User reviews

Dark Ages , two witches are condemned for murdering and witchery ; they are executed by the authorities , as Alaric De Marnac (Paul Naschy) is beheaded and Mabille De Lancre (Helga Line) is hung , while Alaric pronounces a curse against their future heirs . Modern time , the descendants ( Vic Winnner , Jacinto Molina Cristina Suriani )decide , subsequently a spiritualism season , go to the castle and lands their ancestors . Several centuries later , both of whom are relived by treasure diggers (Luis Ciges) . Then , Alaric and Mabille continue a murderous rampage .

This terrifying exploitation picture displays creepy horror ,witchcraft, grisly killing, satanism and lots of blood . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story in which sorceresses are brought to life undergoing a cruel slaughter . Lots of blood and gore in several images that impacted the viewers for that time . This tale about a group who is attacked by some malevolent living dead begins well and grows more and more until the frightening and ghastly finale . Revolting, horrible scenes and nasty images take place on cannibal scenes , decapitation , a heart pulled up , and bloody murders with ax and scythe .The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato and is occasionally an engaging horror movie full of nasty sequences , witchery , beheading , and several other things . Sensationalistic and exaggerated performance of Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina , here he plays three characters. This is the first time that appears Zombies in Spanish cinema, exception to Amando De Ossorio's Templar living dead . Good make-up that lasted nine hours each Zombie-session by Julian Ruiz and well filmed in the mansion of Lozoya whose owners were the Naschy's fathers. It packs a colorful cinematography by Manuel Merino and atmospheric score by Carmelo Bernaola .The late Naschy was a good professional , writing, filmmaking and acting about hundred titles , mainly in terror genre. ¨Exorcismo¨ is written by Molina along with 21 screenplays as ¨Mark of Wolfman¨, ¨Night of Walpurgis¨, ¨Vengeance of the mummy¨, ¨Licantropo¨, among them . He directed 13 films as ¨The Cantabros¨, ¨Return of Wolfman¨, ¨The Beast and the magic sword¨ and several others.

This is the first production realized by Profilmes - the Spanish Hammer- whose chairmen , Ricardo Muñoz and Jose Antonio Perez Giner assigned to Jacinto Molina the writing a rapid screenplay , Nashcy wrote it in two days and as was born the ¨Horror rises from the tomb ¨. Ten years later , Naschy goes back with the Alaric De Marnac role in the film titled ¨Latidos De Panico¨ that acted , produced , wrote and directed in thriller style . The picture is regularly directed by Carlos Aured who was a director assistant to Leon Klimovsky ; this is his first movie and he would on filming for Jacinto Molina as the ¨Revenge of the mummy , House of the Doom , and Return of Walpugis ¨ . Rating: 5,5 . The flick will appeal to Jacinto Molina fans and Euroterror buffs .

France, the middle of the 15th century: wicked sorcerer Alaric de Marnac (Paul Naschy) and his mistress Mabille de Lancré (Helga Liné) are sentenced to death, having been denounced by Alaric's brother Armand (Paul Naschy) and friend Andre Roland (Vic Winner). Before the evil couple are executed, they place a curse on those who damned them, and all of their descendants. Centuries later, Hugo de Marnac (Naschy), his friend Maurice Roland (Winner), and their girlfriends Sylvia (Betsabé Ruiz) and Paula (Cristina Suriani) attend a séance where they successfully raise the spirit of Alaric and learn the whereabouts of his body and severed head. Stupidly, the foursome travel to the location to see if they can find Alaric's remains, but underestimate the dead sorcerer's power.

Based on the review in my trusty Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror, I fully expected Horror Rises from the Tomb to be an entertaining, gore-drenched helping of classic 70s Euro-horror, with a smattering of sex on the side; imagine my disappointment when I discovered the film, part of my Mill Creek 50 film 'Pure Terror' box set, to be a splatter-free snooze-fest of epic proportions, worth a rating of no more than 2/10 (for the gorgeous women, none of whom bared any flesh).

Surmising that something was amiss, I rummaged through my vast collection of movies and unearthed another copy of the film which soon confirmed my suspicions: the Mill Creek version was severely mutilated, shorn of all nudity or gore. My other copy—uncensored, with all of the blood and sex intact—proved a much more enjoyable affair, as I originally expected it to be. This time there was no shortage of gore—including cheesy be-headings and hearts being torn out—and all of the beautiful babes shed their clothes, meaning that I now rate the film a very reasonable 6/10—a whole 4 points more than the cut version. It's amazing what a difference blood and boobs can make.

