board the galleon – the scientist at first dismisses the idea but later displays remarkable knowledge of the subject & has some practical skills at exorcism. Taylor, on the other hand, has a staunch disbelief of the supernatural that becomes more absurd the longer things go on – even being on the ship, he still doesn't believe it.Despite the poor writing & shonky effects, The Ghost Galleon does manage to entertain, having a modest atmosphere. The shot of the zombies rising from their coffins to the accompaniment of some chanting is undeniably creepy (although the scene might be undermined by the fact that the chanting does tend to sound hysterically funny, especially during the opening credits).