10 Spanish Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die
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00:00Hello, everybody, and welcome to this week's episode of Ash vs The Evil Wed, where I am
00:08the Ash, the Wednesday is pretty evil, and they come together to make this weekly horror
00:13movie series as curated by you.
00:14But you tell me what you want to see in the comments section or in the premiere chat sidebar
00:19somewhere around here, hello to everyone in there, for horror movie lists, basically,
00:23on this wonderful channel hosted by this horrible host.
00:26What more could you want?
00:27What a lovely combination.
00:29As for the here and now, this week, since we're all stuck indoors and can't really
00:32get out and about and do much, I figured I'd give you some compulsory viewing, because
00:36everybody loves homework, we all went to school and liked school, didn't we?
00:40So here's some homework for you.
00:42Set around the lovely Spain, because that's kind of like a holiday, it's beautiful vistas,
00:46delicious tapas, annual tomato fights, and it also has a heap of horrible, horrible horror
00:52movies that will scar you for life.
00:53So compulsory viewing, homework, and scarring for life.
00:57It is truly a horror list.
00:58It is truly a horror scary list.
01:01So there you go, I hope you enjoy.
01:03So without further ado, sola maestra del infierno, Ash from WhatCulture, and these are 10 películas
01:09de terror españolas que debes ver antes de morir.
01:13Oh, and PS, don't forget to check out WhatCulture Gaming at the end of this video for part two
01:17of Evil Wednesdays, which is horror-themed video games stuff after this horror-themed
01:22movie stuff.
01:23Very exciting.
01:24Enjoy the video.
01:2510.
01:26The Skin I Live In
01:28Pedro Almodovar is a household name when it comes to directors, delivering some of the
01:32most pertinent and colourful, in all senses of the word, movies that have made it to cinema
01:36screens.
01:37The Skin I Live In, then, is one of its finest, a horror movie that doesn't rely on traditional
01:42frights but instead burrows deep into psychological territory and stays wormed into your brain
01:47long after watching.
01:48The story is one that follows poor Vera, a woman held captive against her will in the
01:52home of Dr. Ledgard, who's keeping her there to test his experimental form of skin that
01:58is impervious to damage.
01:59He's inspired by the loss of life in a flaming car accident, with the plot slowly spiralling
02:03outwards to reveal exactly the truth of the relationship between Vera and Ledgard.
02:07Starring Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya at their very best, there is good reason this
02:12mind-bending movie won a whole heap of awards.
02:15Treat yourself.
02:169.
02:17Julia's Eyes
02:18The fear of being murdered by a knife-wielding madman easily crosses cultural boundaries,
02:23as every society has had to contend with the unfortunate reality of serial killers.
02:28Spanish horror has easily kept up with the evolving subgenre with its own slasher-inspired
02:32films like Sleep Tight, but it is the ingenious Julia's Eyes that stands out from the crowd.
02:37Julia's Eyes tells the story of a woman who is slowly losing her sight as she tries to
02:41solve the murder of her twin sister.
02:43As Julia's vision gets worse, the plot grows more complex, plunging both Julia and the
02:48audience into disorienting darkness.
02:50The story is complicated in a way that is reminiscent of the best 70s Italian gallo
02:55movies, or even Hitchcock.
02:56Julia's degenerative eyesight provides the perfect plot device to create maximum suspense,
03:01whilst also serving as a metaphor for trust, both romantic and otherwise.
03:05Julia's Eyes is smarter than your average bear, if your average bear was a slasher,
03:10and brings a subversive new meaning to the old saying, love is blind.
03:14Especially if you're willing to, uh, overlook the eyeball terror that'll be thrown in your
03:19face.
03:20Overlook.
03:21Eyes.
03:22Good pun.
03:238.
03:24Veronica
03:25Now, don't sigh at this one, I know everyone is big and strong when it comes to this Netflix
03:28horror, but it is still an exceptionally tight movie, and I stand by it, so it's on this
03:33list.
03:34Insidious and The Conjuring are two of the most successful horror films of the last decade.
03:38Both movies follow a simple recipe, start by putting a child in danger of being possessed
03:42or killed by a demon, sprinkle in some based on a true story to help ground the supernatural
03:48shenanigans in reality, and add a heaping cup of jump scares.
