Horror Rises from the Tomb (1972)

Scotland Yard begins an investigation that is so terrifying in its outcome it nearly brings the venerable organization to its knees. It begins with the inquiry into the murder of a young girl and soon evolves into a case surrounding a long forgotten crime a madman and zombies.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 787364716395 Product Description

Naschy Rises in my Brain.

I'll go on record and say that out of all the Naschy films I've seen this one I like. It is a king schlock fest- satanic-zombie dead hoot. True..it borders on ludicrous. But so do most of his films. But every once in a while,like many of the 60's-70's Spanish horror maestros',you get one that's great for whatever your personal tastes require. I thought this film was a gas. Too bad to say excellent, but bad enough to say It's good. It has satanists risen from the tomb,flying heads,Spanish squeezable cuties,cryptic castles,possession,murder,torture and old organ dirges. Praise to Paul Naschy for this one. Love it. May 22, 2008

crisp transfer of a Spanish classic

First of all, this is clearly not a film for anyone looking for an intelligent and well accomplished work of art. Not even for funs looking for a good horror film among other types of movies. This is a good representative of Spanish B horror, with lots of nudity and very RED blood all over the place. So, forget about acting, a logical script, or good connection between scenes. All that said, the film is still entertaining and a "must" for horror hobbists. Technically, the transfer is simply excellent, with English and Spanish audio options, in a widescreen format. May 19, 2008

A review from a Naschy fan

HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB (HRFTT, from here on out) is one of Paul Naschy's superb entries in European horror. It is a totally, 100% unique brew that was created in a feverish night of speed and no sleep...and it does indeed show! Naschy, known more for his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf pictures, creates another iconic character that has more in common with the classic Universal horror film of the 30s and 40s than with other Euro-horror films of the era (the 70s). No, there are no black-gloved mysterious killers stalking women through Italian (or, in this case, Spanish) streets. Here in HRFTT is a Alaric du Marnac, a warlock who dabbles in a bit of this and that (vampirism, black magic, necromancy, cannibalism, etc) who was influenced by the real Frenchman, Gilles de Rais -- a purported child murderer and who knows what else for sure. Truly, du Marnac is about as evil of a character you will ever find in any horror film of the last 50 years; no sense of conscience, he exists purely for the seeking of pleasure for himself and his mistress, Mabille du Lancre (played by the beautiful Helga Line). Naschy plays du Marnac with such sincerity and charisma, he seems to have channelled the magic of Karloff, Lugosi and Chaney while still making this character his own. The other actors should be commended as well, including Line, Emma Cohen and Vic Winner; all give superb performances for what many might just write off as another cheesy Euro-exploitation movie.

I don't want to give away too much about the film itself, since it really is unique. But, I will say this film involves just about every evil, dark thing imaginable -- thanks to Naschy's fevered mind during the creation of the script. You'll see everything from plain old carjackings all the way up to the living dead to odd colors to mist floating around so many scenes, not to mention the evil-doings du Marnac was known for.

The print used by BCI/Deimos is incredible. It blows away all other versions ever seen, probably even theatrically speaking. The colors blaze out of the screen, the details are so crisp it truly is amazing. The sound is lovely too; the score is very unique, almost like an organ score from an older silent film (though, more experimental). It features two language tracks (Eng & Span) plus a wonderful commentary track from Paul Naschy and Carlos Aured. The extras are various as well -- trailers, alternate scenes, stills, and insightful linernotes written by Mirek Lipinski.

This entire line of BCI/Deimos' Naschy & Spanish releases really raise the bar for Euro-horror releases. BCI/Deimos should be awarded honors for taking these films seriously and giving them the royal treatment. January 18, 2008

Poorly Conceived Horror Spectacle

It has been widely reported that Naschy took but a week to turn in his script for this badly contrived horror piece. It shows. Though the central idea of an evil warlock and his accomplice rising from the dead to wreak their vengeance isn't bad (though hardly original), the resulting screenplay is a travesty of badly pieced together ideas. It starts with two "swinging couples" choosing an old family castle for a getaway and progresses from there VERY slowly to the reincarnation of the evil warlock. Things pick up quite a bit from this point, but they also get more convoluted with the head warlock and his accomplice hypnotizing the humans in the cast to basically kill each other. Zombies make their appearance late in the game, completely arbitrarily, and their actions have little to do with the main "plot". I am a Naschy fan, but have to admit to being very disappointed with this mishmash. The few good points to this include the frequent nudity of the admittedly beautiful women in the cast and outstanding color photography. Extras on the disk are nothing special and include but a very brief, hammy, and not very entertaining introduction from Naschy.

