Badmovies.org Forum

I think overall the Spanish make the best horror/thriller films in my opinion. I love the atmosphere and tone the Spanish use with their films, they always have a really dull (dull in a good way) colour scheme (kind of a grey colour) which makes them look really bleak (in a good way). And they seem to always have some great plot devices and twists. If I had to pick a favourite out of the ones I have seen it would be one of the films from the "6 Films" boxset called A Christmas Tale. It's a great throwback to 80's movies and horror/slasher movies. There is a great The Shining homage in it.

Some ones I have seen:

6 Films To Keep You Awake
Who Can Kill A Child?
The Blind Dead
The Abandoned
The Nameless
Fermat's Room
[Rec]
Tesis
Fragile
Shiver
Dagon
Darkness
Paintball
The Dark Hour
Pan's Labyrinth
The Devil's Backbone
The Orphanage
The Others
Deadly Manor
School Killer

Some ones I want to see:

Bloody Moon
Anguish
Kidnapped
Initiation Games
Julia's Eyes
Hierro
Romasanta
Second Name
99.9
The Univited Guest
God's Forgotten Town
The Silent House
The Haunting
La Piel Azul
El Paramo
Callejon
Sleep Tight
Blame
War Games
Scars
Alone
Blind Alley
Hidden in the Woods

And also stuff set in Spain like Eyeball. And I haven't seen Pieces yet. I really wanna see that one!

I have seen some Mexican horror which is pretty much the same as Spanish horror, and so far what I have seen has been done well. Stuff like Cronos and Curandero.

I'm sure I missed plenty of good ones and some newer ones, so let me know if you know any good ones I should check out!

You can give Blue Eyes Of The Broken Doll a shot; I have a review of it but I wasn't overly kind.  It had some good moments but Spanish horror fans are likely to enjoy it more than I did.  Look for it under the Reader Reviews link above.

Man they have got a little genre going for themselves! Spanish eyeball horror!
stuff like Anguish, Eyeball and that cool looking one you just mentioned!  :thumbup:

I've always enjoyed the misadventures of the unfortunate Waldemar Daninsky...aka the Werewolf!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7bQTs_463k

Then you got the variying quality of Jesus Franco...
from good like the AWFUL DR.ORLOFF (1962)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ytGe1Iesw

...to the awful (though hilarously so) DRACULA CONTRA FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_XwCbiEo9g

I have many, many of these on DVD, mostly from the 1970s and early 80s.  Several Paul Naschy movies, including his werewolf flicks and others like HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB and HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE.  I also have prime non-Naschy stuff from that era like CANNIBAL MAN. 

Paul Naschy is quite good; there is a joke we (my wife and I) has noticed about Paul Naschy whatever he does he makes it sexy. He makes a guy that lost his brain sexy! A vampire Sexy! A werewolf sexy! A warlock sexy! An excape con... sexy! A Hunchback... Yes a freaking Hunchback... Sexy!!!

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_goOTcYF7VN4/TLz9ytFdaII/AAAAAAAAG1U/mCmH5oqho6U/HMorgue7.JPG)



Also, Paul Naschy almost looks like John Belushi and it's quite noticable in some of his films.

(http://doomedmoviethon.com/images/giallo-meltdown3/7murdersforscotlandyard-naschy.jpg)

(http://imstars.aufeminin.com/stars/fan/john-belushi/john-belushi-20080108-360446.jpg)



I do advise anybody that has never seen Anguish (1987) and is a horror fan, must see it!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A97EOtxF2gA

I always enjoyed Armando de Ossorio's BLIND DEAD trilogy....lotsa living skeletons riding on their spooky horses in slow mo...hacking lackwits with their broadswords!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCyFyVAhj1w&feature=related

A truly stupid pair of movies TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD and RETURN OF THE BLIND DEAD (I own these first two on DVD, haven't seen any further sequels).  I reviewed the first one over at SciFilm (the now defunct website) and after taking a lot of licks, fought fire with fire... and... got thrown off the site!!   :thumbdown: :tongueout:  I was later reinstated, but lovers of these films do not want to admit to the films' many problems and exploitative content.  Hey!  I hadn't found BADMOVIES.org yet where I suspect my review may have been more appreciated!!!   :thumbup: :teddyr:  Therefore, I haven't looked at them since that last viewing a few years ago.  
I think they're right up the alley of any fan of BAD SPANISH/PORTUGUESE MOVIES!!  :thumbup: :smile:  RECOMMENDED (but don't expect any such "masterpiece" as you'll hear fans of these films call them).

A couple more: CRIMSON (1976) and NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969).

While true that Tombs of The Blind Dead and Return Of The Blind Dead had their flaws, and some serious holes in their execution, I think what really makes them work is the truly unconventional approach towards the living dead.

The atmosphere of the midnight scenes where they rose from their crypts was quite thick, and outside of the makeup's flaws (like the hands) the overall makeup was quite effective and creepy.

As well, on top of Paul Naschy's werewolf movies, the Blind Dead helped give Spain a budding horror scene, more notably so since Spain was under the rule of  Socialist dictator Franco, who detested horror movies or so it was said.

So, from many angles, the Blind Dead were inaugural and something new for Spain, and for horror in general. Sometimes a movie may not be great, but winds up setting some serious benchmarks in it's own right.

I have the boxed set (the DVDs come in a box shaped like a coffin).  Each movie is sillier than the one before it, but I enjoy this 1970s European stuff!

Not to mention the flashback scene in the first Blind Dead film, where Bette and Virginia are about to go down on each other when they were in boarding school, hehe  :smile:

Aside, the one that that makes the Blind Dead cooler is not only the basic makeup, but the choice to use a real abandoned monastery for the backdrop of their nightly awakening to the unseen bell.

I also liked the one scene towards the end,  where the Templars march single file into the castle, hear the girl scream, and all stop on a dime. They slowly turn in her direction and bite her to death, with blood drippingo utof the mouth of one of the Templars.

A lot of fairly good moments in this one.