Horror Rises from the Tomb

France, mid-1400s: As the executioners read off a list of the nefarious crimes of the blood-drinking sorcerer Aleric du Marnac [Paul Naschy] and his mistress Mabille de Lancré [Helga Liné], Aleric curses his brother Armand [Paul Naschy] and friend Andre Roland [Vic Winner], the two who denounced him, and all their descendents. The executioners then behead Aleric, burying head and body separate from each other. Mabille is tortured and slain while hanging upside down from a tree. Paris, modern day: When Hugo de Marnac [Paul Naschy] and Maurice Roland [Vic Winner] , along with girlfriends Sylvia [Betsabé Ruiz] and Paula [Cristina Suriani], are invited to one of Madame Irina's seances, Hugo decides to humor everyone and ask Mme Irina [Elsa Zabala] to summon his dead ancestor Aleric in order to find out where his head and body are buried. Much to everyone's surprise, Madame Irina is successful. Aleric appears and informs them that his body is buried in the cloisters, and his head is in a crypt in the monastery, both on Hugo's land near the mountain village of Lechat. So, Hugo, Maurice, Sylvia, and Paula decide to make the trip in order to see if they can find Aleric's remains. While driving in the mountains, they are tricked into stopping their car to help a man lying wounded in the road. The man turns out to be an escaped criminal, and he and his friend are looking for a car in which to get away. Unfortunately, they don't get very far before they drive the car head on into the mountainside and destroy the radiator. Luckily, some locals come along, shoot the criminals, and sell Hugo an old, beat-up Citroen for 3,000 francs so that they can continue on to Hugo's chalet. After arriving at the chalet and settling in, the caretaker Gastone [Juan Cazalilla], along with two hired hands from the village, takes Hugo and Maurice to the cloisters, even though local rumor has it that strange things have happened there and that "a demon walks about." While digging in the yard where it is rumored that a treasure is buried, Maurice suddenly gets a feeling and leads the group directly to the spot where they dig up a chest. Unable to get the chest open, they take it back to the chalet. Later that night, the two hired men sneak into the chalet and break open the chest, only to find a piece of paper with the word "Astarothe" painted on it. When Gastone finds them raiding the chest, one of the villagers, Alain [Luis Ciges], picks up a handsickle and, as though in a trance, slays Gastone and the other villager. Hearing Gastone's cry, his daughters Chantal [Maria José Cantudo] and Elvira [Emma Cohen] go looking for him. Finding their father dead, the girls wake up Hugo. Hugo and Maurice go to help Gastone and notice that the chest is gone. In fact, Alain has taken it into the monastery. When they realize that they are trapped in the chalet high in the mountains (no phone, no lights, no gasoline) with provisions for only four more days, the villagers angry with them for stirring up the demons, and a crazed murderer running about, Hugo and Maurice go looking for a way to get down from the mountain. Meanwhile, Alain starts picking off the girls. First to have her throat cut is Chantal, but Alain doesn't stop there. He cuts out her heart, too. Then he captures Paula and carries her off. Maurice goes looking for Paula and hears her calling him. When Maurice later returns to the chalet, seemingly in a trance, he slugs Sylvia and carries her body to where Aleric's head is alive and well. Aleric's head then tells Maurice to dig out his body as well as Mabille's. After reuniting Aleric's head with his body, Maurice places Sylvia's body in Mabille's tomb. Aleric then slices open Sylvia's chest. As her blood mixes with Mabille's remains, Mabille is reconstituted. Maurice then kills Alain, cuts out his heart, and presents it to Aleric and Mabille. Elvira and Hugo, the only two left alive in the chalet, go looking for a talisman that Gastone used to protect against demons. It appears to work because, when Aleric comes to rip out Elvira's heart, he is sent packing when he sees the talisman around her neck. Apparently, it doesn't work against the living dead, for when Hugo and Elvira are attacked during the night by the corpses of Gastone, Chantal, Sylvia, and the dead thief, Hugo and Elvira are forced to build a fire to keep them away. The next morning, Maurice suddenly shows up, explaining that he's been wandering about looking for Paula. Hugo asks Maurice to help him dig up and burn the corpses that attacked them last night, but when they go looking for the bodies, Maurice kills Hugo with a shotgun. Maurice then goes after Elvira, but the spell over him is dissipated when he touches the talisman. Elvira and Maurice promise to destroy Aleric and Mabille. Meanwhile, Mabille is getting hungry, so she and Aleric attack some villagers and eat some more hearts. Seven moons have passed, and Aleric and Mabille are preparing for a ritual which will return them to full power. While Paula lures Maurice and the talisman away from Elvira, Aleric enters the chalet. Fortunately, Maurice returns before Aleric has a chance to do anything to Elvira. As Maurice taunts Aleric with the talisman, Mabille kills Paula and then goes after Elvira. Maurice tosses the talisman at Aleric, setting him smoking, as Aleric buries an ax in Maurice's chest. Elvira stabs Mabille with a silver needle. Elvira then picks up the talisman, touches it to Aleric's forehead, and Aleric's head separates from his body. Elvira burns all the bodies and tosses the talisman into the lake. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl]