Welcome to zombie strains, the podcast that watches all the zombie movies. Today we have a sinister revenge plot.

“He would use the most beautiful girls in the hated families, as instruments to achieve his vengeance by turning them into zombies.”

 Zombies with Jazzy Attack Music.

And a couple of sacrificial cops.

“But a hell of an idea of the superintendent giving us this job. If all this about the zombies is true, what are we supposed to do?”

 The beat continues for 1973's Vengeance of the zombies.

You know, I've seen people act like that in pictures. What do they call them, zombies or something?

Zombie.

Zombie?

What's a zombie?

Well a zombie…there’s um... ...Mr. Bill there’s... ...the living dead.

They are the living dead.

Get me the zombies!

Against an army of zombies, no armies could stand!

The unburied dead are coming back to life and seeking human victims.

I’ve seen the dead rise.

Kill the brain, and you kill the ghoul.

Welcome to zombie strains, I'm John. I'm Andy. And I'm Brad. And we are in the crazy 1970s in cinema in the best possible way. I don't want to spoil our ending here, but did any of you not find this to be an absolute delight, except for a couple of upsetting bits? Oh no, I don't know if Delight is the word I do this, but I cackled at several points and I will see when I go out. If your standard is did I laugh at parts of it, the answer is absolutely yes. This is one of those films where you throw the plot out the window and you just ride it and enjoy it for me. I just have fun. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no point will be arguing that this is a contemporary filmgoer's perfect film, but that's not why it's Delightful. So yeah. All right, well, we're talking about 1973, the American title is Vengeance of the Zombies. It's actually a movie from Spain and it's called La Rebellion de la Muertos. Do I get that correct? no. Did you say no? I said no. Yeah, I was trying to be funny. Oh, all right. All right. Close enough. In any case, this is a very interesting movie. We have a lot to talk about, but before we do that, I think some people experience some zombie media this week that they want to tell us about anybody. So my brother sent me a link to a YouTube video and it's a video mashup of And so it's so it's video. So instead of like when George Bailey's running down the street, it's Barbara running down the snowy street. When George is at the bank yelling at Potter and all the people, you see the survivor family sitting in there listening. When he goes, when George goes home and is yelling at his daughter for playing that song, the family, that survivor family is also in the room. And it's like eight minutes long, it's black and white, and I'll put a link in the show notes, but it was a lot of fun to watch. That's amazing. And not zombie move, I did see Godzilla minus zero and had a good time. So if you're a Godzilla fan, you'll enjoy that. Maybe not as good as minus one, but the monsters look great. So I like us to stop using minus in movie titles. And if I like to stop this trend before it gets out of hand, so I don't think I'm putting out my notice. Yeah, for Godzilla, this is the last one I'm pretty sure. All right, so I'm out of touch. What have I missed? What has minus in it? Godzilla minus 1 and Godzilla minus 0. I mean, for like, when you're numbering your films, let's not go into the negatives, like just find a different. You wanna, it's not that it's become a trend, it's that you wanna stop it from becoming. Yeah, I don't want Avengers minus 2 or something. But if it's guys, the film says it's in reference to the timeline in the film, I like it. Other films that do minus? No, he just wants to make sure it doesn't happen. Yeah, it's a pet peeve got it. Yeah, I cannot be swayed on this Brad. I'm sorry, you're just objectively wrong. We still disagree. All right, did you have anything Andy or should we jump in? No, we can, we can jump right and still at the release, lucky experience. So Brad, tell us how this was made. Yeah, how did this come about? I think we've experienced somebody who's very famous in Spain that we're just learning about with this movie. So tell us how it went down. Vengeance of the zombies was released in Spain in June 1973. And in the US in December, 1973, It was released again in the U.S. in 1980 under the title Walk of the Dead, and that significant because Roger Ebert marked it as a dog of the week, kind of sneak preview show. Do you think it came back due to quote popular demand? I like to imagine there's this ground swell of fan demand that this be released but well as I'm prepping for the 70s it gets confusing finding films which version of film the watch because they get released multiple times in different versions with different titles so again I think films are repurposed it's a cheap way to put out a movie because it's already been made slap a new title on it OK, so Leon Climovsky directed the film. His parents emigrated from the Russian Empire to Argentina. And Leon was born in Buenos Aires. He was born in 1906 and was in his early 20s when the sound film started. He founded a film club in Buenos Aires in the first art house theater. He moved to Spain in the 1950s and became a full-time director. He directed over 70 films in his career. In the 60s, he directed many spaghetti westerns and exploitation films. In 1970, he directed La Nose de Val Purgis, also known in the US as the werewolf versus the vampire woman. It is the fifth on-bray Lobo film starring Paul Nashie, as the Wolfman, and is cited as the start of the 1970 Spanish horror boom. It became the most profitable film of Nashese career. This success led to seven more collaborations between Klamowski and Nashese. Many of their films are considered classics, like the Dracula saga, which was released in the US on a double bill with vengeance of the zombies. Their last collaboration was the 1979 film, the people who owned the dark. Juan Carlos called her own wrote the score. In addition to scoring 30 movies, he was also a songwriter. The same year as vengeance of the zombies, his song, Eris II, came in second place in the 1973 Eurovision contest. Yeah, he scored the hell out of this movie. That's for sure. Yeah, we did enjoy it. Are we in an era where you could go and buy the soundtrack to a movie like, oh, I don't know. I don't know, but when I do the Instagram posts, 50, 50, if I can find a streaming option available. Yeah, too. So I don't know the answer to that. I think sort of the cult market has grown and there's a lot of re-issues coming out. Issues of things that were never released. And so I don't know. I haven't looked for this one yet, so we'll see. But the song, Eris II, was also in Tommy Boy, with Chris Farley and David Spain. There's a scene where they're driving and they sing, come on Ileen, the missing R&M, and then it cuts to them singing, Eris II and Spanish together. So you've probably heard the song. All right, so Paul Nashie. Paul Nashie plays Krishna, his brother, Kentucky, and Satan. He was born in 1934 in Madrid. In his 20s, he became a professional weightlifter, and he also sought work as an actor. In 1966, he was an extra on an episode of The Robert Culp in Bill Cosby Show, I Spy, which co-starred Boris Carloff. I forgot that show existed, and the second you said it. like images from it rushed back into my mouth. Yeah. Well, Carloff was not in good health. This episode was shot in Europe. He was not in good health, neither mentally nor physically. During the shoot to the extent that a documentary about Nashie released in 2010 was titled The Man Who Saw Frankenstein Cry. Whoa, huh. Nashie wrote the screenplay for the first Andre Lobo film, The Marker, The Wolfman, and sold it in 1968. The production initially wanted Lon Cheney to play the Wolfman, but as we saw in the 1967 film Dr. Terras Gallery of Horr, he was not in great health either, so he couldn't travel, so Nashie took up the role. And the mark of the Wolfman was the beginning of Nashie's peak fame and success between 1968 and 75, he appeared in 27 films in 1972. He wrote and starred in seven movies. In one year, he wrote and starred in seven movies. Yes. Even for the quality that we're talking here, that's impressive. Well, I was about to say, look at the film we saw. It's kind of more believable. Yeah, but still. But it's still enjoyable. He continued to make movies into the 80s and 90s, but not with the success of his early years. Can I just point out that there's a movie in 1988, he made that I have to see now, or 1983, maybe? The Beast and the Magic Sword. I don't think I could not see that movie at this point. Ha, that might have to be a bonus episode, Andy. It sounds like a certain type of swords and sorcerer. Well, if it's 83, it's a knock-off of Conan starring this guy, Nashi, who's amazing. Okay, that heck out of it. I, if that is the case, I also need to watch this. Okay, the rest of the cast, Roe Me plays Elvira, our heroine. This is one of her last credits. Mirta Miller plays Kala, the servant to Christina. She started her career as a model in Buenos Aires before acting, and in 1984, she was in the Oh, which if you're paying attention, we now have two Bauderic movies connected to this because Bauderic was also in Tommy Boy. I wasn't keeping score, but I thank you for keeping me up to date. You're welcome. Maria co-ste plays LC, the servant who is more than she appears to be. She was in many Paul Nashy films and we will see her again in zombie strains. She isn't one of the blind dead sequels. Vic winner plays Lawrence, the doctor who we think will be the hero who saves the day, but kind of disappears. Yeah, T2 will return to zombie strains and that it's kind of a small cast and that's who we have. You can find this movie on YouTube, but it's a VHS rip and it's low quality. I ended up watching a dub version on Tubey and it actually looked pretty good. I was very excited to watch again on Tubey. I did make it about 27 minutes through on the low quality one on YouTube, and the thing that drove me to the dubbed one, which was really translations were just so bad. Yeah, I suffered through the YouTube one. So yeah, I'm not sure I totally followed it a lot of what was going on, but that's okay. That could be why I enjoyed it more than YouTube. That's really possible. All right, well, that is what I have, John. Do you want to add anything? No, that's amazing. And I, I looked forward. So Andy, when we were in the 270s episodes, we were like Italy and Mexico is where it's at. Yeah. And here we are in Spain. We weren't, we didn't plan for this. And I now feel like I have to do ketchup work on Spanish horror because it sounds like we're just starting and it all sounds amazing and cheesy. And I'm kind of in love at this point. Yeah, you know, bookmark that because I do we we do need to dig into Spanish or clearly 100% so before we do that how about you how about we talk about this movie though and you give