Tiburón Zombie – La pelíca, also known as Zombie Shark is a 2013 Spanish horror film that’s apparently in production. We think. It could just be a web joke? But if it is, we like it!

After a zombie apocalypse ravages the land, humans finally get the upper hand and win the war. The only problem? They now have dozens of zombie carcasses laying around. The residents of a small town off of the Atlantic coast have a bright idea… dump the infected but dormant zombies’ bodies into the sea. Of course sharks come across the rotting flesh, chow down’ and become zombies themselves!

Knife of Ice - original titles: Il coltello di ghiaccio (Italy)/Detras del Silencio (Spain) – is a 1972 Italian/Spanish giallo film directed by Umberto Lenzi from a screenplay by himself and Luis G. de Blain. The film stars Carroll Baker, Evelyn Stewart and George Rigaud.

A famous singer, Jenny Ascot (Evelyn Stewart), visits her cousin Martha Caldwell (Carroll Baker) at her home in the Pyrenees. Caldwell has long been rendered mute after witnessing both her parents being killed in a train crash. While Ascot and Caldwell are travelling to Caldwell’s home, they notice a strange man who seems to be following them. That night, at Caldwell’s villa, Ascot hears noises, and when she investigates, is killed by an unseen figure.

The police believe the killing is connected to the murder of a teenage girl hours before, and their prime suspect is a local hippy they are convinced is a drug-addicted Satanist. However, two more murders occur while this suspect is in custody. Several other locals are placed under suspicion, including a doctor (Franco Fantasia), a chauffeur (Eduardo Fajardo) and an occultist (George Rigaud). Eventually the man who Caldwell and Ascot saw following them is arrested, and the police discover that his girlfriend had been found murdered several days earlier. However, after this man is taken into custody, Caldwell’s friend Christina (Rosa María Rodríguez) is also murdered, prompting police to reopen the investigation…

Wikipedia | IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

Somebody is stalking mute heroine Carroll Baker and murdering those close to her. Is it the Manson-esque Satanist? The sinister chauffeur? The handsome doctor? The mild-manned janitor?

This is one of director Umberto Lenzi’s more pedestrian thrillers, routinely plotted and adequately shot, with some welcome allusions to the gothic tradition in a few nocturnal scenes. Aside from the revelation of the killer’s identity and motivation – which seems astonishingly trite – the only real shock in this tame giallo is that Baker remains fully clothed throughout.

Kevin Grant

Las alegres vampiras de Vögel (which translates as “The Lively Vampires of Vögel”) is an obscure 1975 Spanish horror sex comedy co-scripted and directed by Julio Pérez Tabernero (Sexy Cat, Cannibal Terror). It stars Ágata Lys, María José Cantudo, Germán Cobos, Rafael Conesa and José María Tasso appears to have no English language release.

According to internet sources, the film contains no nudity or gore and is a somewhat late coming take on Roman Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers. Images posted on Spanish blog No hija, no show a werewolf and a ghoul or zombie are also part of the plot.

The town of Vögel, in Transylvania, stands under the ruins of the old castle where the vampire lord tortured his prisoners and drank their blood. A group of stranded entertainers take shelter in the remote European castle and the Count is naturally delighted to receive them…

IMDb

‘The film is bad as hell and deserves to be only seen as a comic tribute to horror, anyone hoping to see a movie with a reason, a real plot and an outcome, will be disappointed.’ No hija, no [translated from Spanish].

Gracias to Spanish language blog No hija, no for some of the images above

José Ramón Larraz (born 1929 in Barcelona) was an idiosyncratic Spanish director of exploitation and horror fims such as the erotic and bloody cult classic Vampyres (1974). He died in Malaga on 3rd September 2013.

Larraz began making films in England with Whirlpool, an erotic thriller co-produced by a Danish company. He made many different types of films using a variety of pseudonyms, but is best known for his horror films. His last few horror films were Spanish/American co-productions. He apparently retired from feature filmmaking in 1992 at age 63.

The book Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs dedicated a chapter to him and Larraz was profiled in Tombs’ Eurotika TV series:

Pete’s personal encounters with José Larraz are here

Wikipedia

Selected filmography:

• Whirlpool (1970) aka Perversion Flash

• Deviation (1971)
  La Muerte Incierta (1971)
  Emma, puertas oscuras (1973)
• Symptoms (1973) aka “Blood Virgin”
• Scream – and Die!  (1973) aka “The House That Vanished”, aka “Don’t Go in the Bedroom”, aka “Psycho Sex Fiend”
• Vampyres (1974) aka “Daughters of Dracula”, aka “Blood Hunger”
• The Coming of Sin (1978) aka “Violation of the Bitch”

• The Golden Lady (1979)
• El Periscopio (1979) aka Give Us Our Daily Sex aka Malicia Erotica

• Stigma (1980)
• Black Candles (1980) aka Sex Rites of the Devil
• The National Mummy (1981)
  Polvos Magicos (1983)

• Rest in Pieces (1987)
• Edge of the Axe (1988)
• Deadly Manor (1990) aka Savage Lust

Una Sombra en la Oscuridad (“A Shadow in the Darkness”) is an obscure 1979 Spanish horror film directed by Argentinian Diego Santillán. It stars Javier Illain, Pilar Leonor, Isabel Pisano, Mariano Vidal Molina and Emilio Álvarez.

