Night of the Seagulls

The fourth and last outing for Amando de Ossorio's eyeless Templars, and a moodier, sadder film than the reputation of a fourth sequel suggests. A doctor and his wife take a posting in a bleak fishing village that turns its back on them, because every seven years the locals hand young women over to the dead knights who ride up out of the sea, and the screaming gulls wheeling over the bay are said to be the souls of the sacrificed. The Templars themselves remain the best monster design of the decade, still hunting by sound, still riding in that unhurried slow motion. De Ossorio winds the series down on coastal desolation rather than spectacle, and it suits them. A quieter film than the earlier three, and the right note to close the series on.