us a 60 seconds summary of the plot so people can follow along. All right, listeners, could you hear the quote marks around plot and what John said, uh, I was kind of glad that John, you are running the, uh, running the show this time because I would struggle to get us through the Byzantine plot of this one, but I'll take a crack at a 60 second overview. Okay, in London and. added a state in rural Britain, a sinister masked man is killing beautiful women, then raising them as zombies for some nefarious purpose you guys. While this is happening, our hero, Elvira, falls for a sweet-hearted Indian guru named Krisna. She goes for an extended stay at his estate in rural Britain, first to get spiritual advice, but they eventually fall in love. However, the estate is full of a crazy rogue's gallery of suspicious weirdos. Maybe the most important of whom is Christmas servant or maid Kala, who loves him, I think. Yes. We'll get into it. Some of these weird characters try to warn Elvaro to leave, others of them threaten her and try to kill her. It's a whole thing. But we eventually learn that Christina has a dark secret. His evil brother, Kantaka, is also on the estate, mostly lurking around in the world's cheapest looking occult layer in the basement. Kantaka is creating these women zombies for some reason and seems determined to kill Elvaro I don't know if I ever figured out the answer to those questions, but listeners stay tuned because I'm sure it will be crystal clear once John has walked us through La Rebellion de los Muertos. So, John, over to you. I can't explain the plat of this movie, Andy. And in fact, I will bring in a comparison film, a movie franchise from the 80s that will help all of our Gen X friends understand the plot. So, don't you worry. All right, I don't think the goonies, John, it's not the goonies, it's not the goonies, Okay, can I just point out a couple of things about this movie that are kind of different? Yeah, so one of all, what first of all, this is a movie filled with grown-up people. Like, like, there are no teen actors. There are young women, but none of them look like they look like they're 30. Yeah. They definitely has a more mature vibe than than a lot of the stuff we've been watching. Also, it is a zombie movie and a horror movie, and it is filled with glorious kills, but it's also kind of a thriller. Like, yeah. It's really like, who is this person and what are they doing? I think it's what this movie is about. Even though it's got wonderful zombie stuff and. and blood like paint pouring out everywhere at every opportunity. So having said that, let's just start where the movie starts. So we open like many good zombie or horror movies on a graveyard. One great thing about this movie is that you know you're in a graveyard because this bird is in every graveyard in this film and it sounds like this. I don't know if that's a real bird. My Merlin bird, I didn't pick anything up, but well, well, we'll continue to research as the episode progresses. But it's not credited in the, yeah, no credits. I do have, can I just stop for a trigger warning? There is a trigger warning on this movie. They do kill late in the movie, a live chicken on camera. And that is probably the most upsetting thing. So I did wanna mention that it is filled with nudity as well. I don't know how triggering that is, but if you're thinking of watching it with a kid. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There was no nudity in the version. Oh, Andy, you watched the wrong version again this time Brad and I win. Andy, you have a whole house filter that just blocks this stuff. What's going on? I watched, I watched the YouTube version. And so you guys were also talking about a character that in my version appeared essentially unannounced in the final couple minutes of the movie. Um, that I, that made, I almost asked if I watched a version that had, like, kind of scenes out of it. I think you did. Well, I clearly watched the wrong version of this, you know, maybe we'll, maybe I'll watch the movie earlier next time, and we can compare notes instead of keep watching this version. So, okay. My bad. Yeah. Um, okay. Well, here's how we open though. So we're, we open on the graveyard. There's a house next to it, which I have to assume is the care takers house because I don't know who else lives right next to a cemetery. So yeah, it's like the gravestones are about three feet. Yeah, exactly exactly to their denser. Well, we go to the house in a nice middle aged couple is having dinner and discussing how their grave robbers and a rich woman has just been buried in a crypt next door and they're going to go steal her jewelry. The husband is guilty and no longer wants to do this. He's afraid that this family is very powerful, and if they get caught, it'll be more than the police that get them. However, the wife attempts him with some unspoken delights, and he agrees to rob one more grave in her honor. So they go to do this. However, it doesn't work out presumably like the other ones worked out. because as they open the crypt and they open the coffin inside and yank this poor girl's jewelry off, somebody locks the door from the outside and then we see presumably a zombie master conduct a ritual and what is this ritual do Andy? It raises a zombie. It's specifically it raises the corpse they're trying to rob as a zombie. Yes. I like the little details in this scene. Like at one point, they're struggling to get a ring off. And so they, one of them pulls out a knife and it's clear they're about to saw the finger of the zombie off. Yeah. Yes. And so the zombie leaps out of the coffin, actually. Now I kind of like the zombie effect here. Maybe it's super cheesy to you. But the women who are zombies, all of them in this movie are women, they're eventually before of them, but they're wearing these long, flowing sort of gowns as they're, as their death shrouds. So they leap out and they're sort of like their gowns fly out to the side and then she strangles the guy and then she kills the wife with a giant candlestick and then leaves and then flees the crypt by sort of leaping across Graves as she goes. Yeah, she's following the mast figure that some that raised her. This is what we call a strong opening it's a great opening You know something else about the zombies that's that's great is pretty much every time the zombies are in a scene when they're advancing to kill you They're wearing us a very creepy smile. Yes on their face. Yeah, they got the direction and the actresses who or the actors who played the zombies are are very fun in this movie You know what I appreciate it about this scene is it didn't need to be this kind of cool little short story like this could have been a short story written by like HB Lovecraft or Robert Howard right like to grave robbers go in and they meet a terrible but richly deserved fate it could it they could have simply opened with a sinister guy raising his on the out of the graveyard but instead they told this little story and I appreciated that. Yes, and I have a I actually have an HP Lovecraft reference for later, but we'll get to that when we get to that me too. I wonder if it's the same probably the same one. Okay, however, then we cut to London and we get our nice establishing scene of London with double-decker buses and big ban and all the stuff. And then we zoom in on a house. And there are a bunch of people sitting around. These are flower people. They're wearing like, they're very high-dressed, wealthy English people wearing like, carnation. What do you call them, uh, not laurels? When you're wearing like a string of flowers or on your neck? Like a Hawaiian lay. It's kind of like a Hawaiian lay, but it's made of non Hawaiian flowers. They're like carnations or something. Is that type of thing? And they're all watching. listeners write a saying about us now they're all watching an Indian someone who is in who is an Indian mystic who's not an Indian mystic because we know he's Spanish and his assistant Kala perform like meditation and purity rituals so he they're all watching fascinating it as he holds a hot cold in his hand or gets stabbed with a hot poker and does not react And here we may also see are two a real main character and who we think is going to be the other main character. We see a viral watching wrapped as this Indian mystic whose name is Krishnara Krishnara Krishnara Krishnara Krishnara Krishnara Krishnara I in my they call him Krishnara That's probably what it was supposed to be. Again, I was watching the YouTube with probably AI-generated subtitles. And I think each actor pronounced it differently. They did. Yeah. And as a citizen, Kala, so he's here, but our real main character, Zell Vyram, of Vyram Irving, who is fascinated by this mystic and wants to sort of become enlightened through him and her skeptical friend Lawrence who is a psychiatrist we find out later, uh, who doesn't believe this for a moment. So any, you, you said you might have something on English mysticism. I find this sort of like high end party watched the mystic do the, uh, do the tricks thing incredibly English and upper class for the 1970s. It is funny how English, how British Eastern mysticism from a variety of places, but a lot of it was from places in India, was moving from being sort of an exotic novelty that was embraced by hippies. Yes, doing something that the middle class was interested in participating in and incorporating into their lives in little ways. So from here on out, really, and it's here to stay, it goes on like British lifestyle and film. From last in a recent episode, John, you taught in our episode about horror hospital. You talked about the economic difficulties in England at this time. Yeah. The economic stagnation of the early 70s, you talked about the industrial strikes that we're going on. and just all of the financial stress that was going on made this a really ripe time for sort of revival or renewed interest in alternative religious practices. So there's this widespread kind of curiosity interest in an alternative to old ways that didn't seem to be working, right? And this is a repeated theme throughout the decades of It's centuries of human history right when you have a big cataclysmic event world where one had this effect on religion across all of Europe for example when you have a big times of a people people start to think is there something different you know we can do because what I have been doing isn't really working and so this 1973 I think is the year that the wicker man came out oh that's right I think so there's this rise of interest in in pagan religion and I kind of put quotes around it because it's kind of the pagan religion that you see in things like the Wickerman and associated with the new age movement is a fairly recent invention at this point. And so just generally there's an interest in religion that allowed for kind of individual exploration and growth rather than just adhering to an established dogma. So we're seeing what I feel like feels like a really authentic picture of early 70s, Britain, bunch of middle class people intrigued by something new. Yes, absolutely. Immediately following this, Elvira and Lawrence go to a bar and and they have a chat. We find out that Elvira is the of the woman so so the woman who was in the grave that animated at the beginning had been murdered and we find out through context clues that Elvira is her cousin. Then we go right back to the mystics house. Now I would like to pause here. The mystic lives in a suburban house in London. However, he's first to all dress just like the costume department exploded on him from every movie set in the East. Like he's wearing a red neighborhood jacket, like he's a soldier or something in a turban, which is not appropriate for either Hinduism or Like he could be seek, and then, but that's not even a proper seek turgan. It's just like, hey, this person is Eastern. Let's dress them up like they're Eastern. This movie is our most, like, it's our biggest mishmash of multicultural ideas. Because I don't, I think you didn't mention the beginning, but the guy who raised the zombie at the beginning, specifically invokes Baron's Psalm. That's right. So already in like the first seven minutes or so of this film, we have Haitian voodoo. of Bret modern Britain, we have Eastern mysticism, it just is kind of wild. This put me in a kind of sour mood initially, but it turns out to be more interesting, they do more interesting stuff within it than I thought. Yeah, to their credit. We should mention that they do, it is filled with stereotypes, certainly about Voodoo and certainly about Indian mysticism. They're totally from a Western perspective and shouldn't be thought to represent reality at all. The other thing he has here on his, on his dining table as they're chatting, uh, chained up, casually chatting. Well, he announces that he's going to leave London and seek, uh, solace in a more remote place in England. I think this is how every English horror movie goes that we've seen so far. Yeah, yeah, that's like, thanks. So, you know, when he's doing this, he starts talking about a topic. I thought was going to be important to this movie. So I did a little bit of a some research into it. So he brandishes this knife and he starts talking about the thuggy cult. Yeah. I'm just curious where what movie would you think most people encountered the thuggy cult in? I assume it's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Temple of Doom, yes, exactly. So I thought that, oh, this must this movie is going to Uh, can I, I was disappointed by this movie in that respect thing? And I can I tell you my 30 seconds of research. Yes, please. Okay, all right. So he talks about the thuggies having inflicted a lot of harm on his family back in India. And so I don't really know much about this, but the thuggies were a real thing. And in the 1800s, there is this real problem. The thuggies were, it's a Hindi word. It just means swindler. And they're basically just organized gangs of highway robbers that predated British colonial rule. But by the 1800s, it had become a real problem for the British East India Company. OK. So the British East India Company spun a sensationalist fantasy story that recast, the thuggies. So they weren't just ordinary people driven by economic necessity to commit crime, but they were instead pitched as fanatical members of an evil cult that sacrificed victims to their goddess Kali. And that is the version that is stuck in the Western imagination. And we you see it in Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom. I'm just curious what do you think these mundane robbers as a satanic call. What do you think the India British East India company gained from that? What does that let them do? Permission to kill them? Yeah, gave them permission, yes, a gave them permission to bypass local laws that would require like evidence of a crime and that gave them permission to start arresting people based on their association now so it just made it easier for them to round it up and it mostly worked so yeah and this reminds me of the best organization you've just described also reminds me of the best organization of Voodoo that is also presented in this film and that we've been talking about a lot so yeah. Yeah, so yeah, anyway, I was I found this all very interesting. We're getting a lot of niche mash of different religions and cultures in this movie. So carry on, John. Yes. So if I were to go home, she falls asleep in her bedroom with her light on like you do and our our Voodoo practitioner arrives outside of her home and is doing something. We see Gloria enter the house, now this is zombie Gloria who strangled those two people at the beginning. So clearly our zombie master has control of cousin Gloria and is using her to do his dirty work. Then, um, The father comes down and the zombie master is in the house and maximum in the face with an axe. Yeah, this was quite a kill. Like we're still in movies that don't like to show you weapons actually striking their victims. No, we get some of that in this movie. And this movie, and definitely lingers on, like they take an extra opportunity to show that his face with an accident multiple times. Yes, yes. Yeah. So I didn't know the guy who got asked, I think was like a Butler or something because her father is was also killed, but she finds him hanging. Oh, that's right. This is her uncle. I think. Oh, okay. Yeah, right. The uncle takes it with the in the face of the next her father's hanging. However, somebody breaks into her bedroom, who's that, Andy? Uh, it's not big Gloria trying to write a single summer like this is how the zombies kill in this movie. Yes, uh, yeah, grinning zombie glory running zombie Gloria, but what comes to what comes to Elvira's rescue to last Somebody here's the screen, and you see a couple of uh, of English Bobby's English policeman running up and they burst into the house in the zombie master and Gloria flee I love, you know, like how in American movies, the sound of distant sirens is like the the queue and a movie scene to be like, okay, wrap this up. The police are getting here. Yeah. The bad guys need to leave. I love those British police whistles. Like, I, like, that's what you hear here. It's like the police are coming. Can't you hear their cute whistles? Yes. The police with their wooden sticks are coming. We better get out of here. We just killed men with an axe, and I have an undead Strangler, but That's right. We better move Yeah, one beat cop with a with a club. Yeah, so if I were to decide that you know, and she see she goes to the funeral She meets Lawrence at the funeral and she decides the only way I can get any healing Lawrence has been like it's three days. Why aren't you feeling better Yeah, yeah, all of your all of your family has been slaughtered in the last month of your life like what what's the problem if you so of course The solution will be to go see Krishna in the country and rest with him and get guidance Is this why is this why she was targeted like this to drive her to go seek refuge? I'm not sure is the state No, I think she's targeted because and we'll get to this in a little bit, I think she's targeted because this zombie master wants to kill her. Okay, I don't think she's trying to drive her to Krishna, I think he is trying to make her dead and she just happens to flee to Krishna so. Okay, however. So she's going to take a train to a remote town, which she does, I wanted to stop and take a moment here. So when Lawrence drives her home before before the, before the action, the face that we just described, he drives a little MGB. He gets out. He walks all the way around and opens her door. I noticed this too. Then she gets off the train and some young man who does not work brings her cases and just sets them down. And she's like, thank you. He's like, you're welcome, ma'am. And so the station master comes out of the train station. And he says, it's cold out here. I know you're waiting for somebody. Why don't you come wait in my office? Here, let me get your bags. So the note I took here is that Spanish men, even though they're supposed to be English, are really gentlemen at the very least. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha And I just thought it was so quaint that later get out of my way, you know, like we would have a very different somebody abandoned on a train platform in a horror movie today would have a very different experience and people opening doors for them and inviting them into their warm office without any malicious intent. So, yes, what just wants to point that out. However, He says, where are you going? And she says, well, I'm going to see Krishna in his remote estate. And the station master says, oh, that used to be the home of the walklies who went mad and conducted dark magic and satanic rituals. And that place is haunted. And I wanted to pause here to bring something up Andy, but I wanted to see if you had anything. else to say I didn't is this year. This is my HP love sign. Why don't let you do it. So well, okay, we'll see if we did same thing. So I thought Wattley was kind of a weird sounding name, unusual name. Yes, last name for British family. So my guess is that this is a riff on the weightly family. which is a prominent family of sinister people that are in league with horrible evil entities in the works of HP Lovecraft. Corrent that Wattly is probably, is or maybe how a Spanish speaker might pronounce what I would call waitly, is that what you thought? That's exactly what I thought. And to further just spice that up a little bit, I was playing a Victorian horror game with friend of the show Matt. Today is the GM, and he named his sinister family Wattley as well. And I said, wait a second. That's the second time I've heard that in the last two days. And he said, yeah, it's from an HP Lovecraft story. I'm like, ha ha. That makes me sense. All right, yeah, that's a that's a creepy coincidence. I just got to say, but you know, that's okay. Yeah, no, but it's kind of a crisis. Yeah, and I, and I would be shocked if it wasn't an explicit rent for reference to HP Lovecraft actually like agree. Yeah, you know, we, we have not this might be the first movie I have detected what must be a knowing nod to love. Yeah, is that right. I think so there's some some things that like. like like horrible things that were suggested, but I think this one is the most explicit sort of Easter egg, I guess I would say. Yeah, so let's talk at the end of this, remind me, let's talk about if this is a lovecraftian film in any way. Yes, I'd be interested to hear that take, but however, Kala does come to the station and pick her up, Kala, who was Krishna's assistant, they drive they drive back in a car that looked really antique. It is, in fact, I know what this car is. I looked it up and thank you for reminding me. It is. a 1950 