Saul (Molina) is the master of a small fishing village and all of its inhabitants work under his command. Already a mature man exceeded fifty, Saul lives with his son (Alvarez) and decides it is time to hook up with a female partner to take care of him and his house. He therefore proposes marriage to Elena (Pisano), a prostitute he frequents on visits to the city. Elena agrees. But, due to her new husband’s long absences, Elena strikes up a close sexual relationship with his son. Meanwhile, the inevitable gossip begins in the village…

According to Spanish-language web blog Giallo Malastrana, this thoroughly obscure production aims at suspense but apparently ends up like a cheesy erotic thriller that showcases nudity from Isabel Pisano. It has an ending that echoes Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932).

IMDb

Many thanks to Giallo Malastrana for information and images for this posting.

Fragile (Frágiles) – also released as Fragile: A Ghost Story – is a 2005 Spanish/UK horror film directed by Jaume Balagueró (The Nameless, Sleep Tight) and starring Calista Flockhart and Elena Anaya.

As the new night nurse at a soon to be abandoned children’s hospital readies the last group of orphans to leave, it becomes increasingly clear that these are not normal children. Something living in the hospital, something the children call the “mechanical girl,” has a terrifying hold over them and will stop at nothing to keep them in the hospital with her forever…

Bearwood College in Reading, England was used as the exterior location for the Mercy Falls Children’s Hospital.

Jaume Balaguero came up with the idea for the story after seeing an early 20th century medical photo of a young girl with osteogenesis imperfecta.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Buy Fragile from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“The build-up unfolds with a sense of intensity not often rivalled these days, as Balagueró sets up so many moments of impact, only to pull the plug and leave the tension undulating in the air, that by the time the third act arrives and the punches are no longer pulled, viewers are completely taken aback by the impact of the conclusion.” Best Horror Movies.com

“Balaguero’s skillful execution of the material manages to raise it above the typical garbage generally found languishing at the bottom of the dreaded haunted house cut-out bin.” Beyond Hollwood.com

WH

Los Monstruos del Terror, also known as Assignment Terror and Dracula vs. Frankenstein is a 1969 (released 1970) Spanish-German-Italian horror film directed by Tulio Demicheli, Hugo Fregonese and Eberhard Meichsner. The last two were uncredited in the film’s original print.

It is the third in a series of movies featuring the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy, who also provided the screenplay. It was apparently originally slated to be titled The Man Who Came From Ummo, referring to the alien character played by Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still). The film remains very obscure, being — to our knowledge — without an official English language DVD release and only available online in poor quality versions.

Aliens, running a traveling circus as a cover, revive a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy and Frankenstein’s monster (also Paul Naschy) with a plan to use them to take over the world. They want to discover the reason that these monsters are so frightening to Earthlings. They then plan to create an army of such monsters using their findings.

The werewolf they revive (Waldemar Daninsky) saves the world by destroying the other monsters in hand-to-hand combat and ultimately blowing up the aliens’ underground base, although he is shot to death in the process by a woman (Karin Dor) who loves him enough to end his torment.

Assignment Terror is weak on every level. A bored-looking Michael Rennie goes through the motions as a supreme being alien but this excuse to revive all the classic movie monsters is a wasted opportunity. There seems to be a sexist sub-text about men holding power over women but the film is so ineffectual it hardly matters. Plodding is the best description for this incompetently presented production and not even Naschy’s presence can save it.

Adrian J. Smith

“Despite its charming idea, alien invaders led by Rennie set about terrorizing mankind by reviving the monsters of the popular imagination, Dracula, the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Reptile and Frankenstein’s Monster, this is a mediocre film. Even the witty idea of having the aliens in monster form succumb to the emotions of their bodies’ previous owners falls flat.” The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction

Buy Paul Naschy: Memoirs of a Wolfman from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb | Download from Internet Archive

We are grateful to Destination Nightmare and Vampyres Online for some of the images above. Please visit these sites via Horrorpedia. Thank you.

REC 4: Apocalypse (stylized as [REC]⁴ Apocalypse) is an upcoming 2014 Spanish horror film, and the fourth and final installment of the REC series. The film will be a direct sequel to the second film taking place immediately after its events. Jaume Balagueró, the director of the first two installments, is set to return alongside the actress Manuela Velasco, who will reprise her role of Ángela Vidal. The rest of the cast includes Héctor Colomé, María Alfonsa Rosso, Paco Manzanedo, Emilio Buale, Críspulo Cabezas and Paco Obregón.

The film is set to premiere in Spain October 10, 2014.

Ángela, the young television reporter who entered the building with the firemen along with her cameraman, manages to make it out alive. But what the soldiers don’t know is that she carries the seed of the strange infection. She is to be taken to a provisional quarantine facility, a high-security installation where she will have to stay in isolation for several days. An old oil tanker, miles off shore and surrounded by water on all sides, has been especially equipped for the quarantine.

Wikipedia | IMDb

Slugs: The Movie (aka Slugs, muerte viscose) is a 1987 Spanish/American horror film directed and co-written by Juan Piquer Simón (Pieces) and loosely based on the novel Slugs by British novelist Shaun Hutson. It features Michael Garfield, Kim Terry, Philip Machale, Alicia Moro, Santiago Alvarez and John Battaglia. In the US, it was distributed by New World Pictures.

