Horror Rises from the Tomb is a Spanish horror offering written by and
starring Paul Naschy.
In medieval France, an evil conjurer (Paul Naschy) and his
female vampire companion (Helga Liné) are executed by the inquisition after
their depraved activities are revealed by the conjurer's brother (Paul Naschy).
Both of them vow revenge, so his head
is removed, and the head and body are hidden separately.
Cut to the present day, where a man (Paul Naschy), his best friend, and two women become
intrigued by a medium, attend a seance, and try to contact these two ancient
miscreants. They then decide to hunt for the medieval remains, which just happen to be at
an estate owned by one of the modern characters. They find what they are looking for, find themselves
trapped on the estate, and must battle the locals as well as Naschy (ancient
conjurer version) and Helga
Liné, who create zombies to assist them. Most of the deaths are caused by edged
weapons, creating lots of blood.
Naschy was a busy fellow in the early seventies. In addition to writing and
playing three roles in this film, he wrote and starred in seven other films in
1973 alone. In his spare time that year he acted in three more films written by
others. As you can imagine, it is difficult for a screenwriter to create great scripts when
churning out one per month and also working several other jobs. I found this particular one tedious for the most part,
redeemed only by plentiful nudity and some good camera work. The DVD treatment,
however, is thorough.
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If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