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.

The living head of a minion of Satan put to death centuries ago is unearthed. A nightmare ensues for a group of people as the head sets forth to reunite with it's body.

Sadly, most people in this world will never know the immense joy that this film can bring...but for the luckier few of us, this zany little Gothic horror picture delivers the goods with the very best of them. How can one go wrong with cackling disembodied heads, graphic scythe murders, zombie mayhem, and luscious babes roaming the night in their sheerest Frederick's of Hollywood naughties? Grand entertainment, as only the Europeans of the 1970s could create, and an absolute must-see for fans of crazed drive-in culture...there's not a single frame of the film which doesn't look like it was ripped straight from the pages of a Golden-Age horror comic book, and hooray for that.

Rates a solid 7 out of 10 as I see it.

I initially thought that Horror Rises from the Tomb was a Hammer horror movie, it's almost indistinguishable in fact.

Instead it's a Spanish feature, during the time Spain was known for fantastic array of horror movies especially zombie ones. Alas this is most certainly not one of them.

It tells the story of a pair of witches....lycanthropes...vampires....somethings who are excecuted for their crimes. Cut forward to the 1970's and they're back, and there are some crappy looking zombies in there as well for some reason and erm.....well it's all a big ol' mess.

The plot is an inchorent cluster of nonsense and stupidity, the performances are poor even by the days standards and it honestly doesn't really have anything going for it at all.

Poorly written, poorly constructed, this is one to go out of your way to avoid.

The Good:

I liked it from "The End" onwards

The Bad:

Tacky soundtrack

Disjointed plot

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If you took a Hammer horror movie blended it with a Blind Dead film, removed the skeletons, the production values, and every level of competence you'd have Horror Rises from the Tomb.

OK, I love Paul Naschy, and I love Eurotrash from the 70s. So, if I appear biased in my review, it is unintentional and my exuberance over the genre may be affecting me.

We see de Marnac, Naschy plays all three de Marnac characters, beheaded in the beginning (the 15th century), along with his female companion (Helga Liné). They vow to return for vengeance. We then jump to the modern day.

The current de Marnac decides to travel to the family estate to explore some superstitious nonsense. Now, I imagine that the family estate is not well heated, but that didn't matter as all the young women in the film either wore very flimsy nightgowns or slept nude. You can imagine the treat.

The Gothic music throughout added to the terror.

When the evil de Marnac and his mistress awaken, we see lots of full frontal and lots of blood and gore, too. Then, we get zombies! Only one person walks away in the end.

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

Paul Naschy exchanges his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf persona for that of medieval occultist Alaric De Marnac (which he would play again, years later, in PANIC BEATS [1983]) and that of his modern-day descendant Hugo, resulting in one of his most eclectic scripts taking in witchcraft, spiritualism, a powerful amulet, a scythe-wielding killer and a horde of zombies, among others - all of which are rather jumbled together without much consideration for logic, but it does make for a colorful and thrill-packed show. However, as is often the case with this type of film, the languid pace coupled with variable acting and the awkward dubbing also entails that HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB comes off as an uneven - but, ultimately, not disagreeable - viewing experience.

The film positively drips with atmosphere right from the opening sequence - set in 15th century France and showing Alaric's execution along with his mistress/associate, played by Helga Line - down to the couple's modern-day come-uppance during the busy climax which takes place in de Marnac's remote estate. Other notable moments include: the seance during which Alaric is invoked by Hugo; the individual scenes in which the evil duo are revived, made possible by discreet use of (rather unsophisticated) special effects but which still manage to get the job done nicely; their stylized seduction of one of the girls who tags along with the latest member of the de Marnac family (who ostensibly travels to the castle in order to prove that his ancestor's evil influence is no more); and, of course, the various gory murders and zombie attacks which pepper the film's running time.

