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 FrancoStarsConrado San MartínDiana LorysHoward VernonDr. 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.
- DirectorIván ZuluetaStarsEusebio PoncelaCecilia RothWill MoreA low budget horror filmmaker gets in touch with an eccentric who is trying to film his consciousness during drug abuse.
- DirectorPedro OleaStarsJosé Luis López VázquezAmparo Soler LealAntonio CasasBenito Freire is a peddler who lives miserably in an environment dominated by ignorance and superstition. He is dedicated to peddling by the Galician towns and suffers severe attacks of epilepsy. Through the region begins to spread the rumor that he is a werewolf and that he is possessed by a demonic spirit. And it will be precisely the stories that people are telling about him what start to make him go crazy.
- DirectorPedro OleaStarsSilvia MuntMary CarrilloWalter VidarteIn 17th-century Navarre, Lord Fermin has started a witch hunt. Villagers are arrested and tortured to extract "confessions"; Fermin is actually using this horror to tarnish Unai, a farmer who opposes his tyrannical rule.
- DirectorBigas LunaStarsDennis HopperMichael MoriartyAntonella MurgiaA man discovers that his girlfriend is a "stigmata" (someone whose hands and feet mysteriously bleed in the same places where Jesus Christ was crucified) and tries to keep her out of the hands of a greedy TV preacher who plans to exploit her to make money for himself.
- DirectorBigas LunaStarsZelda RubinsteinMichael LernerTalia PaulA controlling mother uses telepathic powers to send her middle-aged son on a killing spree.
- DirectorJuan Piquer SimónStarsChristopher GeorgeLynda Day GeorgeFrank BrañaThe co-eds of a Boston college campus are targeted by a mysterious killer who is creating a human jigsaw puzzle from their body parts.
- DirectorJuan Piquer SimónStarsMichael GarfieldKim TerryPhilip MacHaleKiller slugs on the rampage in a rural community.
- DirectorJuan Piquer SimónStarsJack ScaliaR. Lee ErmeyRay WiseSiren II, a submarine under the command of Capt. Phillips, ventures into the deep on a mission to recover the missing Siren I. Their quest is hindered when the submarine becomes entangled in a patch of toxic seaweed.
- DirectorCarlos PuertoJuan Piquer SimónStarsÁngel ArandaSandra AlbertiMariana KarrA young couple are tricked into going into a sinister house where a coven of devil-worshipers waits for them.
- DirectorPaul NaschyStarsPaul NaschyDaniela GiordanoMónica RandallA witch-finder general falls in love with the village beauty, who has supposedly made a pact with the devil.
- DirectorPaul NaschyStarsPaul NaschyEiko NagashimaLautaro MurúaA hit man working for the Yakuza double crosses his employers and flees with a cache of diamonds from the latest heist. Injured and hiding in the mountain regions of Spain, with Japanese assassins in hot pursuit, he takes refuge in the home of a local Doctor and his two daughters, who nurse him back to health and hide him from his pursuers, taking drastic and murderous measures to protect him, for they have plans of their own in store for their current guest.
- DirectorPaul NaschyStarsPaul NaschyJulia SalyLola GaosA man moves his ailing wife to his family's ancestral house for a period of recovery. Things are not what they seem to be, when the wife becomes plagued with terrifying visions, which begin to worsen her ailment.
- DirectorPaul NaschyStarsPaul NaschyShigeru AmachiBeatriz EscuderoIn the 16th century, lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky travels from his native Europe to Japan, seeking a way to cure himself of being a werewolf. Only a Japanese sorcerer named Kian and a magic silver sword can save him.
- DirectorPaul NaschyStarsPaul NaschyCaroline MunroHoward VernonPaul Naschy plays several roles in this film about a nowhere actor who likes to pick up prostitutes and play sex games. His nephew resides with him, and is lost in a fantasy world of his own.
- DirectorFrancisco Rodríguez GordilloStarsPaul NaschyAmparo MuñozAntonio PicaWaldemar Daninsky, a best-seller writer, is exhausted and needs help from Dr. Westenra, the daughter of the local coroner. Meanwhile, gruesome murders are happening.
- DirectorJosé Luis AlemánStarsDaniele LiottiÓscar JaenadaLaia MarullLuisa Llorente, an expert on taxation of old buildings, had recently gone to the Victorian mansion Valdemar to conduct an inventory of property ownership. After she mysteriously disappeared, Maximilian, president of her company, engaged the services of a private detective to help find her. But soon they will discover that it is not the first disappearance at Valdemar mansion!
- DirectorRoberto Julio AlamoGuillermo García InsaStarsRoberto Julio AlamoGuillermo García InsaFiacha O'DonnellDuring the Second World War, two soldiers get lost and find an strange cult in a lost french village that is making horrible and obscene rites.
