A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This Naschy offering, in which the Spanish force of nature played three characters, is an odd spectacle. Anyone heading in for the z-word will probably be disappointed. Rather than the staggering, brain-devouring undead we all know and love (and will soon be quite sick of, I'd wager), the "zombies" in this film exist as puppets for an evil occultist. You can probably guess who plays him, and who also plays the devil in a later scene.The surprising choice of Naschy's was also to play an Indian mystic named Krishna. This is surprising not just to see the role of an Indian played by the Spanish Naschy, but also because the character itself is an odd fit for the movie. The origin of zombies is explored in the Voodoo religion that birthed them (and of course, dolls are harmed in the making of this movie), but why the Indian character, and reference to the Thuggee cult? Naschy was known to often mix genre staples, eg. werewolves against vampires, but I'm not sure what he was going for in invoking that particular barbarity.The film is, overall, more a giallo than a typical zombie flick, with a masked man dressed in black sneaking around killing to a psychedelic soundtrack. The garish colours and bold compositions of giallo are here, too. I say check it out... but don't expect Night of the Living Dead.

Though a horror, and quite a chilling one, Klimovsky's outing seems paradoxically almost joyful—more like a fairy tale or an idiot's fantasy. It's a Z horror, as clumsy as it gets. Psychedelic, parody, it's enjoyable rubbish. The women are generally fine ( before they transform into zombies, that is), and there are a few tits on display (at least three actresses have been required to show us something). An extreme of the disabuse—instead of trying to achieve something, turn it promptly into camp—so it looks like its own parody.As a quality—it's not _unenjoyable; I have seen bad European horrors that were displeasing in an outrageous way, while Klimovsky's bizarre Z thriller seems more like a prank.

Vengeance of the Zombies (1973) ** (out of 4) Bizarre but mildly entertaining Spanish horror film has Paul Naschy playing a mystic who uses his powers to have women return from the dead and kill his enemies for him.Sometimes a second viewing can make you see a film in a completely different light. The first time I watched Leon Klimovsky's VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES it was from a public domain disc and the colors were drained. I gave the film a BOMB rating because I just found the entire thing to be deadly dull, poorly made and at times laughable. What changed on this second viewing? Well, being able to see a fully restored print certainly helped but I also managed to enjoy the film a lot more because I knew what I was getting into.If you're expecting George A. Romero type of zombies then you're getting into the wrong movie. The zombies here basically just have some face paint on them but I found them to be mildly effective and especially with the light blue tint and how well it looked on the restored print. Another plus were the slow-motion scenes of the zombies approaching their victims. I usually can't stand when slow-motion is used but here it's actually quite effective. The gore isn't all that high but there are a couple gory scenes including a bizarre one where a can is used as a murder weapon! Fans of Naschy will be happy to see him playing three different roles here. The scene with him wearing horns as a Satanic leader is certainly an eye-opener and for the most part he's good. The supporting women are all beautiful as you'd expect in a Naschy film. There are certainly some flaws here including the pacing of the picture as well as the rather bizarre soundtrack. I'm not sure if this soundtrack was used to make the film appear hip but it's quite distracting to say the least.

I know one reviewer of this film that had the audacity to compare director León Klimovsky to Tarantino. Give me a break. The film jumped all over the place and switched scenes with no apparent rhyme or reason. One minute you see a love scene begin and a second later someone is running their bicycle into a car.This mash-up of Hindu mysticism, voodoo and zombies never had any coherent plot.It did have great zombie makeup. They looked dead! It also had Mirta Miller. A voluptuous veteran of countless Euro-horror films, she again appeared scantily clad with her breasts heaving as she fell into the clutches of the zombies for their ritual.