Featured in the cast, a staple of "Euro-Cult" cinema, is a bevy of beautiful ladies who are often seen lounging in various states of undress: Helga Line makes quite an impression as the villainous Mabille, but my favorite remains Emma Cohen (later star of one of Jess Franco's best films, the psychological thriller THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MIRROR [1973]) who exhibits sweetness and vulnerability in equal measures throughout - while also serving as Hugo's requisite love interest - and, by the film's end, is actually the sole survivor (albeit emotionally scarred, as can be witnessed from the final shot) of the mayhem.

This and THE CRAVING (1980; see below) have certainly made me game to check out some more Paul Naschy flicks. What would you experts recommend that I try next?

This movie starts out with an execution of a practitioner of witchcraft and his mistress. His head is chopped off and buried separately of his body...sounds like "The Thing that wouldn't die" doesn't it? Well it does play out a little like that, but once the body is reunited with the head, all the interesting and gruesome deaths are done and the movie moves very slowly. I mean the movie is only 88 minutes long and I kept thinking "When is it going to end"? The characters in the movie are idiots for the most part and they pretty much deserve to die for being really stupid. The villain is also very bad as he is slow moving and really you wonder how he manages to do anything considering he is afraid of jewelery. The only thing to keep you watching after the head is reattached is the fact that there are so many boobs being flashed that you really begin to lose track. Still I want to see a horror movie, not a soft core porn flick and as a horror movie it is way to slow moving with way to many slow stretches to be even somewhat enjoyable. And don't read the back of the box as it made it out like there were flesh eating zombies attacking the town, there isn't...only a small scene where three or four zombies attack a house and are so easily repelled they are not a factor in the movie at all and their scene is rather pointless. So for the most part I say you should avoid this movie unless you come across it for really cheap.

I was so excited to come across this little gem (well, to me at least). I bought a $9.99 4 movie DVD set offered by Brentwood Home Video. Since then I have

seen this DVD sold for $14.99 just for the single movie, so I got a good deal. If you are reading a review about such an obscure film then most likely you are a fan of 1970s "Euro-trash". In that case, you will have fun with this movie. If your idea of an obscure horror movie is Freddie Vs. Jason, then you are looking at the wrong reviews. This has everything you would want in a 1970s Euro trash

flick- cheap gore, boobies, and badly dubbed in english; I love this stuff!

So if you are a collector of such fine cinema, then check this one out, I think you will enjoy...

"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.

In the Middle Ages, a man is hanged for performing an incredible long list of Satanic acts. He is hanged and his body is buried away from his head. In the future (the 1970s), the new owner of the land is a skeptic and does not believe in psychics. So he attends a séance, and then to disprove that she spoke to the dead sorcerer, they seek out the head where she claims it was buried. This, of course, is a bad idea.

This is the first of many collaborations between Naschy and director Carlos Aured; it was also the first time Aured took over full directing duties after being assistant to León Klimovsky. Paul Naschy wrote the story and had the script rushed out in about two days while he was pumped full of amphetamines. According to Naschy, this hurry was requested by producer José Antonio Pérez Giner, who needed a script immediately in order to create a production company.

Some say the film seems to have been inspired by Will Cowan's "The Thing That Couldn't Die" (1958). Naschy never confirmed or denied this, but rather pointed to Luis Bunuel's "Exterminating Angel" (1962) as an influence. He also took inspiration from the historical serial killer Gilles de Rais, a figure who would return in Naschy's "Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll" (1974) the following year.

Naschy stars in three roles. You probably best know Naschy as the wolfman, Waldemar Daninsky. But he equally loved this role, which he would reprise years later. His companion is Helga Line, who appeared opposite Barbara Steele in "Nightmare Castle" (1965), and then starred as the spy Natasha in the Gothic feature "Horror Express" (1972). Rounding out the cast is activist-actress Emma Cohen, who appears as Elvira (a name Naschy used frequently in his scripts). Cohen had just finished Eloy de la Iglesia's "The Cannibal Man" (1972), which found itself on the notorious video nasty list. She also had a bit part as a vampire bride in Jess Franco's "Count Dracula" (1970).

For many years, the easiest way to see the film was on DVD in what was considered a public domain release. The quality was rather poor, the aspects were off, and perhaps worst of all, it turns out that the film was never supposed to be public domain. But if you could look past the film quality, the plot is interesting enough and you have to really like the effort the villagers go to keeping them from the burial grounds. They are saved from muggers by a group of vigilantes who really aren't any more safe to be around. And then, once one of them becomes possessed by the sorcerer's spirit, it is just a world of pain.