A rural town becomes prey to a strain of black slugs spawned from toxic waste dumping. It is up to the local health inspector to stop them. People are dying mysteriously and gruesomely. Only health worker Mike Brady has a possible solution, but his theory of killer slugs is laughed at by the authorities. Only when the body count begins to rise and a slug expert begins snooping around does it begin to appear as though Mike might be right.

‘Slugs is a bit of a forgotten gem in the sub-genre of nature-attacks horror, and that’s a shame because it’s actually good, gory fun. Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón (aka JP Simon) makes a solid-looking film on a budget and as with his earlier classic, Pieces, he never shies away from gratuitous entertainment in the form of gross practical effects and exposed flesh. Slugs lacks the wit of Pieces, but it still manages to succeed on gore and action alone.’ Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

‘Based upon a novel by Shaun Hutson – great novel, check out this and his other works, especially “Spawn” and “Erebus” if you haven’t already – this film doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. Yeah, it’s somewhat entertaining, there are a few fun scenes, but it’s hamstrung by clumsiness. Worth a watch, you might even find yourself checking the lettuce for unwelcome guests afterwards, but don’t expect anything great. And, don’t forget to read the book as well, it’s way better.’ Horror Chronicles

‘Slugs is one of the most misanthropic films of all time. Lars Trier has nothing on Slugs. It’s not even mean-spirited. It just happens to show humanity at its most unappealing. It’s populated with selfish drunks, puppy-kicking vagrants, snotty teen girls, underaged n’ thick-necked rapists, stick-up-the-ass bureaucrats, sinister law enforcement, whiny n’ concerned tax-payers, opportunistic politicians, corporate interests, nagging wives, and brain-dead husbands.’ Sean Gill, Junta Juleil’s Culture Shock

Buy Slugs: The Movie on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Wikipedia | IMDb

Horror (aka The Blancheville Monster) is a 1963 Italian/Spanish horror film directed by Alberto De Martino from a screenplay by Bruno and Sergio Corbucci, Giovanni Grimaldi based upon an (uncredited) story by Edgar Allan Poe. The cast includes: Helga Liné (Horror Express, The Dracula Saga, The Lorely’s Grasp), Gérard Tichy (Pieces), Leo Anchóriz and Ombretta Colli. On November 19th 2013 it was released in the US by Retromedia as a 50th Anniversary DVD in 1:66:1 widescreen and in high definition.

Brittany in France, 1884: Emily De Blancheville returns to her ancestral home from finishing school to find that her brother has sacked the entire staff and all the new servants act suspiciously. Her father – whom she had believed to be killed in a fire – is discovered to be alive but ‘horribly disfigured’ and having been driven insane. The family keep him locked up in the tower. It transpires that there is a curse on the De Blancheville line, and their father believes that the curse can only be broken if Emily is killed before her 21st birthday…

“Fun aspects here include: Roderick’s great harpsichord playing; some fantastic sets including the old manor house and the ruined abbey nearby; a great spookshow sequence with Lady Blancheville’s friend wandering through the darkened manor and finding her way to the tower with some genuinely creepy moments; and the Scooby-doo mystery of the scar-faced man, which wasn’t too hard to figure out but still fun … And for the b-movie perv in all of us, some extended moonlight sleepwalks by Lady Blancheville with the backlit-gossamer gown shot in full effect. Rowr!” Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies

“The Blancheville Monster is quite atmospheric and it benefits a lot from the amazing, spooky castle and the fetching ladies. A few scenes are really good. But as a whole, well, this is nothing special.” Pidde Andersson, Xomba.com

” …solid midnight viewing thanks to its dank theatrics and comforting adherence to genre conventions. Best scene: the Blancheville family and friends bury poor Emily… unfortunately, they don’t realize she’s still alive.” The Terror Trap

Belgian poster image courtesy of Poster Perversion. We recommend their great site.

Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead, Italian title: Incubo Sulla Cittá Contaminata) is a 1980 Italian-Spanish zombie film directed by Umberto Lenzi. The film stars Hugo Stiglitz, Laura Trotter, Maria Rosaria Omaggio, Francisco Rabal, Sonia Viviani, Eduardo Fajardo and Mel Ferrer. Director Lenzi felt the film was not as much as zombie film but a “radiation sickness movie” with hints of an anti-nuclear and anti-military message.

American TV news reporter Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz) waits at an unnamed European airport for the arrival of a scientist that he is about to interview regarding a recent nuclear accident. An unmarked military plane makes an emergency landing. The plane doors open and dozens of zombies burst out and begin stabbing and shooting the military personnel outside. Miller tries to let the people know of this event, but General Murchison of Civil Defense (Mel Ferrer) will not allow it. Miller tries to find his wife Anna who works at a hospital as the zombies begin to overrun the city.

Miller and his wife escape to an abandoned amusement park that is also overrun with zombies. The two climb to the top of a roller coaster and are about to be rescued by a military helicopter. Miller then wakes up revealing the whole situation to be a dream. Miller also learns that today he is about to meet a scientist at the airport. When he arrives a military plane makes an emergency landing.