Triumph Renown, Mark one. So there you go, that car's pretty sweet. It looks really vintage and it did make me wonder if in the 70s, there could have been a pretty dizzying variety of cars out on the street, right? I actually had that thought as a couple of times they're driving down London Street, and there's like a Volkswagen bus next to a Rolls Royce next to a like a Pujo from France, like there is, there is in streets in this a dizzying amount of different cars. I mean, again, I'm not a car person, but I feel like cars have a pretty, have had a pretty homogenous look for like the last 30 years. I had this exact facility. Yeah. So, yeah. So, you know, when I'm just driving down the street, I don't see cars that are like, oh, that's a car from the 80s or the 90s. You know, like, I don't know. But you would have had that experience in the 70s. Yeah, I think so. All right. So, Colopix wrote, before she does, the station master warns her. She gets to the place has a little dinner. She goes to bed and has a dream. Now, Andy, did you have this long dream sequence in your film? Yes. Do you want to describe it to our friends? Yes, it's a really strange scene. Very, yeah, I guess that this is where the knob starts to creep up towards 11. I think in this movie, let me go back to is it not, it's not Callah who picks her up. It is the other, the other, the other servant who picks her up. That's a mistake and then Callah greets her when she gets to the estate. I wanted to bring that up because what did you guys notice about the name of this other servant? What was his name? So the other servant he's a black man and his name is T Zachary. What is that? Remind you of what other movie does that remind you? Oh, I don't know that we've watched and I don't know. It goes all the way back to I walked with the zombie. Does that ring any bells? No, who was T Zachary? The name on the statue? Uh, then yeah, there was a statue named T. Misery. Um, and so this, although, uh, at least in the version I watched, you know, the actor doing the voice for T Zachary did not have like a Haitian accent or anything like that. I think that is a tip off that that is a Haitian cultural prefix you add to the front of a name. It means like it's like kind of an endearing prefix. That now I now that you said I remember they were very explicit but that in walk with I walked with the zombie and they actually had that I think historically correct in that movie Yeah, interesting so. Oh, yeah, all right cool Yeah, all right. So carry on, John, where were you? Okay. So in her dream, the station master comes into a room with tea's accuracy and in the station master says, I am a wattly and you fall in into my trap. And now we're going to kill you. So they go to grab her and take her to the basement, which is the horrible. Temple of evil and he would like to describe the Temple of Evil in this dream. It is like of it is Really cheap looking it is just a basement like an unfinished basement. Yeah with a couple of like a couple I like saying props is kind of being generous to what they are like a table someone's thrown like a reddish table cloth over it, like, and there, but the most delightful thing is the floor is scattered with bones, but not, like, in a way that it raises the wrong kind of question. Like it's an over button. Like it's an over button. Yeah. Like they try. They tried to hard. They clearly just went and bought, you know, 20 fake femurs and just kind of scattered them around the floor. Calla, calla is stirring a pot of steaming something with one of the femurs. And Krishna is here dressed up as the devil. Yeah, I thought his outfit was was pretty cool. They just got to make it into the horns and the whole thing. Yeah. And Kala, they've painted her skin all gold. Yes, which I thought was actually a pretty cool looking effect. Yeah, reminded me a lot of is it gold fingers at the James Bond one where he paints people? Yes. Yeah, I was just curious to when did that that movie has been out for quite a while at this time, right? Almost 10 years. Yeah, like 64. Yeah, no, you're right. Well, I guess that someone thought it was a pretty good idea. So, uh, but, uh, and then ends with them, you know, killing Elvira by cutting her throat and collecting her blood in a goblet, which creased, uh, then drinks out of. Yes. But John, this isn't the end of the movie, you know, surprisingly, this movie doesn't end at like minute 23. So what is really going on? So it's a dream. She wakes up. Krishna runs into comfort her and gives her a big hug, which Colisees and you can clearly see that Colah is jealous. Yeah. So then next morning she decides to go for a walk by herself in the garden like you do after you've had a horrible, very explicit dream about somebody murdering you. And Krishna lays out his backstory. I'm going to sort of move along just a little bit here. But we have a crazy scene. Now this is the scene you may have missed. Okay. Did you go to the meat packing plant? Yes. Okay. So here's the meat packing plant. Yeah. So woman arrives at night at the meat packing plant. So you're already guys are walking around. There's one guy who's presumably the night manager in the office. She's wearing a long red coat. Can I just say, if you would said, Andy, what is the location this movie is going to skip to from here, meet packing plant would have been way down the list and you haven't seen these characters before. This is total whiplash. I'm like, were you just right after a commercial in two be two and I'm like, what did they start a new movie like right here in any case. This woman is having a fair with this man that this woman's husband owns this meat packing plant. She's one of these rich families. She's somehow related to, we found out later, of eye reurving. But she unbuttoned her coat. She's naked except for some panties and she starts to make out with this guy. I guess you didn't get to see that part. No, and it was not like a glimpse. She's like watching around the room, dude. I mean, no need to be elusive as I am curious if they filmed a different version of this. Well, this one. Because they started making out and stuff like that, but nobody was unclad at the time. No. I imagine Brad that this must be what we encountered in, um. terms of the blind debt where they filmed sexier stuff and more gore stuff for the interest. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. However, and then they don't actually show this, but the voodoo master comes back. He kills, he stabs the man, and he's... John, can I just add to what you just said about the different cuts? Yeah. Yes, there were different cuts based on regions and international markets. I mentioned Roger Ebert. Yeah. One of the things that drove Ebert crazy is that the version he saw when a violent act was about to happen, the screen would flash red, and there was like shocking notice when a pier on the screen. To warn you, there's something shocking was good to happen. Yeah, that's incredible. So we didn't watch that one. So there's another version out there that we haven't seen. Now there you know, yeah, that it's fascinating. So they definitely must have filmed the different version because you see they get killed and every they're still clothed when they get killed and you see them dead like in their clothes space. No, she is naked and gets strangled naked but they don't actually show the strangulation. They pull away. So I'm not doing on this just to be creepy. I'm curious, I mean, when I'm curious, when movies stopped, you know, filming alternate versions or have do we still film alternate versions for things? I think they still do because if you want to be on TV, you have to have a toned down version. Unless you want to be on Dooby, in which case, right, you don't even need to verify your age to watch this thing. So to maximize the markets that will accept your film, you need to have different versions. You can have your R, you can have your Hard R, or you can have your PG. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Okay. Okay. So something you said, he said that he strangled the woman, but, uh, I thought the strangling was kind of cool. Is this, was this a garot? This was a garot. Okay, he puts basically a wire around her neck and pulls it tight. And it's like a custom built thing for cutting off necks, like it's not, yeah. Now this is interesting. Now we have voodermasters with two different masks, and I honestly never figured out If I know who one of them is, but I never figured out if that we're actually the same. I think they are. But like, yeah, so there's I think so what you're saying, John, correct me from wrong. You know, each time we see what a voodoo master running around he's wearing a different mask. Yes, this one I just found mask or mine. I thought that was just he was. He was just being cool and stylish. I think I didn't interpret that as saying there's multiple who do practice. They only show one mask coming off. So the only confirm once who is wearing the mask. It's an interesting touch. Yes. I mean, there's no reason to change the mask each time. I think it's kind of cool that they don't. Now, I have to say this next scene is a total obligatory expository scene followed by an amazing kill. So let me get to the exposition because it's important. Lawrence, remember Lawrence from half an hour ago? He is gone to the library to see his friend. He is skeptical of Krishna and he wants to do research on Indian mysticism. And in the course of talking to his friend the librarian, it comes out that he's that Lawrence is a psychiatrist and that his he has interest in researching voodoo and zombies in the Caribbean and now he's researching Indian mysticism. So this sets up Lawrence is like the expert on what is going on here. But I just wanted to say that because it's really hand-fisted and obvious and there's a great kill coming up or a ridiculous one. So I wanted to move on to that. I don't know if it was a version I watched or am I concentration was just flagging a little. I didn't really understand this scene or what they're trying to convey so that helps. Yeah, yeah. All they were trying to convey is that Lawrence is an expert on Voodoo and he was trying to become an expert on this Indian mysticism is protest by Krishna. Yeah. All right. So tell us about the sweet kill though. It's not open sweet so we go to the morgue. This is actually okay. This is kind of great. Maybe then execute it perfectly, but so what do we decide we call them more do we to set on more keeper? That's the coolest sound. The guy who works the night shift at the more. Mortition. Mortition. Yeah. But a more, yeah, anyway. A more contendant. A mortition, I think, is the guy that, you know, like gets the body ready for a funeral. This is more just to watch in the shop. Right. Let's say it's right. Yeah. Right. The night attendance. Right. It says, no, no interest after five p.m. he locks the door. He says, sound to have his lunch in