Spain has created some terrific horror films over the years. If you fancy a fright on Halloween night, track down the following.
The Orphanage (2007)
A genuinely spooky, tragic tale of mischievous child ghosts in northern Spain, with a terrific central performance by Belén Rueda. The Grandmother’s Footsteps scene is unforgettably eerie.
The Devil’s Backbone (2001)
Before Guillermo Del Toro shot to fame, he made this ghost story set in another orphanage, this time with an unexploded bomb in the courtyard and the Spanish Civil War raging outside.
The Others (2001)
Alejandro Amenabar’s gothic version of Henry James’s Turn of the Screw is a classic spinechiller with Nicole Kidman on superb form and a breathtaking twist.
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
Not strictly a horror film, But Victor Erice’s masterpiece is a haunting portrait of a young girl’s fears, with a central role for Frankenstein’s monster.
REC (2007)
Fast, furious and gory, rather than spooky, this terrific found footage film combines raging zombies with demonic possession and gave rise to four sequels of varying quality.
Veronica (2007)
Using a Ouija board during a total eclipse of the sun doesn’t seem like a good idea, and so it proves in Rec director Paco Plaza’s skin-crawling supernatural film that was inspired by a real case in Madrid.
Cold Skin (2017)
Two lighthouse keepers face up to nightly invasions by fierce sea lizards in this sci-fi thriller filmed predominantly on Lanzarote’s north coast.
La Cabina (1972)
British and Spanish people of a certain age still remember encountering this unforgettable short film about a man getting trapped in a telephone box. In Spain, Telefonica had to assure citizens that telephone boxes weren’t actually evil traps.
Can Kill A Child? (1976)
Another 70s classic in which a couple of British tourists head to a Spanish island that turns out to be populated by bloodthirsty niños.
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