“Nightmare City might be the very first “running zombie” film, long before 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead made this the new standard. The film is extremely violent, has quite a bit of gore, and some unintended humor. In other words it’s a cheesy “B” grade horror film, that horror collector’s should have in their collections.’” Eddie Scarito, This is Infamous

” … a wild and bloody exercise in excess. The movie has its fans as well as its fair share of detractors. I think it’s an odd amalgamation of themes and ideas given a much larger scope than normally afforded these movies. It’s neither Lenzi’s best and far from his worst. It’s a favorite of mine and sports a great deal of ultra violent entertainment value for shock seekers and gore mongers alike.” Cool Ass Cinema

“Nightmare City also accomplishes what it set out to do with respect to nudity and gore. The zombies have a amusingly shameless compulsion to rip open the shirts of women before they kill them as well as a weird breast-stabbing (and on one occasion, breast-lopping off) fetish.” John Shelton, Bloody Good Horror

“It’s probably fair to say that Nightmare City will always be known for its particular tics (its militaristic, running weapon-wielding zombies), but Lenzi fully exploits them. His movie might be dumb, but it’s rarely boring, and there’s something to be said for any movie that can transcend its tone-deafness as well as this one. It’s probably the only film that considers the plight of aerobic dancers during a zombie apocalypse.” Oh, the Horror!

“You’ll probably forget the entire movie within a month of watching it, but it’s fun and you’ll get a lot of laughs out of it: terrible acting; zombies standing directly in front of the camera posing; a random dog literally playing with the zombies; the stupidity of the two main characters; the horrible makeup; multiple times people standing still then suddenly jumping into action; woman’s head exploding then in the next shot she’s dead with just a little bloody spot on her forehead; the TV that for no reason explodes into a huge fireball; the completely random harpoon gun and much more.” Dymon Enlow, Happyotter

Raro Video Blu-ray Special Features:

An interview with Umberto Lenzi

Original English trailer

Original Italian trailer

A fully illustrated booklet on the genesis and production of the film

New HD Transfer – Digitally restored

New and improved English subtitle translation

Buy Nightmare City on Raro Video Blu-ray | DVD from Amazon.com

Buy Nightmare City + Hell of the Living Dead bargain zombie double-bill on DVD from Amazon.com

Wikipedia | IMDb | We are grateful to Cool Ass Cinema for a couple of the images above.

WH

Demon Witch Child is a 1975 Spanish horror film directed by Amando de Ossorio, best known for his Blind Dead series of films. Starring Marián Salgado, Julián Mateos, Fernando Sancho and Kali Hansa, the film is generally judged by one of two camps – those who see it simply as one of the slew of post-Exorcist cash-ins and those who see it something of a minor classic from one of the more overlooked of Europe’s genre directors.

In remotest Spain, a witch is ransacking a church in order to obtain relics for her coven’s Black Mass. The local police close in on the old crone and add child snatching to her list of crimes, prompting much cackling until the police threaten her with a truth serum injection, at which point, rather unexpectedly, she throws herself out of the police station window, killing herself. Decidedly more attractive witch (Hansa, also seen in de Ossorio’s own Night of the Sorcerers and Jess Franco’s Perverse Countess), vows to avenge her partner in crime by cursing the police inspector (Italian Western regular, Sancho) and giving his young daughter, Susan (Salgado, who also pops up in Who Can Kill a Child?), a cursed talisman, which she hides inside her teddy bear – just their little secret, you understand.

Though initially coming across as a rather innocuous bunch of loons in the woods, the witches soon reveal themselves as extremely evil-hearted and Susan’s curse soon takes effect, changing her from a sweet little girl (actually, the least convincing sweet little child since Peter Bark in Burial Ground) to a levitating, (mildly) swearing, baby-killing, castrating maniac, though in her defense, she does gift-wrap the severed penis to give to her mum as a present (keep that receipt!). A doubting priest (Mateos from Cold Eyes of Fear) enters the fray but will he have the faith and strength to lift the curse and stop the witches’ mayhem?

In fairness, Demon Witch Child would have sufficed as a three-word synopsis. However, what de Ossorio regularly lacks in narrative and the ability to harness acting talent, he again makes up for in genuine creepiness and an often startling gloom, right up until the final frame. The slender budget inevitably makes the effects look shakey, especially the levitation scene but also adds a strange otherworldliness to Salgado’s make-up and the scene in which the old hag’s soul inhabits Susan’s body. Though centered on witchcraft rather than the demonic possession of The Exorcist, there is a connection between the two films, with Salgado dubbing Linda Blair’s voice in the Spanish language edition of the more famous film. The film is, by turn, ridiculous and intriguing, some scenes seemingly having no bearing on plot and the priest’s moral and religious dilemmas being more Jeremy Kyle than a search for divine truth. Titled La Endemoniada (the cursed or the damned) in the original Spanish, the film has been released on dvd by Code Red as part of a double bill with Help Me…I’m Possessed!

Daz Lawrence

Hierro (2009) is a Spanish horror film directed and co-written by Gabe Ibáñez. It stars Elena Anaya, Bea Segura, Mar Sodupe, Miriam Correa, Andrés Herrera, and Kaiet Rodríguez.