the room with the bodies, which is amazing. And he having a sandwich and a beer. Um, I thought I couldn't tell if it was a soda or a beer, but actually says, I'm still light on the side of the can, like, do they get a sponsorship for him still lighter? They just threw it in there. I don't know. The way modern movies work, you would never, you would just have a can of beer that looks like that. This is beer, you know? Do you think, yeah, I'm so like, it was happy with how the scene ended. Probably not. Because what happens is Gloria, the zombie master in Gloria, flip back sheets and they are two of the bodies lying on the tables in the morgue. Gloria runs up to him grabs the can, rips the top off and screws the sharp aluminum edge into the side of his neck to kill him. I was like, that's ridiculous and amazing. Death by am still light is what I take away from this scene. In any case, I can't remember, oh, did they just kill, they just kill this guy so they could resurrect the nude woman who just been garotted, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So now there's two zombies. The zombie master has two young, attractive zombies to do his bidding. Yes. And then we cut to the new Scotland Yard where the police have invited Lawrence in to a pine on the series of murders. So he's just here to explain one thing, the police captain. And here's what he explains, which is the sort of plot of the movie and why all this is happening. So when members of this family, or these three families, I forget the names, one of them is one of the cousins named Irving was raped and murdered by an Indian man. And the family chased that man to his own home and burned it down and presumably killed him. Now did you pick this up, Andy? I got this delivered later by Christ now. It is delivered again later, but we get this Um, because he here makes the connection that these young women are related in some way, so we have this model of these families killing a murderer remind you of any 1980s movie franchises with a murderer comes back to kill them. Yeah, like Jace doesn't, is that what Jason does? No, that's what Freddy did. Freddy, Freddy, Freddy, we've got the plot of Nightmare at Elm Street in 1973, everybody. Congratulations. I don't know, maybe this is an old story plot, but it's literally like murderers, killing children. Parents team up in murder him. He comes back and by the way, spoiler. He comes back and is killing now these children. So where well, it's it's kind of like a classic murder mystery set up right I mean like the key to the mystery is kind of figuring out what connects all of the different victims and the key here is realizing there all connected to these families that that were in India and I want to say three more things about this expedition dump and then we can move along one is They mentioned Baron Zombie in a totally made up history of voodoo that has nothing to do with anything. They described Baron Zombie as basically the Satan character of voodoo mythology which she is not at all. However, there's two other things I want to point at first of all. picture of a head of a state in the in New Scotland, yard, who is it, Andy? Yeah, Queen Elizabeth, the site. There you go. Yeah. And then once Lawrence puts his reading glasses in his pocket with the earpiece sticking straight out, and it's like that. We're just talking for like a minute. And I just want to reach to the stream and slap it down, which somebody does, because in the next shot, it's not sticking straight out anymore. So just head to bring that out. So they figure out basically that these Indian families that killed this man got off because they're powerful and they suspect that somebody is coming back to seek vengeance on these families. So that's sort of the established plot. Um, there's a weird interlude where, um, Christian is back in town. He goes to antique store. He buys a knife. He goes to a graveyard. Like, I think this is trying to suggest to you that Christna is the voodoo master. Yes, because it shows him lingering on a graveyard for some reason. Actually, there's a great shot here where there's children playing on a swing and they pull back and it's a graveyard next to the playground. Yeah, I noted that to the graveyard is like right up against a really busy London street. So there's these buses and stuff driving by like 10 feet away from the graves. I thought that was kind of neat. Yeah, and actually I did have a thought and maybe I brought this up in a previous episode. But this like places like London, old cities where people were buried in church graveyards. like I was in a town in the East Coast and they had this sort of thing too. Where's place to be even a zombie outbreak? I mean, because they're concentrated. You know what I mean? Interesting. Like now, the cemetery is on the outside of town, kind of. You know what I mean? So we're dealing from the rest of the town. But anyway, I'm not about that. That's interesting. Yeah. Okay. There's a sort of moment where the station master comes to see of Ira as she's out walking, but gets caught, not by color, but by the other servant, what is her name? Elsie. Elsie has been a nobody in this movie, but clearly the station master is afraid of her, and he goes back to the station, he's drinking a can of Amstilite, and makes a call I think he's calling the authorities, however, here comes a zombie master who has an effigy of the station master, which he takes over and forces the station master to cut his own throat. Yeah, it's like a voodoo doll kind of. Yes, it's like a he has a we've seen him use it to raise zombies in the past. He has a little dollar statue out of the zombie wants to raise, but this is the first time we've seen him use it to control someone and force him to kill himself. So as of I was having dinner in the country estate, Susan the housekeepers like you've got to get out of here and don't fall in love with Krishna. And then Krishna comes home and she immediately professes her love for Krishna, but she does agree to meet Susan and the garden shed later because Susan wanted to tell her something. When we we get there, Susan had has been cut off, but we don't know that right away because it's still in her body. But when Elvira says the doctor had falls off. It's like hands. It's hands on their shoulder and there's T Zachary with a giant side. Chris, cut her head off and T Zachary and Krishna engage in a pitch fork fight, which Christian with a very first pitch fork fight. It's our first pitch fork fight. Side versus pitch fork, uh, yeah. Yes. This was amazing. The Susan kill was amazing. So this is this is hugely a slasher kill. Yes. Not only because it's kind of grossed over the top, but I love it when like there is no the amount of work it would require to to make this work like he had to prop the body up some he had to spend time thinking hard it would be to prop up a body, a dead body. Yes. And then he had to He had to balance the balance, right? He went to balance the head just right in my turn. I just love it. Like I am curious, I would be interested to know when in the history of horror film was our first shot like this where a head topples off. Yes. You don't realize they're dead until they're head topples off. But yeah. It was so effective because when they cut to her standing there, I didn't pay enough attention to her face. Druped to the side. I thought it was really her face in the head. I mean, I bought it. It was really effective. Yeah. They did a good job. Yeah. And there's a couple of other things that happened here. So the police in London go to guard a graveyard because they've got this idea that somebody's going to come steal this newly dead body. We sort of have missed this murder, but I want to bring up the scene for one thing. We now have three females obviously or maybe we're getting our fourth here. However, the zombies come out and they approach the two policemen who are very confident and shoot the zombies, which has no effect. And one of them, one of the two policemen gets strangled by the three female zombies. Then the other female zombie pulls a wooden cross out of the ground that was recently buried that has appointed end and throws it at the other policemen stabbing him through the hearts. And this is when I cackled with laughter. This was a good one. And that was the music we played in the opener. That was the zombie attack music that played under it. It was so good. I loved it so much. You want to hear it again? Just for fun. Yeah, please. Yeah. So this starts in such action music as playing. It's a cross goes flying into his stomach. Also, the station master, when he's killed and forced to cut his own throat, jazz really is terrifying. Okay. So then what we find out is that something is going on. Krishna wants to protect Elvira. Kala wants to kill Elvira, but at least make sure she doesn't interfere. You're kind of not sure what's going on. I will say at this point you guys, I was just lost in this movie like what was going on. I don't know if it was a consequence of some scenes being cut. Alright, this wasn't paying attention or maybe the subtitles weren't doing the best job of conveying, but I was really lost at this point. Alright, so here's what happens. Here's what we find out. So now we see a version of Krishna. He had this version that earlier appeared in a different dream, which I didn't cover, but and they're talking about their vengeance. So something is up here because Krishna has appeared in different ways. There's regular Krishna and then there's this one that looks like him but all his skin has been burned almost like Freddy Krueger's with there's like patches of hair and stuff and now this version of Krishna which we're about to find out is called names Kuntaka speaks and says what his plan is. my complete vengeance is near you the living dead the slaves of my wishes will be the executioners of your own families of all the evil ones who have caused me so much pain. So here's the deal. So remember that the Indian man raped and killed a British woman and then the families teamed up and burned his house down and presumed he And not only that, it was Krsna's brother. I mean, their twins, practically. So, so there aren't two versions of Krishna. There's Krishna and his brother, Kantaka, who was presumed bird to death, but he's not dead. And the brother came to England and having then studied zombie ceremonies to exact vengeance on all the families and he chose all the young hot members of the family so we can show them partially naked later in order to extract his vengeance. Does that make sense? I was just going to say isn't it kind of a burn when he says that he specifically is raising the most beautiful person from each family to kill them off and then is that a backhanded and so you the people he didn't kill and and raise you imagine one of the other sisters is like I'm right here like he didn't So, also what this does reveal is through this whole movie, I assumed that Evil-Burned Krishna was the same person as regular Nice Creasonin. There was some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on, but this confirms that there are two separate people, and that Creasonin, who has been acting like a really nice guy. This entire movie actually is a really nice guy. Yes. Yeah. But we find out here that he's also enslaved by his brother and does not have full control of himself. Yes. So the cell comes to a head of Ira gets captured and they get taken to the temple of evil. The cheap temple of evil that is being constructed. Krishna is going to connect. Krishna is going to conduct a ritual. that will turn her into a zombie, he's going to seek his vengeance, and then he's going to become all powerful, and his hench people, like Tizakari warn him, like you're using your your incredible voodoo powers for the wrong thing, you're supposed to be making an army to take over the world, but you're using them for petty vengeance, and you will be punished. Yeah. And so now we have Krishna is there. He's under mental control of his brother. uh... teesacrius their colah and a viral are chained with their arms above their heads awaiting death uh... and also on the floor is a ritual drawing can take a man yeah tell us talk about this ritual drawing because it's a man yeah so they've got a little pentagon down there with a skull in the middle that is labeled barren somde. Yes. And then around on the different points of the pentagon, it's not a pentagram, which surprised me a little bit, but you see the names of some other basically voodoo entities. Yeah. Dom bola, do you guys recognize you? Dom bola. Yep. That's been in a couple of our movies, I think. That's often In movies that don't mention Baron Somdi, the Voodoo Master is usually invoking Tom Bala and Sam. It's a little man with Bella Legosi. They were calling to Dembala. Yep. That's right. There was another one listed Ayito Wado. This, I look this up. This is another powerful spirit in Haitian Voodoo. It's sometimes called the Rainbow Serpent. Oh, like the serpent in the rainbow? I think so. Yeah. The movie I'm associating 99 that I really want to watch. I think so, because I thought specifically, if you mentioned that movie in a recent episode, John, she is sometimes presented as the wife or the counterpart of Dom Ballon, and then the only other name I could make out was Ogu, which is a family of spirits from the West African Yoruba religion. I don't know that it makes a lot of sense that that was written here, but I think, That was, I don't know, that's probably there was in a book they had, so they wrote it down and sounded, yeah sounded voodoo and can we say that it's it's fun that they went to this level of detail and also it's completely made up and misunderstood represents voodoo like both things can be true so I think that's absolutely absolutely okay so but Gary on because we're in the climactic scene we're in the climactic scene so so mutilated burn Kentucky tells Krishna to kill Kala and he does. And then he catches her blood in a half skull, and he's going to drink it, and then Kentucky says, now kill Ivira, and he can't bring himself to do that. Well, he doesn't drink it. He dribbles it over the coffin. That's right. He dribbles it over the coffin, because that's how you make the zombies rise again in this movie. that he's ordered to kill a virus like no it's me you can't and he's not he can't stop himself from doing it and i can't what happens to christina here does he get killed by kontaka or he gets warmed by zombies they get formed by zombies so the four females obviously come to swarm him and now kontaka has the knife he's going to kill a virus except bang his back arches and he's clearly been stabbed and he falls And this character that has barely been in the movie, Elsie, and she says, I'm here, she's like, I'm basically from Zabi Interpol, and you've been using your zombie powers incorrectly for vengeance, just like T's Akari told you. So I'm killing you, and I'm going to take this ritual and take these people and make an army and take over the world. Yes, and she's a white British woman, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the accents in this movie are strange because it's dubbed in English. Like, this is an actual question. Like, what is the correct thing to do? Because Krishna, for example, is clearly from India. He would speak with a different accent than an American accent. Or he could have a British accent. However, they just decide to dump everybody American British people, Indian people, people from the Caribbean, they just sound like Midwestern Americans. I don't know if that's bad or good. It's probably the right choice, given how I could have turned out of some white voice actor trying to do it, Caribbean, or Indian accent. So let's credit them for making, at least not making a stupid mistake. So I actually love Elsie's presence here. I love the idea. Like, you zombie interpol is the perfect way to play. Yeah, she's been dispatched to take down this rogue agent, not because she's a good guy, but because he's gotten distracted from the actual evil plan to take over the world. Yes, however, her evil plan does it last long because bang, income the cops who finally figured this all out. uh they come in and they shoot her in the back and then there's this great moment where they just have a wide shot of like these bodies everywhere and they'll vibrate in there and collar with her throat cut hanging next to her and the cops are just like what do we do now? like I am I wrote the exact same thing down my notes. The cops are surrounded. There's like a dozen bodies They have including zombies who finally the spells broke and said they're just collapsed on the ground Another tip that you didn't get Andy probably or maybe you didn't see is so all the zombie women in this final bit are only wearing panties and and translucent black death shrouds who can kind of see their naked upper bodies through them and they love to have them dance around. So this is daily, they went to a lot of work to film multiple versions. Yeah, um, because they were just wearing like opaque black robes. No, and the verse and I watch. And so I think this we're really into that. We're also really into the like sex and violence are just one thing in the zombie movies and in these horror movies in the 1970s very clearly. So Anyway, uh, and that's the movie that means to move me. I hope I hope people were able to follow that if not at least I hope you're able to follow my joy at how ridiculous this film was I will say like so if you weren't able to follow that it's because this is a weird convoluted movie and like I I just had to surrender to the experience at a certain point because I couldn't, they kept switching to scenes that didn't make them seem to follow from the scene we had just been watching. There were occasional switches to characters you've never seen before and you would get a big long scene with these people and I never understood. I think the translation in the police scenes must have been off for me because, yeah, there was a point They figure out where this is all happening. This is right before the clinic scene. And one of the policemen's like, it all makes sense. And I was like, I'm just like, I don't think that's true. Yeah, this plot was so confusing. Like, we have Lawrence who's like the expert. And like you keep thinking, he's gonna come in and save the day. He's gonna explain everything. But at some point in the middle, he hits Elsie, who's riding a bike with his car. And they're going to town. And then they cut that they're on a bench kissing. Why would you do that? I had a note increase you figure out later. She's trying to lure him to the castle because she wants to kill him Or she's trying to distract him one of them. You find out much later, but it makes no sense. No sense at the very end. Also great in that scene is he's driving his convertible mgb, which is the size of a postage stamp he hits her on the bike. He's like, I'm thinking back to town. So even sir bike in the back seat of this convertible, and it like three quarters of the bike is hanging out of the car. It's amazing. That bike scene. That was so funny. That was a lot of that loud moment for me because again like like what is happening? Like why am I seeing this like yeah, he's like they uh it just it looks very funny He just plows into her and his car and it's it's just very funny. I hope that is done person do that when you could I hope so I also too. It was clearly a woman who was on the bike when the car hit her. So I kind of believed it was the actress, but they never showed her face or who knows. Yeah. So what was Elsie doing through this whole movie? She had one scene earlier. They were like, Elsie, will you please show Elvira to her room or something? So she infiltrated like the staff of Christmas estate. Is that right? Okay, and her job was just kind of to keep tabs on Cran Taka and take him out if he won't stop us his petty revenge scheme. Okay. I think she probably could have acted a little earlier before all the zombies were created and they were about to kill Elvira and they'd already killed Kala. But hey, with him we would have had a movie. So Also, this is another movie where things would have gone a little smoother. Like, I get it if you're the bad guy. This made me think of the movie ritual, by the way. I get it. It would be fun if you made other people kill your victims instead of you. But like you could just remove a lot of variables. If you just walked right over and killed the person you want. Yes, did. Like, just, you know, set the theatrical, uh, villainous to the side for a minute and get the job done. Yes. Well, so hey, John should we move into our closing question. Let's get to it. You have questions. I have answers. Okay. Yes. All right. So, John in vengeance of the zombies or La Rebellion day loss wear toss, I think. Is there a hero party? Yeah. It's a Vira and kind of Lawrence. Maybe it's just a Vira. and kind of christna kind of christna actually yeah christna's in the airport you just don't know it for most of the movie cuz he's walking around by antique knives that later used to murder people Yeah, it was interesting to me that Lawrence had relatively little screen time in this like his role in the movie is he's helping the police solve the murders and and so that they can all show up at the end and stop the bad guy it's it's not usual that a movie splits up introduces two leads and then splits them up for the entirety of it was a little strange and drops one he does disappear and the fact the police at one point say where is he? Yeah have you seen the last lady? Yeah. Oh yeah and and the answer that is maybe he's dead which was delightful. I I I mean I guess I don't know why you went there but I guess it's possible. All right how does the party do how many survived? Just L.I. right well no Lawrence survives. Cristina