THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK (1976)

[The Burgomaster]

This has been on my "Paul Naschy movies I still need to see" list for awhile.  I finally watched it Friday night and was disappointed.

The story involves a group of men paying to play sex-fantasy games with women at an elaborate villa.  While they are all in the basement, a nuclear war breaks out.  The men and women in the villa are unharmed.  However, the survivors in a nearby town are all blinded by the flash of the explosion.

The villa folks decide to go into the town to gather canned food and then hunker down in the villa before the radiation reaches them.  They end up killing one of the blind people, causing the other blind people from the town to seek revenge.

* WARNING:  SPOILERS AHEAD *

Somehow, the people who can see have a heck of a time avoiding the blind townfolk.  In one scene, the group from the villa attempts to escape across a vast, open field, but the slow-moving blind people (who are aimlessly swinging canes and sticks) manage to capture and kill most of them!

During the ludicrous end sequence, the only two villa survivors are picked up by government guys wearing radiation suits.  They bring the survivors onto a bus with a bunch of other people and tell them they will be taken to a decontamination site.  Instead, the government guys release poisonous gas through the air vents in the bus and all the poor citizens die!  Then they dump the bodies in a big pit with a bunch of other corpses and cover the hole with dirt!  The end!

Note:  You can watch the final 10 minutes of this movie on YouTube (if you must).

[Jack]

I mostly watch those Naschy movies for the atmosphere, but yeah, this one sounds like something to miss lol.

[The Burgomaster]

I mostly watch those Naschy movies for the atmosphere, but yeah, this one sounds like something to miss lol.

Naschy isn't even the star of this movie.  He's one of the stars.  But he isn't "the" star.

[Skull]

This is one of those Paul Naschy movies on my hit list for years... The review does make lots of sense since the story is made before the Mad Max hype, even before Damnation Alley (1977)...

The blind plot seem to tell me this story is inspired by The Day of the Triffids (1962) [sort of] and your review seem to verify my thoughts...

Last 10 mins on youtube...

[The Burgomaster]

Also, notice how they Anglicized the names in the movie poster I attached to my original comments.  For example, "MARIA PERSHING" is really "MARIA PERSCHY" and I believe "PAUL MACKEY" is supposed to be "PAUL NASCHY."  Interesting that they would Anglicize his already Anglicized name.  So, they went from "JACINTO MOLINA" to "PAUL NASCHY" to "PAUL MACKEY".  Talk about a triple-whammy of confusion!

[lester1/2jr]

I love reading film reviews that are like "I've been wanting to see this for 30 years. I finally did and was disapointed."

[The Burgomaster]

I love reading film reviews that are like "I've been wanting to see this for 30 years. I finally did and was disapointed."

That's what many of mine say . . .