03:52Then we get to Veronica, which throws in its own bag of spice into the mix and makes something
03:57new of the whole formula.
03:58Opening with a horrifyingly believable emergency phone call from a distraught young girl as
04:03police arrive at a home torn to pieces, the movie immediately plants a firm foot in reality
04:08before getting to the demon stuff.
04:11Flashback to three days prior, and we learn that 15-year-old Veronica has brought the
04:15wrath of a dark spirit upon herself and her family after playing with a Ouija board.
04:21Don't play with Ouija boards.
04:22Director Paco Plaza, which I will certainly get to more of, is excellent at taking implausible
04:27plots and making them feel tangible.
04:29Veronica provides plenty of genuinely creepy moments, because it just feels so real.
04:357.
04:36Time Crimes
04:37If I told you Time Crimes combines the absurdity of Evil Dead 2 with the complexity of something
04:43like Primer, on a scale of 1 to 666, how excited would you be?
04:49Very is the answer.
04:50Time Crimes tells the story of a middle-aged man named Hector.
04:53After a bizarre series of events, including a naked woman in what appears to be a masked
04:58killer, Hector finds himself in a time machine and accidentally sends himself back about
05:02an hour.
05:03He quickly learns that he isn't the only Hector time-travelling about, as different
05:07versions of himself exist every time he goes back in time.
05:10The movie is needlessly complicated, but loads of fun to watch, as you try to untwist
05:15your mind and make sense of poor Hector's situation.
05:19Some have speculated that Time Crimes is a metaphor for the impossible-to-untangle web
05:23of lies created whilst having an affair.
05:26Regardless, the movie is a triumph for creating such a high-concept horror flick with no big-budget
05:30special effects to work with.
05:326.
05:33The Orphanage
05:34Horror likes to revisit the rose-coloured past with horrifying results.
05:38In this story, Laura wants to capitalise on the happy memories of her childhood, so
05:42she convinces her husband to invest in the probably worst real estate investment they
05:46could ever, an old orphanage.
05:48But let's be fair, she has noble plans on turning the building into a home for sick
05:52children.
05:53Whilst converting the place from creepy to healing, Laura's adopted child goes missing.
05:58After months, he is presumed dead, but Laura is seeing apparitions that lead her to believe
06:02otherwise.
06:03Produced with Guillermo del Toro's hand firmly mixing things up, The Orphanage is
06:07a phenomenon.
06:08The ominous image of a little boy with a creepy burlap sack mask has become iconic, and has
06:13resulted in the second-highest grossing debut ever for a Spanish film.
06:16If you have not seen it, you are surely in for a bittersweet treat.
06:215.
06:22The Devil's Backbone
06:23The Devil's Backbone is about a young orphan boy who is brought to a foster home with an
06:27ominous undetonated bomb firmly planted in the middle of its courtyard.
06:31It is not long before the young boy begins to be haunted by the ghost of another orphan
06:36child named Santi.
06:37After having a terrible experience working with a big Hollywood studio whilst making
06:41Mimic, Guillermo del Toro decided to return to his roots.
06:44The result is this unbelievably creepy ghost story set against the backdrop of the entire
06:49Spanish Civil War.
06:50The Devil's Backbone may have borrowed some of the looks of Santi from the pale Japanese
06:54ghosts of Duon and The Ring, but everything else here is wholly original.
06:59With The Devil's Backbone, del Toro is beginning to marry the complex themes of childhood,
07:03war, and national identity with traditional supernatural folklore.
07:08Something we will see him return to with a vengeance later in his career, but here it
07:12is worked out with incredible talent in the meantime.
07:154.
07:16Tessis
07:17In the wrong hands, a movie with the premise of Tessis could have turned into a tasteless
07:20and unwatchable horror film.
07:22Luckily for us, Tessis was the feature film debut of Alejandro Amenobar, who then went
07:27on to make Open Your Eyes, The Others, and won an Oscar for The Sea Inside.
07:31Needless to say, Tessis packs a wallop.
07:34The film follows Angela.