dies, college dies, cause that really in their own party, but everybody. And she's like, she's like, yeah, aunt, I hero, you know, I think, um, not really. Station Master dies. Only of I really lives. And Lawrence is a side project, but he's alive too. Yeah, so pretty, a lot of deaths in this movie. Yeah. All right. So what kind of zombie are we dealing with here, John? What's the zombie strain at play? So we're dealing with classic, I mean, you know, we always talk when we watch Voodoo based movies that they have nothing to do with reality. But in a cinematic sense, they are classic. the voodoo created zombies using classic rituals, barren zombies mentioned during the summoning, they use voodoo dolls to re-animate them very classic misguided. Very classic voodoo misrepresentation in this video, all those tropes. What did the zombies look like, John? They just like, like, dead regular people with pastie white skin and like black out or sort of around their eyes. Yeah, they're not particularly, you know, they're not decomposed or anything like that. Goalish looking. They look like they're goalish looking though. I do love there's a scene where they raise one of them and they list like clear that they're pointing out that she was she was murdered Recently because it says you know until whatever date 1972, but her gravestone is like chipped and covered in moss and like I think that was a week ago anyway Yeah, so they had to make do with what was there. That's right All right, is there a, how are zombies destroyed or killed in this movie? You can't, the only way you can do is to kill the master when Kentucky dies, they just fall to the ground. Is there a zombie hoard? I don't think four. Zombies. I call for a squad of zombies. There's a plan for a horde. It just doesn't work out, right? Yeah. Like they want to like the eventual plan is to create an army that can kill everybody and that leads into the next question is the world threatened by the zombies. Yes, because they're talking about doing it, they just don't actually do it. Okay, let's see, and how fast are they subhuman, regular human, or superhuman? It's interesting, they're shot in slow mode, but I think they're supposed to be normal human speed, but they do kind of run and leap at their victims. There are a couple of actual slow motion shots on this movie, actually, that was interesting, but it's slow mode, like a tomb for the blind date. It's kind of an effective way to make them move. Yes, not quite as effective, but yes. And let's see, can the zombies return to being human? I do not believe so, because they're actual dead people. So are there any new strains of zombie or any zombie firsts in the portrayal of zombies in this movie that we need to call out? I don't think so, because this sort of hoard of zombies turned into an army, that's from revenge of the zombies. I just think it's a but it's a mishmash of old ideas pulled together. I don't know other than the other than the pitchfork fight. I don't know if there's anything for you. Well, actually seeing the decapitated had fall from the shoulders. Yeah, that is just for before, but editing covered up. This was on one shot. Yes. Yeah, I guess I'm talking specifically about the zombies. Right. Okay, John, at the beginning of this podcast, you identified four pillars of the zombie film. Let's find out how many of them are in this movie. John, in vengeance of the zombies, is there an apocalypse? There is not, but there's a suggested apocalypse. I will argue. Yeah, a potential one. Yeah. Is there contagion? No, you need a practitioner to create the zombie. are their tough moral choices. I think so, especially Krishna has to sort of resist his urges. Yeah. And he fails once and succeeds once. And it's, so I think yes, you're trying to, and this also answers loved ones turning against you as a yes. Yeah, definitely. I mean, the whole plot is having loved ones. I mean, The first zombie is, if I was cousin and breaks into her house and tries to murder her like this is a very clear loved one's journey against you and I feel like this is this the first time that zombies have been created specifically to attack their loved ones as an act of. animated to, well, she was not animated to kill her loved one. She ended up trying, but her purpose was to stay with him forever. So yeah, I mean, I'm going to revise the answer. Yes. Yeah, all right. And I won't give this movie credit. You know, talking about tough all choices, this movie has a lot of weird characters and I didn't quite understand what some of them were doing. But I will say this had a movie with lots of different motivations. I always enjoy it when drama comes Emerges purely because the people you've gathered together into this place have competing Motivations. Yes. Some of which are contradictory to others, you know, so yeah, I like that we had two flavors of bad guy here. Or maybe three flavors of bad guy because you had your, you know, voodoo interpole with their mat, their plan to destroy the world, you had Kontaka with his more petty plan to just get revenge. You had this lower level of like servants that maybe had second thoughts about who they were being forced to serve. I don't know. I kind of like this. Yeah. So John, this isn't the question we'll be asking every movie, but I won't as a fan of Mr. Lovecraft and his work. I want to ask it any time we have a movie that references that work. So, John, is this a love crafty and movie? It is our first zombie movie to reference love craft in a direct way. Yeah, that's a tough one because the zombies are just straight up Caribbean zombies, which I don't think anything happened. Anything, you know, other than the story, Herbert West's reanimator, like I don't know that there's a lot of dead coming back to life. in lovecraft stories, however, all the talks, there's cultists and Satanists and people trying to bring about the end of the world through their cultish behavior. And so like as you point it out it's not only that the love that the zombies are created to kill loved ones the the ultimate goal of the zombies was for a mystical cult to create them and take over the world and though that's not a directly love crafty and thing it's a sort of love crafty and premise right there's a cult trying to bring back to thulu and you know at least the dream time on humanity and that sense I did get that vibe so I will say. You know what? This movie reminded me of that point. It was reminded me most strongly in the early scenes when she arrives at Creason as a state and is having those psychedelic dreams. In one of the first dreams, one of the people in it says like, we're all wattlies. Yes. And that just made me think of a shadow over Innsmouth, one of my favorite Lovecraft stories. And it's film adaptation day gone. which we may or may not fall into our schedule. I'm not sure. But in shadow over in Zemouth is about you to lovecraft in addition to having cults and tentacle monsters. There's a lot of family and lineage stuff. And so there is a little echo of shadow over in Zemouth in Elvira, you know, learning about her own family complicity in an old evil, you know, she goes to this remote place and there she learns the truth of her family. In Shadow over Innsmouth, you know, the hero of that story discovers that, you know, he Well, I won't spoil that for you. You should read it if you haven't read it, but I should. But that lineage thing, yeah, I'm back in time to have family members that conducted evil rituals, like I think that's also a part of color out of space. I think there's something in there. Maybe I'm thinking of a different story. But the one where there's a lot of those stories. Yeah, yep. So there's, I think there's some goodness here. I don't think all of that was really very intentional. And there's a long history of kind of lovecraft stuff being tagged or reference in movies that don't really do anything with lovecraft's themes. Yeah, I think that's generally the case here, but like John Carpet or references him all the time, but the only John Carpet or film, except maybe the thing that I would say is truly lovecraftian is at the mouth of men. Now some madness. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, and I just want to say like we won't talk about He is such an influence you kind of forget, like his story seemed contained about a very specific thing, but the point you're making about how there's references to him and there's aspects to movies that aren't really lovecraftian, like his influence is just so strong. I don't think I realized it until You know, until recently, not like this year, but like in the last decade or so, just how pervasive it is in his in horror. Everybody is influenced by him in a way that I forget. Agreed. And when we get a more love crafty in film, I want to talk about the history of Lovecraft's ideas because they kind of they vanished for a while and then they were kind of brought there's an ebb and flow to lovecraftian ideas and I have been waiting for, yeah, a zombie film to intersect with that. So, well, if I don't get to it, we'll certainly get to do it at reanimator. So, yeah, absolutely. All right, so John, now you, I'm gonna flip it over and you ask me some questions. Yes, so these questions were designed for the US, so I will modify them slightly, but I think they're really relevant here. So, first off, does this film a vocator of crime, lawlessness, or anarchy? Hmm, I mean, you, you have an evil cult that the police are trying to, um, to stop. That said, I, I, I, my answer to this would be not that much. Right. Yeah. I think you're correct. However, I'll sort of pull these, these ones together. Um, does it push boundaries of on-screen violence and sexuality or anxieties over women's bodies or their sexuality? Uh, there's a lot there, anybody you think. Yeah, well, interestingly, I mean, the version I watched pretty like very effectively trimmed all of the sexiness out of this movie. Yeah, not the version I watched it certainly, but and it may even, I don't know if it tone or cut down the violence, too, but there was enough violence for me to recognize that we were watching a boundary pushing movie. Yes. You know, the the acts in the face was what did it for me, I mean, it's not gross by modern standards. Like, you know, you've seen worse stuff than this in my KPG movie. However, compared to stuff we've watching, like I said, you know, films really have shied away from, we've seen films that show you violence about to happen. We've seen films that have gotten more comfortable showing you the results of violence. But this movie had a lot of showing you the violence being inflicted. So there's the acts of the face, several people get their throat cut and you watch them get their throat cut. I would say that even if it isn't going to gross out a modern movie, gore. So yeah, definitely. And I'll take your word for it that it was pushing that it was pushing a salacious boundaries