Spanish Horror

[Sam@Cult Labs]

This week, we kicked off a blog series on Facebook about the horror cinema of Spain.

Here's the first post I penned, looking at some older zombie titles:

[REC] Genesis Presents - Spanish Horror Classics: The Living Dead | Facebook

And over the next couple of weeks, we'll be revealing more.

Here's your chance to influence my choices. I have the writing for this project pretty much done but if you name a favourite and it wasn't a title I picked and you can argue the case, I'm happy to throw out one of mine and include yours.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Look no further than Waldemar Daninsky.

[Sam@Cult Labs]

I have a Naschy movie in the offing but I went with a slightly odder choice... Panic Beats.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Sam@Cult Labs

I have a Naschy movie in the offing but I went with a slightly odder choice... Panic Beats.

Only one, are you mad?

[Sam@Cult Labs]

We doing five posts, two films a post over five weeks. Much as I'd love to do more Nachy movies, there's other stuff to consider... Like The Blind Dead films covered today. I love his work though, much underrated

[Gojirosan]

I recently assembled a small "Spanish section" whilst finally putting all my film collection on shelves finally.

There have been some excellent modern Spanish contributions.

There was Jaume Balagueró's excellent adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's The Nameless/Los sin nombre from 1999 (which does a remarkable job of translating the odd, dreamy atmosphere of the novel to the screen); there was El rey de la montaña/King Of The Hill from 2007 (sadly Gonzalo López-Gallego would go on to make the dreadful Apollo 18, but I try not to hold that against him!); The Nun/La monja (2005, d: Luis de la Madrid) which was a silly but atmospheric and enjoyable film, quite beautifully shot; the opinion splitting The Abandoned from Nacho CerdÃ* in 2005, which I thought was just superb...and that's before one even considers the mighty The Orphanage!

Of course the classics from Jorge Grau and Amando de Ossorio and their ilk bear remembering, but they do rather overshadow some slightly lesser known crackers: The Hanging Woman/La orgÃ*a de los muertos from 1973, directed by José Luis Merino; Vengeance Of The Zombies/La rebelión de las muertas, also 1973, by the often under-rated director León Klimovsky; the fun Gothic romp Il castello dalle porte di fuoco/Blood Castle, Merino again, from 1970...and so on...

And they are just the ones I can see to my right on the shelf! So many others to be found!

[Sam@Cult Labs]

Despite it starring Ally McBeal, 10 points to the excellent Spanish production Fragile!

[robertzombie]

Death is Child's Play (1976) - IMDb

[Sam@Cult Labs]

Great choice - I already have this in readiness under a different title.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Sam@Cult Labs

Despite it starring Ally McBeal, 10 points to the excellent Spanish production Fragile!

Agreed, Fragile was excellent as was Gojirosan's choice of The Abandoned.

The Nameless / Los Sin Nombre bored me to tears though. I think i may need to give it another go.