cinema history class: horror rises from the tomb

Session: Paul Naschy: Monster Man of Spain, Week 2
Movie: Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973)
Directed by Carlos Aured
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
Centuries after Alaric de Marnac is beheaded and his wife is tortured to death, they keep their vow to return to life and avenge themselves. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
The plot here bears a strong resemblance to the plot of last week's film. A traveling party is stuck in the a dwelling in the woods after a breakdown. Oh, and they're stuck there with a source of grave danger. I thought I was really clever during the film to notice this parallel, but Keith and Joe noted that that was part of Naschy's formula. Instead of a castle, it was a French chalet. Instead of a vampire it's a long-dead warlord. Instead of stagecoach it's a Mercedes. But the basics are the same. This did confuse me a bit, since it was written by Jacinto Molina (as opposed to Naschy). My confusion was cleared up as they told me that that was Naschy using his real name.

There are some things to really give them credit for. The prologue, which takes place somewhere in Europe centuries ago, lasts long enough that I, the viewer, had gotten to the point of figuring that that was the setting for the film. But then, once you have the executions, we cut to a shot of the Eiffel Tower, and we're in present-day Paris.

On another matter, Joe (or was it Dave?) noted that Naschy played bot the villain and one of the victims. As such, it was kind of expected that the climactic battle would feature Naschy on Naschy. To his credit, the film avoids that trope.

On the visuals, the opening did a good job. with the extreme violence -- de Marnac getting beheaded. His wife, being suspended upside down still cackling her vows of revenge against her executioners. And the scene, later on, where we see de Marnac's disembodied head, is just fabulous. Admittedly, I am told that it owes a lot, visually, to The Thing That Wouldn't Die. THere was also a zombie sequence that owes a lot to Night of the Living Dead.

But, despite the really interesting stuff, I had a hard time getting into the story. There's two more weeks for Naschy to make an impression on me.

Ratings:
Me: 7.05
Dave: 9.7
Joe: 9.9