- DirectorStuart GordonStarsEzra GoddenFrancisco RabalRaquel MeroñoA boating accident runs a young man and woman ashore in a decrepit Spanish fishing town which they discover is in the grips of an ancient sea god and its monstrous half human offspring.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsJeffrey CombsTommy Dean MussetJason BarryAfter 13 years in prison, the mad scientist from Re-Animator (1985) gets a new chance to experiment with the arrival of a young prison doctor, who secretly hopes to learn to reanimate dead people. Good intentions turn to horror.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsOmar MuñozSantiago PasagliaEva PontIn 1965, in Northern Spain, a dam will be built to bring progress to the location of Desbaria and the town of Marienbad is near to be completely flooded. Two boys, Teo and Luis, cross the security boundary to play in the evacuated town and Teo listen to voices in the abandoned church. They find a group of strange people chained in the watered basement, Teo releases their leader Mordecai Salas and is killed by him. Forty years later, in the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Debaria Dam, the teenager Antonio vanishes in the lake while swimming with his girlfriend Susana and their friend Clara Borgia. The police divers, with the support of the outsider cameraman journalist Dan Quarry that is filming the submerged Marienbad to write a matter about the town, try unsuccessfully to find the body. When eerie things happen in the spot, Dan and the local journalist and daughter of the builder of the dam Teresa Borgia disclose dark secrets about Marienbad, Salas and his evil cult of the power of the flame.
- DirectorBrian YuznaStarsMark FrostIsabel BrookJennifer RopeA man sells his soul to the devil to gain superpowers and avenge his girlfriend's brutal murder. When he realizes that the price is the soul of his new love interest, he turns on the devil.
- DirectorLuis de la MadridStarsAníta BriemBelén BlancoManu FullolaYears ago, a cruel and merciless nun turned boarding school into a living hell for her students until they could no longer bear the abuse, and she mysteriously disappeared. Now the alumnae are being brutally murdered one by one.
- DirectorBrad AndersonStarsChristian BaleJennifer Jason LeighAitana Sánchez-GijónAn industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróStarsEmma VilarasauKarra ElejaldeTristán Ulloa5 years after a mom's 6 y.o. girl is murdered, she gets a phone call from someone claiming to be the daughter. An ex cop and a reporter help. A secret group called The Nameless may be behind it all.
- DirectorPaco PlazaStarsErica PriorTrae HoulihanDenis RafterAfter the suicide of her beloved father, the biologist Daniella Logan visits her catatonic mother in a mental institution to tell the tragic event and her mother calls her "Josephine". Daniella goes to the cemetery and finds that her father's grave had been opened and his corpse was profaned. She decides to investigate, and receives a message of a diabetic priest, Father Elias, who tells her about an ancient fanatic religious sect of followers of Abraham that kills the first child. Later, she meets a weird man, Toby Harris, who claims to be his legitimate father. Daniella continues seeking the truth about her origins and discloses very dark secrets about her family and friends.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróStarsAnna PaquinLena OlinIain GlenA teenage girl moves into a remote country house with her family, only to discover that their gloomy new home has a horrifying past that threatens to destroy the family.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróStarsCalista FlockhartRichard RoxburghElena AnayaAt her new job in a rundown children's hospital, a nurse desperately tries to keep her patients safe from a plague of random, mysterious attacks.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróPaco PlazaStarsManuela VelascoFerran TerrazaJorge-Yamam SerranoA television reporter and cameraman follow emergency workers into a dark apartment building and are quickly locked inside with something terrifying.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróPaco PlazaStarsJonathan D. MellorManuela VelascoÓscar ZafraIn order to ascertain the current situation inside, a supposed medical officer and a GEO team step into the quarantined and ill-fated apartment building.
- DirectorPaco PlazaStarsLeticia DoleraDiego MartínIsmael MartínezA couple's wedding day turns horrific as some of the guests start showing signs of a strange illness.
- DirectorJaume BalagueróStarsManuela VelascoPaco ManzanedoHéctor ColoméAn ill-fated television reporter is rescued and sent on a voyage across the ocean, but she is followed by the deadly virus that has plagued her and numerous others.
- DirectorAgustí VillarongaStarsGünter MeisnerDavid SustMarisa ParedesA former Nazi child-killer is confined in an iron lung inside an old mansion after a suicide attempt. His wife hires him a full-time carer, a mysterious young man who is driven slowly mad by the old man's disturbing past.
- DirectorAgustí VillarongaStarsMaría BarrancoTerele PávezRuth GabrielLara, host of a radio call-in show dealing in psychic phenomena, discovers her estranged lover has been found dead in a small Spanish village.
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsAna TorrentFele MartínezEduardo NoriegaWhile doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsNicole KidmanChristopher EcclestonFionnula FlanaganIn 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
- DirectorAlejandro AmenábarStarsEduardo NoriegaPenélope CruzChete LeraA very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsMarisa ParedesEduardo NoriegaFederico LuppiAfter Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.
- DirectorJ.A. BayonaStarsBelén RuedaFernando CayoRoger PríncepA woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
- DirectorGuillem MoralesStarsBelén RuedaLluís HomarPablo DerquiThe story of a woman who is slowly losing her sight whilst trying to investigate the mysterious death of her twin sister.
- DirectorDavid HebreroStarsMacarena GómezRodolfo SanchoAna MilánA strange girl may be linked to a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse.