Customer Reviews

Horror Rises from the Tomb

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

First of all, I am the type of person that likes to view rare and obscure horror flicks, hence why I bought Horror Rises From the Tomb on a whim. I was totally surprised by the DVD when it arrived. First of all, its a two disc set with three versions of the movie! The first disc contains the international uncut version in Full Screen and a version called the "Clothed" version in Widescreen. The "Clothed" version is easily the best looking of the three version and looks really crisp for a 30+ year old relatively unknown film. Unlike the "uncut" version, the "clothed" version actually contains alternate sequences that have many of the nude women "clothed", and also contains some alternate edits to cut down on the nudity. The "uncut" international version contains all the gore and nudity, but the negative doesn't look near as good as the "cloth" version. It's still easily worth having. The second disc contains yet a third version of the film which is a full screen transfer fo the U.S. cut release. This is easily the worst as it cuts out all the nudity and gore and the negative looks absolutly terrible. There is also a slew of extras included on the second disc including still gallaries, trailers, and bios. All this came housed in a double keep case that slipped nicely in a cardboard slipcase. I was totally blown away that such an obscure film would get released so nicely on DVD, since more popular movies by bigger distributors usually are unleashed in bare bone releases. If your a fan of rare Euro horror flicks such as Tombs Of The Blind Dead and The Beyond, then you will not be disappointed by this DVD release. If Child's Play 3 and Freddy Vs. Jason are what you consider to be difinitive horror films, then Horror Rises From the Tomb won't be your cup of tea.

Horror rises from the tomb is one of the greatest Spanish horror films to date. I recommend watching the uncut european version that this DVD collection provides. All of Naschy's horror films are reminicent of the old Universal and Hamer horror films, except they usually have more gore and nudity. Horror rises from the tomb is no exception.

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.

Another Paul Naschy Spanish horror. This time it is a super gory witchcraft horror. This one delivers the gore and nudity like no other Naschy movie. You will need a strong stomach. Naschy is a devil with a woman who gets naked a lot and rips out,cuts,and eats hearts,necks,etc. He is brought back to life (he was killed many years earlier in the opening scene) from his ancestor(also Naschy) & a few friends. Not to be a spoiler but all the heroes surprisingly died in this. Somehow whats left of our heroes are able to beat Naschy the Devil - but Evil seemed very triumphant here. There are several versions on DVD, BCI Deimos has the best print, it is uncut, with all the nude scenes and gore intact. Better transfer than Mondo Macabro uncut transfer. The music sounds like a General Hospital soap opera. BCI Deimons is the release to get. I would say check this out if you like Lucio Fulci films,like Paul Naschy movies and The Blind Dead series and you have the stomach for this one. It is a good movie, but pretty damn gory.

This is my favorite Naschy flick. It's a total boobfest, in every sense of the term. It splices together every Eurohorror cliche (including some choice topless scenes and bad dubbing) into a really fun mess! Example: On the way to a remote castle, our heros are stopped in their cars by a group of highwaymen who intend to rob them. BUT a group of vigilantes from the town catch up with the robbers at that moment, hanging them from a near-by tree. Feeling awkward, our heros leave, continuing towards the castle. This scene doesn't appear to relate to anything else in the movie. Bunuel would have been proud of Carlos Aured.

Negative five stars!

I really like this movie; it's everything a Paul Naschy movie should be. However, I feel burned by purchasing this dvd. They were nice enough to include three versions of the movie on this s disc set: The first being the "clothed" version of the film, which is wide screen and transferred beautifully but has different scenes than the classic international release, most of the nudity gone from this version - not that it's the most important thing, but come on, it's a Paul Naschy movie; the second being the "uncut" version, which is the really good version of the film, with nudity and violence intact, this version is in full-frame format and the transfer to dvd is almost unnoticable, you could be watching a video-tape of it; and finally, the third version is the US theatrical cut which is sans all the violence and nudity that make this movie what it is.
I just really wish they had put the real international version in widescreen, along with a great transfer, as opposed to doing that for a tamer and less true version of the film. The good news is that there is now an international version with a dvd of it's own and an apparently great transfer. It also has two audio tracks, unlike this one - which makes you suffer through overdubbing - which I think helps amp up the experience of watching a Spanish Horror Movie.
In regards to the film: it's certainly a piece of "Euro-Shock" history and an important piece of cinema (as far as I'm concerned). While the acting may be bad, and the sets are often really poorly made, the truth is that there is a pure beauty in this type of film making and Horror Rises From the Tomb is able to come across as a great piece of art (whether it wants to or not, and whether most people are willing to admit it or not) that deserves to be watched.
As a side note, many aspects of Paul Naschy's movies - and specifically HRFTT - come across nearly as surreal and marvelous as Brazil's Coffin Joe, maybe not as surreal, not as artful, but that aspect is here.

In HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB, Paul Naschy stars as a man named Hugo who is tormented by his ancient, eeevil ancestor (Naschy again) and his malevolent mistress (the ever-lovely Helga Liné). HRFTT contains zombies, sorcery, decapitation, vigilante justice, bare-handed heart removal, trances, a talisman, full-frontal nudity, and all of the myriad things that help to make this world a better place. Naschy is especially sinister in his dark role, while Liné has wickedness down to a fine art. While not the best movie ever made, HRFTT is certainly a jawdropper in spots, and a bloody barrel of fun througout...

In 1972, horror legend Paul Naschy wrote and starred in "Horror Rises From the Tomb." Though it was very low budget (written in less than two days and shot at the home of Naschy's parents), this Spanish film became an international success.

Naschy stars in a dual role; he is the Medieval warlock Alaric De Marnac who is beheaded and his ancestor Hugo De Marnac. Hugo and his three friends travel to his ancestral home where they encounter superstitious peasants and vigilante justice. Possessed by the spirits of Alaric, the friends unwittingly help the warlock and his priestess lover Mabille De Lancré to become flesh and blood. Soon, throughout the sleepy mountain countryside and nearby village, throats are slashed and hearts are ripped from their chests as the two fiends satiate their hunger. Hugo's one surviving friend, Maurice Roland, attempts to send Alaric and Mabille back to their graves before their power becomes unstoppable.

There are lots of gory killings. Unfortunately, the special effects could've been better. It was obvious that latex rubber was being torn rather than flesh when the hearts were being ripped from their bodies. The transformation of the skeleton into Mabille was extremely poor, and silly.

"Horror Rises from the Tomb" is definitely a creature feature of gothic horror. There is a warlock, his vampire lover, and a slew of zombies. There are also coffins, an underground burial crypt, and chains. The body count is rather high . . and I love a high body count. (You probably already know this from reading my other horror movie reviews.) "Horror Rises from the Tomb" is a must see for fans of gothic horror and Paul Naschy.

Horror Rises from the Tomb (Carlos Aured, 1973)

Carlos Aured and Paul Naschy's fourth and final collaboration is roughly what one expects from a seventies horror film from Spain-- a jumbled mess that exists solely as a vehicle for basement-budget unrealistic gore effects and, at times, copious female nudity. None of which makes up for the meandering plot, the bad acting, the even worse dubbing (if there's a subtitled version of this, I've not managed to find it; the DVD, rented from Blockbuster Online, gave no options for changing audio language or providing subtitles), and all the myriad other problems with this film.

The main plot concerns a fifteenth-century warlock, Alaric de Marnac (Naschy), who, along with his assistant/lover Elvira (Emma Cohen), is killed by the inquisition. Fast-forward to present day, when de Marnac's descendant Hugo (also played by Naschy) and some friends head up to the old family estate-- only to be haunted by the ghost of Alaric, who will not rest easy until his head is reunited with his body. Or so he says. You know better, right? There are a rather astounding number of subplots as well, but that's the main story.

This was played up to me as a zombie film, and to be fair, there are about five minutes' worth of really bad zombie-acting, so if you're a zombie movie completist, you've got to get your hands on this one. Also, the script does manage for each leading lady to appear sans clothing at least once, and they're all quite attractive; if that's enough to carry a movie for you, this might work. But if you're looking for a solid plot, well-written characters, decent special effects, or anything else that constitutes a good movie, you should give this one a pass. It's stupidly (and unintentionally) funny in places, and might make for a good drinking game, but as a piece of horror cinema, it fails miserably. * ½