Ever wanted to see Paul Naschy shoot clay pigeons? Look no further than The People Who Own the Dark, a superior nuclear holocaust thriller from under-appreciated director Leon Klimovsky. Naschy plays Bourn, a military officer who joins several other men at a remote château for a night of depraved debauchery with a group of five beautiful women (one of whom is played by Maria Perschy). Just as the film threatens to head into Jess Franco territory, however, it takes a 180-degree turn when a nuclear explosion damages the house and knocks out the power. Now our group of de Sade wannabes are faced with the greatest challenge of all: surviving the radioactive fallout that's inexorably heading their way--and to make matters worse, the residents of the nearest town have all been blinded as a result of the explosion and have developed some disturbing, zombie-like tendencies. The original Spanish-language version of this film is apparently twelve minutes longer than the English-dubbed cut, but good luck finding it. Presumably the early scenes involving Lenin and Marx make more sense in the uncut version. Then again, maybe not.
Review of The People Who Own the Dark
