This macabre movie is a great highlight of Spanish Horror. Helmed by Carlos Aured, assistant director on Werewolf Shadow, Horror Rises From the Tomb is the first of two vehicles in which Naschy portrays one of his favorite creations: the vicious Alaric de Marnac. Inspired by Gilles de Rais (a 15th century serial killer) and the 1958 B-movie classic The Thing That Couldn't Die, Naschy has written a film that contains some of the most indelible moments in his canon. From the opening scene's upside-down decapitation, to the heart-ripping murders of the young innocents by Alaric's malignant companion Mabille de Lancre, who is played to the scrumptious hilt by the great unsung queen of Euro-Horror, Helga Liné (above), Horror Rises From the Tomb is an utter delight. Naschy again plays multiple parts in this film, but it's very easy to tell that he relishes playing Alaric the most, especially when he's just a talking severed head. The scene of Mabille's rebirth is truly disturbing, and one wonders if Clive Barker was thinking of it when he wrote the notorious mattress scene in Hellraiser II. Naschy's sequel, 1983's Panic Beats, is a good film in its own right, though it ultimately didn't make this list.
Review of Horror Rises from the Tomb
