Spanish horror CULT classics
AKA "TERROR CASTIZO". OK, Spain is not Italy when speaking about horror movies, but it is over France in my humble opinion in the richness and variety of the productions, and the passion and keen intent almost becoming obsessive of some Spanish filmmakers, say Jesús Franco or Paul Naschy, but also Amando de Ossorio or Sebastián d'Arbó. We will also include little gems in the genre or close to it of otherwise more mainstream directors, Vicente Aranda, Bigas Luna, and end up reviewing some of the most recent movies of Spanish horror, with the likes of Alejandro Amenábar or Jaume Balagueró.
A history of strongly recommended Spanish horror cult classics from the 60s onwards, here you will find everything ranging from B movies to masterpieces...
A history of strongly recommended Spanish horror cult classics from the 60s onwards, here you will find everything ranging from B movies to masterpieces...
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- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsHoward VernonPerla CristalRicardo ValleDr. Orlof, a former prison doctor, abducts beautiful women from nightclubs and tries to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face.Jess Franco's first horror feature - also considered to be the 1st Spanish "proper" horror movie ever!
- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsEstella BlainMabel KarrHoward VernonWoman seeks to avenge her father's death by using a local dancer, with long poisonous fingernails, to do her bidding.Jess Franco's black and white classic "The diabolical doctor Z" (originally entitled "Miss Death"), regarded by traditional critics as his best film.
- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsJanine ReynaudJack TaylorAdrian HovenA performer at an S&M nightclub begins to lose her grip on reality, and is plunged into a nightmarish mental landscape.Nothing to do with any Lovecraft, but one of the most interesting early Franco films, and one of the firsts he shot in color.
- DirectorJorge GrauStarsLucia BosèEspartaco SantoniEwa AulinAn aging Marchioness obsessed with looking youthful devises a vicious plan, under advice from her personal nurse, to look young again.Jordi Grau only did two horror films during his career, this being the first and regarded as a top quality movie, based in the life of historical countess Elizabeth Bathory, who used to bathe in the blood of young virgins to keep herself young.
- DirectorJorge GrauStarsCristina GalbóRay LovelockArthur KennedyA cop chases two hippies suspected of a series of Manson family-like murders; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a hunger for human flesh by ultrasonic radiation being used for pest control.The second of Grau's cult classics, in which he explored the topic of zombies, quite unusual (if found at all) in earlier Spanish movies.
- DirectorAmando de OssorioStarsLone FlemingCésar BurnerMaría Elena ArpónMedieval knights executed for their black magic rituals come back as zombies to torment a group of vacationing college kids.Galician director Amando de Ossorio's first film about the blind Templars returning bloodthirsty from death, quite successful for its time, which allowed the director to make a series of four movies in total of the infamous "blind dead".
- DirectorAmando de OssorioStarsTony KendallHelga LinéSilvia TortosaThe legendary Loreley has been living for centuries in a grotto beneath the river Rhein in Germany. Every night when the moon is full, she turns into a reptile-like creature craving for human blood. When one girl after another of a nearby boarding school is killed by her, a hunter named Sirgurd is engaged to kill the monster.Amando de Ossorio at his prime. Inspired in a German traditional legend and fairytale monster.
- DirectorEugenio MartínStarsChristopher LeePeter CushingAlberto de MendozaWhile on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former's cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a parasitic life-form.Big classic from the 70s, one of the most widely popular and successful at the time in Spain.
- DirectorLeón KlimovskyStarsPaul NaschyGaby FuchsBarbara CapellElvira and her friend Genevieve travel through the French countryside in search of the lost grave of a medieval vampire, Countess Wandesa.This is werewolf Waldemar Daninsky's fourth film appearance, played by immortal Spanish horror classic Paul Naschy, and quite successful at the time it was released. There was a sequel just two years later and well over 10 werewolf Waldemar Daninsky movies in total. It was also León Klimovsky's first horror movie - he would go on to make a bunch of them, some of which are quite good.
- DirectorEnrique López EguiluzStarsPaul NaschyDyanik ZurakowskaManuel ManzanequeA man suffers from the curse of lycanthropy and seeks out the aid of a German doctor and his wife who are experts in the occult. Unknowingly, the cursed man has summoned two vampires instead, who have sinister plans of their own for the werewolf.It all started with this movie, in which the character of Waldemar Daninsky was first introduced and the first time Paul Naschy starred in a horror film.
- DirectorJavier AguirreStarsPaul NaschyRosanna YanniVíctor BarreraPaul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him. Each day he brings her flowers until the day she dies. He never really accepts her death and believes she is just sleeping. The girl eventually ends up at the morgue where she is being prepared for burial. Naschy's character flips out at the desecration of the girls body and stabs and decapitates the men in the only scene of gore in the movie. The police begin to look for him. This is when the Hunchback meets up with a mad scientist who's work isn't accepted by the general society. The scientist promises the Hunchback that he would re-animate the girl's body if the Hunchback brings him fresh bodyparts from the graveyard and live victims. He uses the parts to create a monster.Starring Paul Naschy as a hunchback, this is one of the two films in which he collaborated with director Javier Aguirre, and basically the only horror films in Aguirre's otherwise long and experimental career.
- DirectorJavier AguirreStarsPaul NaschyRosanna YanniHaydée PolitoffThe Transylvanian vampire searches for a virgin sacrifice to resurrect his long-dead daughter.The other Naschy - Aguirre collaboration, in which Naschy plays count Dracula.