The 2017 Blu-ray release from Scream Factory is something of a godsend. The film looks as good or better than it ever did. Audiences have the option to watch the clothed or unclothed versions. Roughly eight minutes of footage not seen in the public domain release is properly back in the footage. This is all-around a top-notch film and one that should see a growing appreciation now that fans will see it in its full glory rather than as a third- or fourth-generation duplicate that was poorly "remastered".

Spanish genre superstar Paul Naschy gets a fine showcase here, playing no less than three roles, and he also wrote the screenplay using his real name Jacinto Molina.

His primary role is that of a ruthless 15th century sorcerer, Alaric de Marnac, who gets put to death - by his own brother. However, he and his female cohort Mabille De Lancre (Helga Line) are quick to rely on one of those oft used clichés of the genre - the curse that is placed on future generations. We cut to modern day Paris, and Hugo (Naschy again) and his friends journey to his old family place to do some investigating; the decapitated head of his ancestor Alaric is stored away somewhere on the property. Things soon go terribly awry as Hugo & pals fall victim to many supernatural and sadistic goings-on. Will any of them survive?

Naschy is a great deal of fun here; he and the striking Line are a wonderfully devious pair and it's entertaining to watch them do their thing. His scenes as the severed head of Alaric are simply priceless. The cast also includes Victor Alcazar, who also plays more than one role, and the intoxicating Emma Cohen who is irresistible as nice girl Elvira.

The movie is slow going for its first half, with an awful lot of talk, but making up for that is the second half which successfully delivers some effective genre staples. These include sex (Line goes full frontal), violence (there are throat slashings with a sickle, which becomes a recurring image in the film, and there are also delicious scenes of hearts being ripped out), and surrealism (things get substantially more eerie, and the screenplay incorporates blood drinking and zombie action into the mix).

As another asset, the look of the film is just gorgeous, with colours that pop and an appealing mixture of cinematography (by Manuel Merino) and production design. Director Carlos Aureds' pacing is always deliberate and his creation of a grim ambiance is impressive.

Fans of European horror should find this agreeable entertainment; it's got a decent body count and is at least unpredictable enough that people may not know where it's going from scene to scene. Recommended.

Seven out of 10.

I think the story is interesting with a executed warlock who comes back to life and gets his revenge. The movie is build up pretty well throughout and brings a couple of interesting ideas. Like how his weakest is a talisman that have a interesting backstory to it and how he comes back to life. And there's a couple of unexpected moments in it.

Unfortunately the biggest problem with the movie is the pacing of it. A couple of scenes feels like it's dragging on way too long throughout and the movie lacks any suspense in it because things happened way too quickly. There's also a couple of interesting things that only happened once like the warlock summons zombies only in one scene. Some plot points feels pretty unnecessary and it doesn't make a lot of sense. And the movie have a anticlimactic ending to it which is disappointing.

As far as I am concerned, Spanish Horror/Exploitation icon Paul Naschy truly deserves his cult-status, and I am sure I am not standing alone with this opinion. I've personally been a great Naschy-fan ever since I first saw some of his films years ago, and my admiration for this deity of bizarre Euro-cult becomes greater with each film I see. Sure, his films are far away from being masterpieces or milestones, but they have their very own, inimitable style, and for a fan of low-budget Horror and Exploitation, it does not get a lot more entertaining than it is the case with Naschy's films. Naschy, who has sometimes also served as writer and director of the bizarre gems he has starred in (he was writer and star of this one), is doubtlessly best known for the role of Werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, whom he has played in thirteen films (so far). While Waldemar Daninsky was basically a good, kind-hearted guy, who had the misfortune of being transformed in a Werewolf by a curse whenever the moon was full, the role of Alaric De Marnac is an entirely evil one. This "Espanto surge de la tumba" aka. "Horror Rises From The Tomb" of 1973 is the first film revolving around the satanic undead knight/warlock Alaric De Marnac, a role Naschy would reprise in "Latidos De Panico" (aka. "Panic Beats" of 1983). I had seen the latter before I first saw this original film on the ghoulish knight, and I must say that while this one is often even more confused and illogical than its successor, it is also an unspeakably entertaining film with an incredible cult-value.