In 2009 Hierro was nominated for Best Film at the Sitges International Film Festival, and Elena Anaya won Best Actress. Anaya also won the Best Actress award at the Fantasporto Festival in 2010.

Whilst on a ferry trip to the tiny volcanic island of El Hierro, María (Elena Anaya) loses her son Diego (Kaiet Rodríguez). Police find a body, but María is certain it is not her little boy. Increasingly disturbed, she experiences elaborate hallucinations, develops a fear of water connected to the disappearance, and becomes obsessed with investigating the mystery herself.

Possibly inspired (if only tangentially) by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal in 2007, Hierro is a mother’s nightmare alchemically transmuted into a dream narrative packed with surreal images. Photographed with flair and creativity by Alejandro Martínez, it’s a tale of subtle, melancholy dread, blessed with a minutely detailed sense of place and a strong central performance from Elena Anaya (Talk to Her; The Skin I Live In). Ibáñez ravishes our attention with a stream of weird and unsettling tableaux which resonate powerfully and harmoniously with the emotional needs of the story. For instance, when María tries to go swimming to overcome her newly minted fear of water, we see her standing by the poolside with bubbles rising from her mouth, as though the whole room is underwater. The effect is bizarre, but it expresses very well the sensation of moving as if submerged, in a situation where nothing happens fast enough and where panic and claustrophobia stifle hope.

It’s refreshing to encounter a genre film without the obvious flag-posts of horror, adult in its subject and tone, which nonetheless quivers with foreboding. The film’s approach to character is untypical too; María, for instance, is in a quietly matter-of-fact lesbian relationship with Laura (Bea Segura), a fellow marine biologist. That Hierro doesn’t become ‘Lesbian Marine Biologists on the Island of Death’ is a testament to Ibáñez’s calm and sensitive storytelling; María’s sexuality is simply a detail of ordinary life, not some hugely significant burden upon the narrative.

If the film has relatives in the genre they’re at the artier end of 1970s horror; in particular there are some striking similarities to Robert Allen Schnitzler’s The Premonition (1975), which also focussed on a disturbed mother searching for her child. Perhaps Hierro needs a few narrative complications to flesh out its leisurely pacing, but this is nevertheless a beautiful, haunting film that tells a tragic story with considerable invention.

Gabe Ibáñez began as an animator on two Spanish genre films by Álex de la Iglesia, The Day of the Beast (1995) and Perdita Durango (1997) before moving into TV commercials. Discussing Hierro with Alfonso Rivera (of the website Cineuropa) he said: “The theme of madness interested me a great deal: it gave me scope for creating visual cinema, based on the possibilities of film language, cinematography and sound. Madness is a very abstract concept, but the devices of film are perfect for exploring it. The sensory power of film, with the music, editing and colours, really helps in exploring such a subject.”

The film was shot mainly on El Hierro in the Canary Islands, with a few scenes filmed on Gran Canaria (the latter an island whose charms were a source of fascination for Jesús Franco: see Macumba Sexual; Mansion of the Living Dead; Oasis of the Zombies).

Stephen Thrower, Horrorpedia

The Horrible Sexy Vampire is a 1970 Spanish horror film (original title: El vampiro de la autopista “The Vampire of the Highway”) written and directed by José Luis Madrid (Seven Murders for Scotland Yard). It stars Waldemar Wohlfahrt [Wal Davis], Barta Barri, Anastasio Campoy, Susan Carvasal, Victor Davis, Kurt Esteban, Luis Induni and Patricia Loran.

A rash of murders leads the local doctor to believe the person responsible is connected with a deceased excentric Baron. The manner in which the killings were performed indicates the murderer to be an inhuman sadist. The closer the doctor comes to the truth behind the murders brings him into greater danger.

‘There’s very little horror in The Horrible Sexy Vampire, and although the girls on display are a welcome sight (after all these are the days when women were shaped like women, rather than either skin-and-bones or plastic-on-bones), these scenes often feel awkward and voyeuristic at best. The invisibility and other special effects are done on the cheap and the whole film feels tired and languid. Acting is horrendous, with Wohlfahrt in particular coming off an uncomfortable.’ Octavio Ramos, Examiner.com

‘As a prime example of the boring and under-achieving co-produced European horror cinema of four decades past, 1970′s The Horrible Sexy Vampire is, well, boring and under-achieving.  Funded with pocket change forked forth by Spain’s Cinefilms and Italy’s Fida Cinematografica and filmed in Germany, Vampire is a pulse-free skin flick that tries to excuse itself with a tiresome Gothic horror framework.  The only noteworthy aspect of the production is its own inherent awfulness, for which the title gets things at least partly right – it’s certainly horrible.’ Kevin Pyrtle, Wtf-Film

‘The pacing of The Horrible Sexy Vampire is on par with most European trash-horror films from the seventies. Meaning it is languid. It is slow. It is plodding. It doesn’t have enough character, violence, or plot to make it engaging. There are exactly zero twists. It even lacks atmosphere, which is a shame because this movie takes place in Stuttgart, which I imagine is a place that only has atmosphere and nothing else.’ Bleeding Skull

