Horror Rises from the Tomb (1975)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Just so...so bad

Better Late Then Never

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Be prepared for: Long, drawn out scenes with blaring organ music on top, really bad acting, really bad makeup, and hilarious death scenes. There is the odd moment of genuine entertainment and fun peppered throughout, but it's awfully tough to wade through the movie for them. It's a stream of boredom, predictability, confusion, and at times hilarity. I would rename this "Horror Very Slowly Rises from the Tomb to Loud Organ Music". If you like old, Gothic horror. You'll probably get a kick out of it. If you're looking for witchcraft and the occult to be center stage, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. In this movie, the warlock and his concubine are just a couple of stock villains cast to be the baddies. The movie did have a few moments where I said, "Ok. That was cool." That and the unintentional hilarious scenes that made me laugh out loud are what gets this movie 3/10 instead of 1 from me. I really don't want to see this again, though.

HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB is another superior slice of Spanish Gothic horror from director Paul Naschy, here teaming up with director Carlos Aured, his second-best director behind Leon Klimovsky. It's another lurid tale, one about a 15th century warlock and his wife who are captured by the authorities and executed on the spot. The narrative then shifts to the modern day, where the warlock's head is dug up and a string of grisly murders unfold.Everything to be known and loved about Spanish horror is present in this film. It's chock full of practical gore effects which have hardly aged since the release, and also packed with nudity from the various starlets, not least Helga Line, one of Spain's finest scream queens (for more of her work check out the excellent HORROR EXPRESS). Best of all it has a great and spooky atmosphere to see it through. Naschy once again shines in a dual role, and his villain in this one really stands out as a horrific fellow. It's simplistic stuff for sure, but when the elements of film-making are this effective it doesn't matter at all.

Horrible sound effects accompany this miserable and bloody gore-fest that starts off interesting enough but resorts to extremely disgusting visuals to move the story forward. Starting off in the 15th century, the back plot has a warlock and his wife being executed for their crimes against God, and five centuries later they are back thanks to the discovery of the warlock's head that forces modern day people into zombies and to turn to dismembering others for their hearts which ultimately brings back the original warlock to life. Bizarre modern subplots including the presence of a cult of demons hanging people in the middle of the road don't seem to be related and seem present more for shock value than of any use to the plot. Excessively bloody and deeply disturbing, this is almost unbearable to watch. I say that not as someone who is against anything satanic in nature in movies, but through the way that this is presented. I had a headache half an hour into the film because of the annoyingly awful sound, and after the 4th or 5th gory murder which follows with people literally having their hearts cut out with a machete then others set on fire, I just was plainly annoyed. This is just impossible to watch. I have seen many of these late 1960s and early 1970s Eurotrash horror films that combine sex and degradation with a satanic plot, and a few of them are mildly enjoyable. Of course, the gratuitous sex scene ends up being pointless, more sadomasochistic than arousing. This one other than some interesting art direction and of course the historical setting up left me wanting it to end long before it did.

"Rises From the Tomb" was made back in 1973 but it sat for about a decade until someone finally bought the rights to the film and subsequently released it to video. Because of the quality of the film and because it sat so long (like Ed Wood's "Night of the Ghouls"), I would advise you not to expect very much.The film begins with a tiny bit of gratuitous nudity and violence. A warlock is beheaded and his bride is stripped and killed. Centuries later, his severed head has returned (much like "They Saved Hitler's Brain") and is looking for revenge. And, like the GOOD film "The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism", the head re-attaches itself and goes off looking to commit evil. Now between the first killing and the appearance of the head, the film seems to go on forever and not much of any consequence occurs. It's pretty dull stuff. The talking severed head is at least funny--especially when they try to hide that it's just some guy sticking his head up through a box! Oddly, once the head makes its appearance, lots of ladies start stripping off their clothes...a lot. It goes from a dull horror film to a soft-core porn film with cheesy direction and REALLY cheesy organ music--and a lot of very red blood. Now some of the violence is a bit well done (such as the ribcage scene), but most of it, too, is pure cheese. It comes off less as shocking--more as just sadly done and a bit sadistic. So is the film worth watching? Well, perhaps if you are a bad movie fan and could use a good laugh. Or, if you want an excuse to see lots of very naked women. But if you want a film that is good, then keep looking. It's awfully stupid. Personally, I think I just wasted about 90 minutes of my life! By the way, the captions don't exactly agree with the dubbing--sometimes it isn't very close. Perhaps you'll want to turn off the captions, as this can be a bit distracting.