There is some controversy surrounding this film. It was/is a Paul Naschy horror film, but in a strange turnaround, he is not in it.
He asked his friend Hammer director John Gilling to direct. It was Gilling's last film. He did it while he was on vacation in Spain.
Naschy was supposed to star, but Gilling fired him and hired someone else to do rewrites. Naschy still gets writing credits as he wrote the screenplay.
So much for friendship.
Writer Alfred Dawson (Ramiro Oliveros, who was brought in to replace Naschy) is having horrible dreams after smoking hashish. I've had those same dreams after drinking Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend very late at night.
For a horror film, it gets a slow start, absent the dreams. It's more like a telenovela until the very end. You can certainly see the British influence in what is supposed to be a Spanish film.
I have to say that Ines (Silvia Vivó) was a real tease. I kept hoping we would have something to cheer, but she died before we could. Her career was mostly TV, so we will never know what we missed.
The film really doesn't get interesting until the end, when the zombie Templars appear. We are left wondering if there was a real evil or if it was a drug-induced fantasy. Certainly, there was no doubt who killed his sister. I can't imagine a more evil character then Adolfo Marsillach.
No gore, no nudity. It was strictly a TV film.
