The People Who Own the Dark (1976)

Seven years after the success of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, the Spaniards decided to make their own, little-seen version under the steady hand of Leon Klimovsky (the guy who made my favourite Spanish film of all time, SHADOW OF THE WEREWOLF). While not a classic movie - and certainly not up there with Klimovsky's best horror output - this is still a classy, solid thriller which is bolstered by some good performances and an excellent music score which varies between classical music, repeated piano notes to generate suspense (just like in EYES WIDE SHUT) and typical lounge music for the lighter moments. Indeed it is this film's music which adds a lot to the suspense and atmosphere of the film; that and the beautiful Spanish countryside and the expensive-looking echoey mansion in which much of the action takes place which provide the chills and thrills that this movie is striving for.Things open with a bunch of assorted B-movie types assembling in the dank cellar of a country mansion to re-enact some Marquis de Sade type-behaviour. They are rudely interrupted in their endeavours by a sudden earthquake which, it turns out, was caused by some nuclear explosions. When the men travel to the location village to get supplies, they discover that the populace has turned blind (similar to DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS). One of them can't hack it and ends up shooting down a bunch of blind folk before he himself is killed.Re-assembling back at the mansion, the group are horrified to find themselves the only unhurt survivors in the vicinity. One doctor is so upset that he loses his mind completely and crawls around naked on his hands and knees (a pretty funny moment, it has to be said). A young couple take a car and travel into the village to help the blind people but are attacked and killed - just like like that similar scene in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. After a fairly slow pacing up until now with little action, all hell breaks loose when the blind surround and attack the mansion, quickly forcing their way in by driving a car through the doors. The survivors escape into the cellar and then the countryside after a fire rages out of control. Tensions fray within the group...Although the basic plot is little more than a nicely-packaged rip-off, this movie does have some nice macabre touches to it. In one instance, the blind smash a hole in the ceiling of a room and drop the bloodied corpses of their first victims through! Later on, a black girl is assaulted by a creepy-looking blind beggar (complete with fake stubble) who tears her eyes out in a fit of jealousy! The downbeat ending is again a rip-off, but is surprisingly understated and effective and is a neat precursor to later conspiracy thrillers in which the government is not to be trusted.The acting is pretty good for a change, with all of the cast having fun with their admittedly clichéd roles. The women (including genre stalwart Maria Perschy) are given strong characters for a change and each person is given a specific role to play with no chance of the viewer getting confused between them. Stealing the acting honours again is genre icon Paul Naschy who plays a gun enthusiast. Naschy proves himself to be a tough and powerful member of the group. As a whole his performance just lifts the film. THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK passes the time well, proves to be an interesting adaptation of Matheson's I Am Legend, and, while not one to stay in the mind afterwards, delivers all the chuckles and chills that a fun B-movie should.

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

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

The People Who Own the Dark is about a group of wealthy gentleman who visit a secluded for some kinky sex games with the prostitutes. During the party, they are startled by a huge earthquake from a nuclear disaster which has taken place. They soon discover that survivors from a nearby town are now transformed into wandering blind creatures. They kill a few of the blind survivors due to being scared and unsure. Soon the rest of the blind survivors make their way to the villa to seek revenge. Despite the fact it's an obvious rip-off of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, it still manages to evoke a sense of doom and helplessness throughout the film as each one is killed off by the wandering blind townspeople. Paul Naschy is in prime form as a jerk who's out to save his own skin. It's refreshing to see him play a different role aside from Waldemar Daninsky for once. Maria Perschy (Beyond the Door, Night of the Howling Beast) is also very good as one of the prostitutes. Her acting is what makes this film shine the most. The only thing this film suffers from is a downbeat ending. Fans of Spanish horror or Paul Naschy should enjoy THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK. It's different from other film's in his catalog (namely, the Waldemar Daninisky series.) It is incredibly rare, but I'm sure you can still manage to locate a copy of it on ebay or amazon. It's more than worth the price, despite its downbeat ending.