as well. But certainly it was doing we've never seen nudity this casual and any of our movies before. Okay. But I will also say, just to compare and contrast, not that long ago, we watched the plague of these zombies, where a zombie's head was cut off. You saw the swing and you saw sort of a ball of hair tumble to the side, but didn't see anything super gratuitous. Here, you see the head slowly tilt to the side, drop off the body and blood start shooting out of the neck. So, yeah, it's a different vibe. Okay, how about divide between new and old generations? I didn't get a lot of vibes about that, but what do you think? So these are English people. But keep in mind, I'm just sort of haunted by something you said about the tombs of the blind dead, about a older people who had witnessed or had done atrocities and younger generation, not really appreciating it, but suffering the consequences of those. And I think that that vibe is here in this movie. That's a very good point. Yeah, I agree. uh, let's just a couple of other ones, um, any anxiety over a consumerism or economics, I don't really think so. I don't think so. Now, what about tensions between urban and rural life? So obviously, this movie does do the classic thing of the horror. This movie does kind of contrast London, the big bustling city. There's tons of B roll of London street, some things like that. Intercut with the this rural estate. That said, I don't feel that the movie is doing anything very interesting, though, or intentional with that. Do you agree or disagree? No, I don't think so. I think you're right. I would do want to I do want to answer one of your own questions for you because it wasn't in your cut of the movie when your questions is, uh, you know, decision-of-okings, ideas about women's reproduction, sexuality or bodily autonomy, I would say if you're killing women and resurrecting their bodies to use them as murderers of their own family that would be a hard yes for me, just from a plot standpoint and making them so sexualized, you know, who really drives that home as well. So agreed. You know, you know, I hadn't thought about that, but you know, it's a misogynistic killer here, right? He's singling out only women if you're a man you're pretty safe. And you only are going to get killed if you, if you get in his way in some way exactly. And it's designed to be silacious so they can show off attractive young women too. So yeah, absolutely. Okay. All right, Andy, all right. All right. Yeah, well, we always close with additional couple questions here, John, would you and I survive in the zombie world of vengeance of the zombies? I don't know. I, not a lot of guys die. Are we more of a Lawrence? I, the only men who die, and all those two policemen die, I'd say no. If we were in the way, we would die. There's really no ways to kill the zombies. And, you know, if you get mine controlled, there's no way you can resist it, but I agree you this is another story where you really have to be You really have to be get yourself to involved in this to be at risk. If you're a guy. So John, is this a zombie movie or is this a movie with the zombies? I'm going to say it's a zombie movie. It's a revenge thriller, but there's enough, but zombies are so central to the plot that I think it's a zombie movie. I think so too. There's just so much screen time with the zombies. It really does feel like a zombie movement. Yes. Yeah. All right, John, would you recommend this movie first to just general fans of movies? And secondly, does this film hold any special interest for the zombie living listeners at this podcast? All right. We've been dancing around it for several episodes. I'm just going to have to make this official. I think there's three categories we're addressing here actually. There's regular folks who just want to go to the movies. There's cinephiles who may be like bad movies are interested in weird cinema and then there's zombie fans specifically. Yeah, maybe we should start calling those three out in this question going forward. So for casual mood people who are just going to go see a movie? No. for cinema fans who like bad movies, or who are just interested in the history of cinema, I'm gonna say yes. This is such a, it's not a great movie, but I found it hilariously bad and delightful and it's such a slice of film history. I mean, there's probably better Spanish horror films you could enjoy. But it was just such a goofy delight. So over the top for its time, which plays is almost silly to us now, I just enjoyed watching it. It's hard for me to not recommend a movie. I enjoyed this much. But it's not for you to watch with your kids. And it's not for you to just watch if you're just trying to relax in the evening. It's like, I want to watch a wacky over the top horror movie where the paint is like, or the blood is like paint. Then it's a yes. And then for zombie fans, Maybe, I did not really think new here, but it is such a goofy delight, maybe I'd say yes for them too. Yeah, I'm, I think I'm in most agreement. Yeah, so casual moviegoers, no, don't know. I need to watch this one. I would say a soft yes. If you like, you know, weird or niche cinema. Yes, a soft yes. I bet there's better stuff. I bet there's better, shlocky stuff than this. You could be watching, but this, you know, but this will do the trick. I want to say a slightly stronger yes on for zombie fans just because I just really found the cultural mishmash here interesting. Yeah. And this added the addition of like a of a global voodoo cult that keeps tabs on its agents and sends out assassins to take to bring them back in line when they when they when they get distracted is pretty delightful. And I think that's, I don't think we've seen that sort of like a global zombie cult in any of the movies we've watched before and that makes me kind of happen. And it feels like the KGB or Spectre is something, you know, it's kind of great. So yeah, I'm going to agree. That's pretty fun. All right, all right, and Andy, I have one last one for you. Oh, of course, should your mom watch this movie? And if yes, which cut? I don't think my mom should watch any of the cuts of this movie. But she could watch the cut I watch to when it wouldn't traumatize her. But I don't, I think she has better things to do with an hour and a half of her time. Yes. All right, well, we have a new segment in this episode, and that is we're going to respond to a piece of Lister mail that we got. Brad, do you want to read us a message we got from a listener? Yes, Lee from the UK sent in high what a fantastic episode he's referring to Dr. Blood's coffin growing up in the UK in the 70s. This film was often shown on TV gladists getting some love certainly didn't back then really good discussion the film is some history of the times too incidentally don't you think the opening of reanimator similar Austria main character being booted out of the studies etc. I hadn't, that hadn't occurred to me until Lee said it, but I would say a hard yes. It has the exact same vibe. And I can't remember if that's the vibe from the Lovecraft story, Andy, or if that was just part of the movie. But, but for sure, there's a connection. I think it's in the Lovecraft story as well. Have we had other zombie movies with disgraced scientists from Europe? What about the Spanish one? We really liked with the hideously deformed, Dr. Orlov's yeah was he was he a scientist he was driven out of for his mad science Yes, he was so yeah driven out or they just his his experiments didn't pan so he was just a failure I'm not sure, but I feel like the Dr. Blood's Coffee Guy was definitely driven out. Dr. Blood's definitely. Yeah, so actually we even saw, we even see saw some scenes of him getting yelled at by his, by his mentor or whatever, if I recall correctly. Yeah, yeah, and you know what, Dr. Blood's Coffee Guy? That one does stand out as one of my favorites that we've watched. Absolutely. So yeah, thank you for the question, Lee. If anybody else has questions, there'll be strains, podcast at gmail.com. I am also interested something else he mentioned that I just, I like the idea that we are getting into an era of zombie movies where people would have seen these, you know, on Saturday afternoon TV or something like that. So yeah, right in and let us know if you have had experience with any of these movies or if you caught it, late at night, when you were kid maybe staying up to watching stuff your parents would have not let you watch. Yeah, if there's Okay. Well, thanks again, guys, that means we've made it all the way to the end. We've survived the shenanigans of this global zombie cult. And we've made it to the scariest part of the episode. And that's where producer Brad reveals to me, and John, what zombie movie we will be watching next. Well, our next film is we're going to say in Spain. We're going to stay in 1973. I'm pleased. I've been, I have enjoyed our Spanish as zombies. Absolutely. And we're going to stay with Paul Nashie. So here is the trailer for that film. From the dark and mysterious Middle Ages, full of mystery and violence. Though now comes to the screen, fear rises from the tomb, a curse which will bring these people to the most terrifying situations. I have a lot of grammar corner points. I'll have that ready to go. Here's the poster for you. Alice, Bob, there's De La Tumba. Is this another tombs of the blind dead movie? No, it's horror rises from the tomb. In the trailer, they said fear, but on screen, as he said it, it says horror. Also, the guy who played Lawrence, who's named by the way, is Vic Winner. He's also in this film. So we get a, we get a two-fer. What's going on with the woman's chest in this poster? Yeah. Is it breaking apart? There is kind of an interestingly stylized place. Yeah, I kind of like you wanted to scribe it, John. Yeah, so it's a white poster. And it's got sort of a cutout of Paul Nashie with a sinister beard and dark hair and there's sort of a picture inside his cutout. There's a couple of him. He looks like a Vladimir. He looks like Vladimir. The impailer. There's a couple of grave stones. It's like somebody's rising out of one. And there's two women sort of lying prone. uh... scantily clad and there is uh... somebody who looks like a zombie uh... in the front uh... and it's very illustrative and kind of a blast yeah well folks you heard it here first we're staying in spain with uh... l asponto serves del atumba in one episode's time thanks for joining us at everybody remember we have merch because your constitutional right to give us a five star rating and apple podcasts and thank you for listening to the next time You've been listening to zombie strains. We'll be back next episode to talk about another zombie movie. If you enjoyed our podcast, please take a moment to rate us in your podcast app with choice. Tell a friend, follow us on Instagram at zombie strains. All of this helps like-minded people find the show. See you next time.