Please don't spend money on this.

Excellent but underrated film

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Note: I've only watched the edited version of this film, and yet, I still enjoyed it. This is one of them Paul Naschy films, which is a name familiar to horror fans, but to be honest this is the first time I've sat down to watch the guy in action, and in this film he plays dual roles.Paul is an evil Count, beheaded in medieval times for Satanism, with his head and torso buried separately. Before getting the chop, Evil Paul puts a curse on everyone involved, as does his wife. Fast forward to the roll neck sweater Seventies, where Good Paul is cynically deriding the superstitions of his mates, who then try to prove evidence of the afterlife with a séance. Bad move. Evil Paul's ghostly head appears and gives away the whereabouts of his body – on Good Paul's family house in the country. Naturally, everyone sets off there to get killed. After getting embroiled in some sort of fight between two criminals and the gun-toting locals (one of the criminals gets a shotgun blast to the face), Good Paul and his crew head to the chalet, where caretaker Garcon and his two daughters reside. It's not before long that the head of Evil Paul is dug up, and, as you would expect, it possesses a local and has him kill and kidnap our victims. While it's missing what seems to be an entire laundry list of gore, the edited version of Horror Rises from the Tomb still managed to keep me hooked. There's simply no boring spots in this film whatsoever. It's creepy to boot, from Evil Paul's head appearing before an artist, causing a painting to bleed, from a well filmed zombie attack, various confrontations with the evil couple and the locals to the final showdown (and demise of one of the heroes, all of a sudden). I can only imagine that the full uncut version would play out like a total classic, so now, obviously, I'm going to have to track that version down. This will do in the meantime.

In 1454, in France, the sorcerer Alaric de Marnac (Paul Naschy) is decapitated and his mistress Mabille De Lancré (Helga Liné) is tortured to death accused of witchcraft, vampirism and lycanthropy. Before they die, they curse the next generations of their executioners. In the present days (in the 70's), Hugo de Marnac (Paul Naschy) and Sylvia (Betsabé Ruiz) and their friends Maurice Roland (Vic Winner) and his beloved Paula (Cristina Suriani) go to a séance session, where they evoke the spirit of Alaric de Marnac. They decide to travel to the Villas de Sade, a real estate of Hugo's family in the countryside, to seek a monastery with a hidden treasure. They find Alaric's head and the fiend possesses them, bringing Mabille back to life and executing the locals in gore sacrifices. After the death of her father, Elvira (Emma Cohen) recalls that he has the Thor's Hammer amulet hidden in a well; together with Maurice, they try to defeat the demoniac Alaric de Marnac and Mabille.Last weekend I bought a box of horror genre with five DVDs of Paul Naschy per US$ 9.98; despite of having no references, I decided to take the chance. The first DVD with the uncut and restored version "Horror Rises from the Tomb" is a trash B (or C) movie that immediately made me recall Ed Wood. The ridiculous story is disclosed through awful screenplay, direction, performances, cinematography, decoration, special effects and edition and with lots of naked women. The result is simply hilarious and I can guarantee that Ed Wood's style is back. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Jacinto Molina, more commonly known as Paul Nasty (err… I mean, Naschy) strikes again with this ultra-bizarre and ultra-deranged Spanish exploitation effort. The script of "Horror Rises from the Tomb" is incoherent as hell, there isn't a single interesting or well-written dialog to be heard, acting & directing are both extremely shabby and the supposedly malevolent witches, zombies and other unidentifiable types of monsters evoke more laughs than scares. And yet, despite all these abnormalities (and more…), "Horror Rises from the Tomb" is a vintage and purely entertaining gem of 70's horror cinema! Naschy wrote the oddball script himself and stars as no less than THREE different descendants of the noble French de Marnac family. During the fairly atmospheric opening set in the 15th Century, we witness how a malicious Alaric (Naschy) and his mistress are brutally executed for practicing witchcraft. Several years later, Hugo (Naschy again) invites three of his friends to join him for a vacation at his ancient family estate somewhere in rural France. Quite a lot of awkward and totally irrelevant things occur, but the bottom line is: Alaric de Marnac's decapitated head is still alive in a chest, buried in the large cemeteries surrounding the estate, and its hypnotizing powers turns people into docile yet bloodthirsty zombies. The film is quite bad and pointless, but at least there's always something going on to entertain you. Whether it's the poor make-up effects on the zombies, the implausible sub plots, the sleaze footage brought on by a couple of fine looking Euro-babes or the ingenious little gimmicks, "Horror Rises from the Tomb" is never boring and never makes you regret the purchase. And who can possibly resist the sequences featuring Naschy's separated head commanding his slaves to bring him human sacrifices and to obey his every word? Take my word on it: the head-in-the-chest scenes are priceless! Some of the interior & exterior filming locations are even very enchanting and beautifully captured on camera. Most neutral viewers will probably claim this is the worst film they've ever encountered in their lives, but it's an absolute must for fans of Paul Naschy and essential 70's Euro-horror.

If you're anything like me, you can't get enough of bad horror movies. While others will mock such favorites as "Jack Frost", "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2", and "The Video Dead", I rewind them and watch again! I wish the same could be said for "El espanto surge de la tumba," or as Americans might know it, "Horror Rises from the Tomb." The movie starts out promising enough. It had the same feel to it as "Anthropophagus: The Grim Reaper" but soon fell very short. Apart from a few well executed death scenes and a somewhat surprising death near the end (though the movie's so drawn out by then, you don't care) "El espanto surge de la tumba" is a stale, yawn fest. I've heard good things about Jacinto Molina, so I hope this isn't the best he has to offer. Highlights of "El espanto surge de la tumba" for those who have seen it* Wow, I didn't know they executed witches like that. * I know him! He was just the...yeah, that's him! * Do you know John Edward? Tell him to kiss my grits! * I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN MY ART TO YOU!! * No one was in that car. I can tell. * What? * Who the hell is she? * Isn't that her father!! Did Woody Allen direct this? * What? * When did this become a soft core porn? * Fire! Fire!! * I honestly didn't see that coming. Too bad this movie sucks. * Little bit like Conan. * Oh wow, it's over. High five!