The People Who Own the Dark (1976)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Great title for a film, but just not this one. Over ambitious project inevitably leading to it becoming pretentious, silly and unforgivably, dull. It starts promisingly enough with a disparate group of dignitaries all masked at sat about a banqueting table as pretty girls in diaphanous gowns prepare to submit to their every whim in the name of the Marquis de Sade. Some of us will wish the film continued in this vein instead of lurching into post apocalyptic Twilight Zone territory, with blindness, zombieness and the threat of radiation and the end of the world. Paul Naschy is fine but looks a little more awkward than usual. I find he is usually better when working for himself.

The People Who Own the Dark (1976)** (out of 4)A group of people gather at a home where they enter an underground bunker to do a De Sade worship. After hearing a loud explosion they return to the surface and notice that something strange has happened. They don't realize how strange until they go to town for supplies and notice the title monsters, a group of people who have turned blind due to a nuclear holocaust. THE PEOPLE WHO OWNS THE DARK has a pretty good reputation among Spanish horror fans but I'll be the outsider and say that I was pretty disappointed in the film. People have compared it to a cross between NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, which is certainly true but I'd also add THE OMEGA MAN in there as another influence. I watched the American cut of the movie, which features twelve fewer minutes than the Spanish cut but apparently only some more detailed character development is missing. With that said, I thought there were some major issues with the screenplay including the fact that none of the characters are all that interesting. When you think about it, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD features a lot of dialogue scenes and more often than not the zombies aren't on the screen. That's the same here but the only problem with this film is that nothing being said is all that interesting and unlike the Romero film you really don't care about any of the characters here either. None of the characters really stood out from one another and outside of the familiar faces (Alberto DeMendoza and Paul Naschy) there's really no one to root for or care about. For the most part the performances seemed fine, although this is always a hard thing to judge when you're watching something with an English dubbing. I will say that the look of the film was quite nice but director Leon Klimovsky just doesn't add any flare to the subject and even at 82-minutes the film drags in spots. Again, I know I'm in the minority on this one but the film just didn't work nearly as well as it should have.

Ever wanted to see Paul Naschy shoot clay pigeons? Look no further than The People Who Own the Dark, a superior nuclear holocaust thriller from under-appreciated director Leon Klimovsky. Naschy plays Bourn, a military officer who joins several other men at a remote château for a night of depraved debauchery with a group of five beautiful women (one of whom is played by Maria Perschy). Just as the film threatens to head into Jess Franco territory, however, it takes a 180-degree turn when a nuclear explosion damages the house and knocks out the power. Now our group of de Sade wannabes are faced with the greatest challenge of all: surviving the radioactive fallout that's inexorably heading their way--and to make matters worse, the residents of the nearest town have all been blinded as a result of the explosion and have developed some disturbing, zombie-like tendencies. The original Spanish-language version of this film is apparently twelve minutes longer than the English-dubbed cut, but good luck finding it. Presumably the early scenes involving Lenin and Marx make more sense in the uncut version. Then again, maybe not.

Well, don't get me wrong, this has a nice plot, the acting is better than most films of its type and the direction is nice. But that can't disguise the fact while the movie was good, the ending was just atrocious. I definetely would have given this movie three and a half stars, but due to the lame ending, gave this one only two.