Director: Carlos Aured
Year: 1973
Country: Spain
Alternate Titles: El espanto surge de la tumba; Mark of the Devil Part IV: Horror Rises from the Tomb
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Deciding to test a family legend, a group of friends head out to a mountain lodge to look for the evidence that something happened to an ancestor accused of witchcraft, but when they manage to do so unleash a ravenous curse from the resurrected creatures looking for revenge and try to stop it.
Review:
This is certainly one of the finest Eurohorror entries out there. Among the film’s stellar qualities is the fact that it plays with so many familiar aspects in the genre to great effect throughout here. The opening scene with the couple being sentenced for witchcraft and killed with the utterance of the curse that gets everything going is a fantastic opening that provides this with the fantastic Gothic opening that provides plenty of reasoning for the eventual revenge as well as the opening half searching for his remains. The journey to discover the head, driven by a seance, hallucinations, a fantastic premonition of the events to come when it leads the group to the location of the severed head and the reasoning for all the macabre events that occur. With this providing the backbone necessary to believe in the witches’ curse, the resurrection of corpses and mental control of everyone it wants to, there’s a lot to like here with all the exposition laid out in the forefront.
That said, the film picks up considerably once the head has been found and it can start to let it’s premise play out. The scene of the possessed farmer entering the house and stalking the girls in the kitchen allows for a series of shocks when they occur as the sneaking up behind them unknowingly with the bladed weapon has some tension to it. Likewise, the transfer of his control throughout the group as the cursed head gathers more of them into his ranks has some chilling aspects to it with the paranoia of not knowing who to trust anymore with the ones still unaffected wondering what’s going on. With the occult ceremony intended to raise both the vile warlock and his servant in the Gothic crypt complete with the buried bodies, the sacrifice of the one daughter left alive that allows her to come back to life and set out again into the world providing this one with the kind of imposing setpiece central to these films, there’s far more class and general atmosphere present here than expected. Their resultant rampage through the area claiming victims which become the zombified followers that attack the house are quite exciting as they demonstrate the kind of power exhibited over the followers. With this loaded with great gore and plenty of fantastic nudity from those well-qualified to perform it, this is one of the finest examples of the genre as a whole.
There are a few flaws with this one. The main issue is the wholly unnecessary sequence that plays out in the opening minutes as they travel to the lodge where they meet up with escaped hoodlums, and the whole scene is not important in the slightest resulting in it being removed from the story without any worry. The later scenes discussing the strange disappearances of the group around the castle are absolutely infuriating, showing them standing around doing nothing while the possessed individuals plot their next move in the revenge scheme rather than going out to form a search for the missing group or alert anyone else to their plight. This seems rather superfluous and gives the group a rather uninterested feel to their own friends not reacting to the situation and comes off rather curiously. Likewise, the final confrontation with the two witches feels incredibly underwhelming and over way too quickly for something that had been built up until then as being far more powerful than they were capable of matching which isn’t that impressive. Otherwise, there’s quite a lot to like here.
Overview: ****.5/5
A milestone effort not only in the Eurohorror community but one of the best films made for all involved, this is one of the most enjoyable genre efforts ever made. Anyone who is a Eurohorror fanatic, a Gothic horror aficionado or fans of the creative crew should look into this one immediately while those that are interested in getting into the scene should use this as an entry point.
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