‘The film is awful, a little flesh and a story that drags on and on… but, strangely, it is Wohlfahrt’s performance – as bad as it is – that keeps you watching. He hasn’t the skill or presence to pull off one character, never mind two, but somehow he manages to keep an interest going in between the gratuitous booby shots.’ Taliesen Meets the Vampires

‘ … the film is hamstrung by laborious direction and particularly dim-witted writing, the product of which is several almost static dialogue scenes elaborating on an already illogical plot. The sole redeeming feature is the lighting, which produces a suitably Gothic atmosphere.’ David McGillivray, BFI Monthly Film Bulletin, May 1976

‘The action is restricted to the vampire’s endlessly repeated attacks on anonymous women as they come out of the shower, go to bed, and so on – in fact, as soon as a woman undresses, an attack can be expected. The castle’s atmosphere is largely provided by the repetition of a hollow-laughter track at regular intervals. The rest consists of static, overwritten dialogue scenes.’ The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror, edited by Phil Hardy, Aurum Press, 1993

IMDb

Thanks to VHS Wasteland and Vampyres Online for some of the images above

Atrocious is a 2010 Spanish found footage horror film, written and directed by Fernando Barreda Luna, and starring Rafael Amaya, Cristian Valencia and Clara Moraleda.

In April 2010, the Quintanilla family travelled to their old farmhouse in Sitges, where teenagers Christian and July set about investigating the Legend of the Girl of Garraf Woods , a local legend of a ghost haunting the nearby area. Using video cameras, the brother and sister recorded their findings as they went along. Five days later, the Quintanilla family was found murdered under strange circumstances. The local police reported the existence of 37 hours of recorded evidence. Atrocious finally reveals the shocking true footage of those tragic five days…

Buy Atrocious on DVD from Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

“There’s the kernel of a really strong horror film here, and Luna certainly has talent, though perhaps more as a director than as a scriptwriter. For all its unevenness, many genre fans will find this appealing, and it’s a great calling card – let’s hope there’s more, better work to come from this talented team.” Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film

“Even in a horror subgenre that I don’t care very much for in general, it still doesn’t take me a whole lot to sell me on a movie. A decent story, execution that doesn’t betray the concept, and the all-too-rare likeable characters are all I really need. It doesn’t seem those few things are all that much to ask for, but it’s shockingly seldom that that these piece come together in a horror film these days. Luckily, this short, sweet Spanish entry hits the right notes for a scary little time that I can totally recommend.” DVD Verdict

“Although the found footage subgenre has certainly thrown up a few gems over the last few years and probably still has room for a few more before it disappears into the ether, Atrocious is sadly not one of them. The film is definitely towards the bottom of the barrel, and even ardent fans of Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch and their many imitators are likely to struggle to find much to enjoy – mainly due to the fact that almost nothing happens during the entire running time. For the most part the film is made up of the two unlikeable protagonists wandering aimlessly around, with Luna seeming to be under the impression that the mere sight of the semi-picturesque hedge labyrinth is enough to make things atmospheric and creepy.” Beyond Hollywood

IMDb | Wikipedia | Related: found footage | Spanish horror

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Bell from Hell  - original title: La Campana del Infierno and also released as A Bell from Hell, The Bell of Hell and The Bells - is a 1973 Spanish horror film directed by Claudio Guerin Hill and starring Renaud Verley, Viveca Lindfors, and Alfredo Mayo. On the final day of shooting for Bell from Hell, Claudio Guerin fell or jumped to his death from the central bell tower constructed for the film.

A young man is released from an asylum and returns home for revenge on his aunt and her three daughters, who had him declared insane in order to steal his inheritance…

“Though it adheres to the commonly used plot devices of vengeance and family inheritance, the story is still well written and kept interesting thanks to the quirky dynamics of the young, mischievous, and darkly humorous protagonist, John. Whether or not viewers end up liking him, John is still an entertaining, multidimensional character, a man-child that’s part hero and part villain.” At the Mansion of Madness

“The repeated imagery of the village church’s new bell, which is being hauled to town and installed as the lurid events of John’s saga play out, work so well as a metaphorical motif that when it moves from a symbol to an actor in the events, it’s quite a shock. Other shots use extreme close-ups of beautiful objects in the foreground to obscure the sordid stuff going on behind it–such as thelovely, vivid red roses pushed right up to the camera as, behind them, John completes the crime for which he was incarcerated. Fascinating, beautiful stuff, and always with a storytelling purpose. When a movie’s scenery is as much fun to look at as the focal action, you know the director is an artist.” Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies

“Quite accomplished and filled with the kind of ethereal dread that foreign fright flicks often excel in, it’s not hard to see why fans and critics have generally gravitated toward this scurrilous story of insanity and revenge. But this is hardly a flawless film. Indeed, A Bell from Hell suffers from the equally bizarre circumstances under which it was made. In the end, what Guerìn intended, and what is up on the screen never seems to effectively gel. Consequently, what should have been a violent slice of madness-mired vindication is frequently too dreamy and disjointed for its own good.” Bill Gibron, DVD Talk

Watch the film online:

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Paranormal Xperience (aka Paranormal Xperience 3D and PX3D) is a 2011 Spanish horror film. As the title suggests, it was shot in 3D and directed by Sergi Vizcaino. It stars Amaia Salamanca, Maxi Iglesias, Lucho Fernández, Úrsula Corberó, Miguel Ángel Jenner, Manuel de Blas, Alba Ribas, Eduard Farelo and Óscar Sinela

Plot:

Angela a psychiatry student whose skeptical of the existence of the paranormal in the world, is forced to investigate an old mining town for the purpose of proving or disproving paranormal activity. Along with her, she is accompanied by her younger sister Diana Whisper, who lends Angela her van, and a few other students. They journey to the town and go through some ancient salt mines. Aware of the danger provided by tampering with the grounds, through the legend of the sadistic Dr. Matarga, they still open a portal to the after life with disastrous consequences…

The film was released as a 2D DVD and 3D Blu-ray in the UK in February 2014.