If you want an introduction to Naschy's peculiar brand of Euro Horror, I suggest you start out with any of his werewolf vehicles here on Amazon. The ones available from Anchor Bay Entertainment or BCI are all given first rate presentations. January 15, 2008

Horror Rises but no for long

The new BCI DVD of "Horror Rises From The Tomb" is a revelation. Fully uncut and in widescreen, the movie has never looked so good. Sadly, while it glows in the glory of stunning picture and sound, the film itself comes up a bit short. But that's not to say it isn't fun. The story involves a medieval warlock named Alaric and his lover who are executed and buried for their evil crimes. In the present day, two couples, one of whom is a descent of the original wizard, decide to search for the bodies and dig them up (for reasons I cannot quite remember), which of course leads to dire consequences for all. What initially impressed me was the stunning prologue, beautifully filmed on a windswept plain somewhere, but this was immediately followed by a shift into the present day where two modern, beautiful, swinging couples spend far too long having dull conversations and generally wasting running time before the evil ancestor is finally dug up and (surprise, surprise) rejuvenated. Before the re-appearance of the warlock, the film sags miserably, so don't be surprised if you find your attention wandering. I have seen this film twice and on both occasions I lose interest in the film totally during this part.

Things get going again around the halfway mark and things benefit by the appearance of Naschy (again) as Alaric and the statuesque Helga Line as the revived mistress. But the film never really kicks into top gear, and I think this leaden first half is partly to blame. Paul Naschy does his best as usual but none of the four main characters are interesting, and the blonde woman in particular is an appallingly bad actress. And if you're expecting lots of gore filled action, you might be disappointed. A lot of the effects in the film are pretty bad, and many are just "materializations" or hypnosis scenes done with coloured lights. There is a bit of gore, most notably an amazing scene in which Helga Line tears a man's chest open with her fingernails and pulls his heart out (!), and there are a few other fun bits, such as the return of some of the recently murdered victims as undead attackers. This had the potential to be a great highlight of the film, as the dead bodies seem to reside in a lake during the day and rise at night, and the make up for them is truly ghoulish. Unfortunately it's treated in a very throwaway fashion, and because the plot is so weak it doesn't really make that much sense, but at least the film is a bit more exciting during the short sequence when they attack a house. Proof that this scene is wasted is clear from the amount of promotional material that uses images of these zombies, in particular the girl on the cover of this BCI DVD cover - a gruesome sight that you'll sadly have trouble spotting clearly in the film itself

As the film plods onwards, too much time is spent on the warlock's rather dull ability to hypnotize some characters and make them his slaves. This is obviously a very cheap effect as they just have to walk around menacing each other blankly, although in the case of the hopeless blonde actress it's a positive bonus, as her performance improves immensely once she stops talking! There's also a very weak idea involving an amulet that can repel the evil wizard, and once this is found he switches rather drastically from indestructible to a complete pushover and the film winds up rather rapidly from this point onwards. For all these reasons I find the film ultimately rather unsatisfying, which disappointed me because having only the previously released poor copies of it, I thought the BCI version was going to reveal it's full glory, but it actually achieved the opposite and showed it up as a rather ineffective mish mash of different ideas. There are some great shots and images but the plot and script pretty much undermine all the good visual atmosphere.

The BCI version comes with both Spanish and English soundtracks, but the Spanish one sounds very tinny compared with the full bodied English one, so I stuck with that one, which of course never helps! There's also some bonus material in the form of a gallery and a great collection of alternate "clothed" sequences for a lot of shots, but the main feature itself contains the full nudity versions of all these scenes, so you won't have to feel you are missing anything with the main version! Plus it has that fantastic cover. December 13, 2007

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