In medieval France, the evil warlock Alaric De Marnac (Paul Naschy) is executed along with his beautiful (and equally evil) mistress Mabille de Lancré (Helga Liné). The execution is carried out on commands of his own brother (also Naschy), and before having his head chopped off Alaric vows to come back and take revenge on his brother's descendants. Centuries later, Hugo Marnac (also played by Naschy) decides to travel to his family's old estate with some friends in order to have some fun and do some research on Alaric and Mabille, which - Surprise! - turns out not to be a great idea... The story is often absurd and has several holes, and yet "Horror Rises From The Tomb" is not only interesting as a delightfully bizarre Exploitation gem, but also as a Horror film with an often creepy atmosphere. Paul Naschy shines once again in his roles - I've pointed out my admiration for the man above, but I cannot help and repeat myself - Naschy makes every film more worthwhile and highly entertaining, and he more than deserves to be called an icon of Eurohorror for his accomplishments. The female cast members are entirely beautiful and tend to get naked, sexy Helga Liné and Emma Cohen deserve being mentioned particularly. The film is filled with delightful perversions, bizarre rites and loads of violence and gore (some of the gore effects are very well-made for the obviously low budget). The film also has a very cool organ score, which even increased the fun. All said, "Horror Rises From The Tomb" might not be your type of film if you only like cinema of the "Citizen Kane" kind. To lovers of Eurohorror and Exploitation, however, this is a gem that must not be missed. I've seen it twice so far, and I sure will watch it again occasionally. Highly recommended to all Cult-cinema fans!

This is my kind of 70s B-grade horror film. This is 70s Euro-horror trash that is watchable - enjoyable for me. No this is not a great top-of-the-line high dollar 1970s horror film BUT it is a good horror film with some cool special effects for a budget film. The copy I have is dubbed in English - and I was not disappointed by that.

The information I have received on this film: it is a take on the obscure 1958 Universal film "The Thing That Wouldn't Die".

How can you go wrong with a headless man, witchcraft, zombies, occult, sacrifices, creepy music and murder? -- it's a horror film! Yes there are plenty of beautiful women in their nighties -- that should please some.

I enjoyed this film. I consider this one a "gem" long forgotten by many. It's not a perfect film but it's a decent 70s horror.

6.5/10

"Horror Rises from the Tom" or "El espanto surge de la tumba" is a movie thematically connected to another Naschy movie called "Panic Beats" or "Latidos de pánico" that came out ten years after this movie. This is your typical Naschy horror movie with violence and nudity that's here to soothe the boredom. As always when watching these movies, despite their low budget, it is obvious that effort was made to make the movie the best it could be, but that's not saying much. This is an entertaining watch for Naschy or genre fans, but rightfully forgotten relic of the past for the others. There's barely anything that can be considered scary in the movie, story and characters are nothing to write home about and there's no character development at all (compared to the aforementioned "Panic Beats"). Usually Naschy portrays at least a somewhat interesting character, but this is not the case here. Having that in mind, I'm going to give the movie 5/10! It's still decently well made and it resembles a movie, but it's worse than the standard I used to expect from Naschy's movies and that's why I give it a 5/10...

I really want to drum a up a little more enthusiasm for this film than is evident here. Sometimes it seems like non-genre fans see things like this and miss out on the subtleties (so to speak.) I saw this with zero expectations, having purchased it as part of a very inexpensive collection of old horror 'gems' on DVD. It was my first experience with the work of cult auteur Paul Naschy, whom I'd read about in the book IMMORAL TALES, and I was more than pleasantly surprised. Fans of Jean Rollin, Coffin Joe, the Blind Dead series and Fulci's Gates of Hell will be glad they took the 90mins. to soak this one in.

One concept I've always loved is the premise that all the horrible events in a story are the work of black magic, or evil spirits-as this pretty much opens the door to anything, with a minimum of necessary exposition. Horror Rises From The Tomb has great location shots on misty swampland, majestic castles and beautiful long-haired women sleepwalking in see-through nightwear. These are a few of my favorite things. Yours too? I also love the way a red light precedes the every arrival of the evil du Margnac. There is even a brief, but eerily effective zombie sequence.

It's these little touches that a true horror fan will appreciate.