Buy Paranormal Xperience on DVD or Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews:

“We spend forty minutes having the students wander around and then forty minutes watching them being picked off by heavy smoker and creepy-mask owner, Martarga. Excuses to split up are forged, getaway vans develop engine problems, nut jobs loom in the corner of the frame and much is made of the fact that the female cast have attractive body parts (one memorable bit of mise en scene places Ursuala Corbero’s denim-short clad buttocks in a lingering, extreme close-up filling two-thirds of the frame while something goes on in the distance, barely glimpsed in the few inches left available, even Matarga notices, going on to compliment her on her ‘buen culo’ twenty minutes later).” Guy Adams, The British Fantasy Society

“The film was beautifully shot using some interesting locations. The ghost town looked pretty creepy (even in daylight) and the choice to set some of the action in a salt mine was a nice touch that offered an interesting look I had not seen in a horror film before. There are several effects/death scenes that are freaking outstanding!! These were achieved using some great practical effects. The sad part was that there is also a death scene where only CGI is used and it looked HORRIBLE.”  Corey Danna, HorrorNews.net

“Predictable and clichéd as it may be (does a film’s twist still count as a twist if we can see it coming from a mile off?), Paranormal Xperience does impress in its gore sequences. Despite being very obviously filmed for 3D (expect to see a lot of fingers, gore and grue thrown at the screen), it’s delightfully nasty at times, making good use of the old eyeball piercing, barbed wire garrotting and smashed glass splatter sequences throughout. The CGI blood is no good, and some of the makeup work is a bit iffy, but it only adds to the film’s charm.” Starburst

“It’s pretty. Shiny. Glossy. PX3D is like Gossip Girl but with more violence. The cast is good looking, some of the kill scenes were good and bloody, and it made a valiant attempt at being a paranormal/torture porn hybrid of some sort. There’s a decent story buried somewhere underneath all of the smooth visuals, though it’s a shame that it wasn’t fleshed out better.” The Horror Club

Wikipedia | IMDb

El Retorno del Hombre Lobo (Return of the Wolfman) is a 1981 Spanish horror film that is the ninth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. It was briefly released theatrically in the US in 1985 by The Film Concept Group as The Craving, and more recently on DVD and Blu-ray as Night of the Werewolf.

In an outdoor trial in the 16th Century, Elizabeth Bathory and a number of witches are being sentenced – Bathory to spend her remaining days entombed, most of her followers beheaded or hanged. The brawn of her operation, Waldemar Daninsky, the celebrated nobleman-lycanthrope, is sentenced to be left in a state of living death, with a silver dagger through his heart and an iron mask (the mask of shame, no less) to keep him from biting. Centuries later, the dagger is removed by grave-robbers and Daninsky returns to activity, fighting against a revived Elizabeth Bathory and her demonic manservant, courtesy of some attractive modern-day witchery.

Outside of Italian gialli, there is little more confusing a purchase than a Naschy film – it is an essential rite of passage as a serious fan of horror films that at some point you may mistakenly end up with two copies of this under differing titles in error. Fortunately, it’s a cracker, not only the crystalisation of everything Naschy had attempted up to this point but also one of the peaks of Spanish horror. Paul Naschy had been successful enough by this stage that he was afforded a budget that matched his ambition – wobbly sets were replaced by actual castle ruins and sumptuous gothic decoration, the scope of the film covering vampires, werewolves and that old Spanish stand-by, the skeletal Knights Templar.

The cast sees Naschy regular Julia Saly (Panic Beats, Night of the Seagulls) as Bathory, pale-faced and clearly relishing the role, without ever attempting to overshadow Naschy. Naschy seems positively weepy, surrounded as he is in fog, thrilling coloured lighting and decked out in ancient finery. The other three main female characters, played by Pilar Alcón, Silvia Aguilar and Azucena Hernández had varied careers in Spanish genre cinema, all of them supplementing their incomes with ‘daring’ magazine photo-shoots – although nudity is scarce in the film, the three of them continually seem on the cusp of disrobing.

The pace is particularly brisk for a Naschy film, perhaps aided by him taking the director’s chair himself, instead of his usual muse, León Klimovsky. That said, the film makes little sense in the chronology of Daninsky werewolf films (this being the ninth of twelve), neither does the lenient sentence given to Bathory at the beginning of the film, nor her loyal servant suddenly being Hell-bent on revenge. No matter, the characters are interesting and straight-faced enough to carry what is lower rank Hammer fodder in theory.