- DirectorCarlos AuredStarsPaul NaschyEmma CohenVíctor BarreraIn Medieval France a warlock is be-headed and his wife tortured and executed. Hundreds of years later an isolated group of people discover his head buried on their property. Soon it comes back to life, possessing people and using them to commit sacrifices and to search for the rest of his bodyQuite successful at the time, director from Murcia Carlos Aured would go on to make soft-core movies after the death of Spanish dictator Franco.
- DirectorCarlos AuredStarsPaul NaschyDiana LorysEduardo CalvoAn ex-convict, troubled by dreams that he strangles women, is hired as the caretaker on an estate owned by three very strange sisters. Soon after his arrival, a serial killer begins slaughtering blonde, blue-eyed women and leaving their eyeballs in a bowl of water.In Spain it was probably the most famous Carlos Aured movie starring Paul Naschy, and one can see it is very influenced by Italian gialla.
- DirectorJuan BoschStarsAnthony SteffenAntonio PicaMaría KostyA british undercover special agent is assigned to investigate the death of a colleague in Lisbon, where he finds out that his colleague was very close to uncover a gang of drug smugglers. Now he is determined to bring the criminals to justice, but as he gets closer to discover their identities the more dangerous his mission becomes.Spanish - Italian co-production, a giallo by Catalan director Juan Bosch, who had shot several westerns and then went on to make a couple of horror flicks in the 70's.
- DirectorJosé María ElorrietaStarsDiana SorelNicholas NeyInés MoralesA small rural Spanish village of the present is haunted by vampires. Dr.Dora Maeterlick is called to a nearby castle to cure the father of Baron Carl von Rysselbert who suffers from a strange blood disease. Erika, assistant to Doctor, falls in love with Carl. But Carl is a vampire and pretty soon he makes Erika his vampire bride. From now on Dr.Maeterlick plunges into a nightmarish whirl of dark happenings...Director José María Elorrieta had been making films since the 40's, of all genres but horror: documentaries, drama, comedies, thriller... and he only became interested in horror films at the end of his life - he made 4 or 5 of them, this one being one of the most interesting. Tits and lesbian vampires à la Hammer or Jean Rollin style.
- DirectorEloy de la IglesiaStarsVicente ParraEmma CohenEusebio PoncelaA meat factory worker accidentally kills a taxi driver, and begins gradually killing people close to him in order to cover up his original crime. He starts getting rid of the mounting corpses stored in his bedroom through his day job.Eloy de la Iglesia is one of the best Spanish directors ever, period. And this one is not properly horror, but a violent drama incredible for the time it was recorded, just like the movie below.
- DirectorEloy de la IglesiaStarsSue LyonChristopher MitchumJean SorelA nurse tries to bring her own style of relief to miserable people, or ones condemned to die. Her identity is a mystery, and she may not be quite what she seems."A drop of blood to die loving" could make you think of giallo. Set in the future, the woman protagonist murders hard bodied men. Science fiction at the time of dictator Franco, wtf?
- DirectorLeón KlimovskyStarsPaul NaschyErika BlancÁngel ArandaA killer is cleaning up the streets of Milan by murdering those considered as deviant. An ornamental dragonfly, soaked in the blood of the victim, is left on each body.Spanish giallo directed by León Klimovsky ("La noche de Walpurgis") and starring Paul Naschy, quite hard to find but worth it.
- DirectorLeón KlimovskyStarsEmma CohenCarlos BallesterosViky LussónIn a 19th century village, a young aristocrat suffering from a terminal disease finds herself being drawn to the underground world of vampires and their strange rituals.After werewolves and serial killers, director León Klimovsky shot his incursion into the world of vampires. Again, difficult to find but worth watching.
- DirectorVicente ArandaStarsTeresa GimperaMarianne BenetMarcos MartíThe inhabitants of a strange desert Barcelona are gradually leaving the city in a panic group. The victims of a serial killers seem to feel strangely attracted by their executioners. Only Gim, an attractive blonde advertising model, decides to face her destiny.Not properly horror but a must-see avant-garde jewel of director Vicente Aranda, well-known for his erotic films from the 70's to the 00's. This movie is one of a kind only.
- DirectorVicente ArandaStarsSimón AndreuMaribel MartínAlexandra BastedoNewlywed Susan is haunted by visions of Mircalla Karnstein, a centuries-old bride who murdered her husband on their wedding night.Vicente Aranda dived into the genre for his adaptation of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's famous tale "Carmilla", which has inspired quite a few of lesbian vampire movies. This has to be among the best.
- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsSoledad MirandaDennis PricePaul MullerAn erotic horror tale about a vixen vampiress seducing and killing women to appease her insatiable thirst for female blood.One cannot make such a list without including at least a handful of Jess Franco's most famous horror titles. "Vampyros lesbos" / AKA "Las vampiras" is one of my personal faves, and as you may know only 72 minutes of the original hour and a half footage shown ie in Germany made it to the theatrical version in Spain.
It was only in 2008 that the full version of it, including the previously unavailable footage dubbed in Spanish, was shown for the first time in TV program "Versión Española" with a length of 93 minutes, followed by an interview with the director himself. - DirectorJesús FrancoStarsEmma CohenRobert WoodsFrançoise BrionA nightclub singer is haunted by the ghost of her late father. The dead man summons her through a mirror, forcing her to commit a series of violent crimes.
- DirectorJesús FrancoStarsAjita WilsonLina RomayAntonio MayansPrincess Obongo, the Goddess of Unspeakable Lust, uses dark powers to ensnare a hapless couple of yuppies, so that she can imbue them with evil and conquer the world.