Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)

Director: Carlos Aured

Starring: Paul Naschy, Emma Cohen, Victor Alcazar, Helga Line, Betsabe Ruiz

More info: IMDb

Plot: In Medieval France a warlock is be-headed and his wife tortured and executed. Hundreds of years later an isolated group of people discover his head buried on their property. Soon it comes back to life, possessing people and using them to commit sacrifices and to search for the rest of his body.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? Nah, there are far too many Eurotrash horror flicks of this era to cover before I hit this on again.


Well here was a nice surprise for a late Saturday night! I loves me some early 70s Eurotrash horror and this did the trick nicely. One thing I like about them is the style, look, the usually Gothic vibe, GREAT locations with lots of castles, lots of blood, violence and nude European broads! What's not to like? The problem that usually plagues these films is that they're slow; and not slow for artistic reasons in telling a proper story. No. Slow because they've got to fill up to 90 minutes which means LOTS of filler. When you've seen a lot of these you start to appreciate them more. That doesn't mean the bad ones get better, they still suck. It's just that the ones that don't suck seem better than they should be. HRftT is one of those pictures.




I don't want to sound like it's a shitty picture except that it's better than a lot in this genre. It's actually pretty good and it's got a lot going for it. For the most part, it doesn't drag like they typically do. It's got the odd slow spot here and there but it doesn't come to a screeching halt and the slow bits are very brief. That's really what sets this apart from the others. It's got some nice lighting, WONDERFUL makeup effects (which is better than what this genre is used to) and, naturally, lots of beautiful European gals running around with no clothes on.




The story is very simple and requires no thinking but it's a visual experience and not something you'll strap on the reading glasses and pipe for. The dubbing wasn't too obnoxious but the music certainly was. Carmelo A. Bernaola's organ score was shameful. He phoned it in. This was likely due to budget issues but what's there is pretty bad. Other than that I quite liked it. I really don't need to see it again as there are tons of these flicks out there to see and my list of things to watch is over 10,000 at this point. At 250 movies a year it'll be 40 years before I'm done. I'd better step up my game.