Alas, 1981 was not the right time to suddenly nail your Gothic fetishes – horror cinema had long abandoned candle-lit castles and fangy nymphs and the box office was most unforgiving, leaving Naschy to film several films in Japan to try to rebuild not only his reputation but his finances. Time still doesn’t really seem to have caught up with Naschy, his films still polarising opinion amongst genre fans and almost completely ignored by the mainstream both in terms of interest and influence.

The soundtrack, though perfectly suited, is an outrageous plagiarism of both Ennio Morricone (the wailing harmonica of Once Upon a Time in the West) and Stelvio Cipriani (What Have They Done to Your Daughters? – in fairness, regularly reused by himself on the likes of Tentacles). The stunning cinematography is courtesy of Alejandro Ulloa, who also shot the likes of Horror Express, Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion and The House by the Edge of the Lake. The special effects largely stay away from the time-lapse transformation from human to beast and the film doesn’t suffer in the slightest – Naschy’s writhing at the sight of the moon being entertaining enough. Naschy remained proud of the film up to his death in 2009 and rightly so.

Daz Lawrence

Open Windows is an upcoming Spanish horror thriller directed and written by Nacho Vigalondo.The film stars Elijah Wood, Sasha Grey and Neil Maskell. The film is set for an April 2014 release.

Elijah Wood stars as a fanboy of actress Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey), and as the winner of an online contest he gets the rare chance to have a dinner date with her. However, when dinner plans are cancelled someone named Chord says he can make up for it. Chord gives Nick (Elijah Wood) the tools to spy on Jill from his computer, in a way that no fan could ever dream of. After each demand Chord gives Nick, it becomes apparent that Chord set the whole thing up and Nick is a part of a much bigger, more sinister plan…

Wikipedia | IMDb

Vampyros Lesbos (Spanish title: Las Vampiras) is a 1971 West German-Spanish horror film directed and co-written by Jesús Franco.It is, arguably, Franco’s best known film today, having reached a certain cult audience through the success of the mid 1990s soundtrack release, which became a favourite of the easy listening club scene of the time.

It stars Franco’s early 70s muse Soledad Miranda as Countess Nadine Oskudar, a beautiful female vampire who seduces her victims by performing a sensual and erotic nightclub act (a recurring theme in Franco’s films). She takes a fancy to American Linda Westinghouse (Ewa Strömberg) and makes her both a lover and a victim, appearing to her in a series of sexual dreams. When Linda travels to a remote island to claim an inheritance, she meets the Countess in the flesh and is soon under her spell. Dr Seward (Dennis Price, in a character reference to Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula) investigates her case, and on discovering the truth, attempts to use her to become a vampire himself.

Shot between June and July 1970 in Turkey, the film was one of Franco’s more successful films, both financially and artistically. Coming to the film straight from his most mainstream era (working with the likes of Harry Alan Towers on films like Count Dracula, Venus in Furs, The Bloody Judge and the Fu Manchu series), Franco at this stage seemed to reveling in a new sense of freedom. international censorship allowed him to explore erotic themes more openly, and his movies of the era – others include A Virgin Among the Living Dead and The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein – increasingly eschewed conventional narrative structure in favour of hallucinogenic and psychedelic imagery and music. This is cinema at its most free, and often feels closer to experimental arthouse production than conventional horror.

Buy Soledad Miranda Vampyros Lesbos poster (image above) from Amazon.co.uk

The lesbian theme as suggested by the title was something that had, only a few years earlier, been taboo in cinema, and Franco certainly exploits it in this film. However, it would be unfair to suggest that the film is soft porn, as has often been claimed. Rather, this is erotic horror, both elements complimenting each other.

The film would slip from public view by the 1980s, remembered only by Euro horror cultists. But it would have an unexpected revival in 1995, when the soundtrack album was released. In the mid 1990s, easy listening – or ‘loungecore’ – was the big thing amongst London hipsters, and soon spread across the UK and beyond.

Buy soundtrack CD from Amazon.co.uk

The film’s score – Manfred Hübler, Siegfried Schwab and Jesús Franco (working under the alias of David Khune) was perfect for these clubs, suffused with sitar and offering a mix of the exotic and the kitsch. The album – originally released as 3 Films By Jess Franco and aimed squarely at soundtrack collectors – was repackaged as Vampyros Lesbos – Sexadelic Dance Party , and was a compilation of the albums Sexadelic and Psychedelic Dance Party, and featured music from three Franco  Vampyros Lesbos, She Killed in Ecstasy and The Devil Came from Akasava.

It was released by German cult soundtrack specialists Crippled Dick Hot Wax on CD and vinyl. In 2006, an extended version was issued as a double LP. In the UK, Redemption Films issued the film using the artwork featuring Soledad Miranda instead of their usual distinctive black and white covers, to capitalise on the popularity of the film.

CAST:

Ewa Strömberg as Linda Westinghouse
Soledad Miranda as Countess Nadine Carody
Andrés Monales as Omar
Dennis Price as Dr. Alwin Seward
Paul Müller as Dr. Steiner
Heidrun Kussin as Agra
Michael Berling as Dr. Seward’s assistant
Beni Cardoso as Dead woman (uncredited)
Jesús Franco as Memmet (uncredited)
José Martínez Blanco as Morpho (uncredited)

DF