07:35She's planning on writing a university thesis on violence in the visual arts, and while
07:39she's researching, she stumbles upon an actual snuff film, which sets off a chain of events
07:44that threatens her life.
07:46Amenobar was a film student at the time he made Tessis, so the movie is made by a film
07:50student about film students finding a forbidden film while studenting.
07:54The meta-nature of the film allows Amenobar to freely criticise the way horror films are
07:58made and the way audiences respond to them.
08:01As has been said by better critics than me, Tessis has a thesis.
08:05It holds up a mirror to the audience, and especially horror fans.
08:08Amenobar acknowledges our innate attraction to violence, but he also asks where we should
08:12draw the line between entertainment and snuff.
08:163.
08:17The Others
08:18And mentioning Amenobar, the only Spanish movie on this list to be spoken in English,
08:22The Others is infamous for its plot twist that comes from a solid hour and a half of
08:26slow-burning dread.
08:28If you've managed to miss this one and still don't know the end, then get yourself a
08:31copy and have a blast.
08:34There's something for everyone in this white-hot boiling pot of tension.
08:39Starring Nicole Kidman as a mother trying to look after her photosensitive children
08:43in a dark, brooding family home, we're already onto a terrifying premise before any ghosts
08:48start showing up.
08:49And, oh boy, the ghosts start showing up, with the kids convinced that their dingy home
08:53is being haunted.
08:55The Others is a masterclass in anxiety and mystery.
08:58It's expertly moulded to be psychologically exhausting without ever stepping into cheap
09:01scare territory.
09:02And, wouldn't you know it, it is because it is another expert piece by Amenobar.
09:072.
09:08Pan's Labyrinth
09:09If you recall, there was some superb foreshadowing earlier in this list about how Guillermo del
09:13Toro would return with a vengeance to the themes of The Devil's Backbone later in his
09:18career.
09:19Well, Pan's Labyrinth is that return with a vengeance.
09:22Set in fascist Spain, Pan's Labyrinth tells a dark fairy tale about a young girl named
09:26Ophelia.
09:28She and her pregnant mother go to live with Captain Vidal, her sadistic stepfather, as
09:32he hunts Republic rebels hiding in the countryside.
09:35One night, a fairy leads Ophelia to a stone maze where a faun tells her she is the reincarnation
09:40of a princess and she must complete three tasks in order to return to her kingdom.
09:44Oh, ok, then just the normal stuff that goes on.
09:48Del Toro again combines the brutality of war and innocence of childhood beautifully, all
09:52whilst exploring themes of nationalism, femininity and death.
09:56Officially, Pan's Labyrinth is a treat, and truly stunning.
09:59From the titular Pan to the horrifying Pale Man, Del Toro crafts a visual masterpiece
10:04and this film is still the standard of visual effects and cinematography in spite of its
10:09age.
10:10Pan's Labyrinth is simply one of the best films ever made, and regardless of what argument
10:13you want to make about it, it belongs wholeheartedly to the fantastical side of the horror genre.
10:181.
10:19Wreck
10:20Of course, it had to be this at number one, I love Wreck.
10:23When you hear found footage, you know you're either going to get a really creative horror
10:26film or just plain old motion sickness.
10:29Add zombies into the genre mix and you might begin to roll your eyes.
10:32Nothing has been played out over the years quite like these two sub-genres and mashing
10:37them together sounds like a bad idea.
10:39But this was before our patience for zombies and shaky cam began to wear thin, and Spain
10:44gave us one of the best horror movies to belong to either sub-genre in Wreck.
10:49Wreck unfolds from the perspective of a documentary film crew making a television series about
10:54a local fire station.
10:55When the station is called to respond to an emergency at a nearby apartment complex, all
10:59hell breaks loose.
11:01The tenants are turning into vicious zombies and the building is quarantined, leaving the
11:05film crew stuck inside.
11:07Frequently popping up on Best Stop lists for both found footage and zombie movies, there
11:11is a reason this movie is so beloved.
11:14Wreck is a horrific rollercoaster ride you will never forget, Paco Plaza's claim to
11:18fame that stands as the best of its kind.
11:21And that's our list!
11:22Thank you so much for joining me for Ash vs the Evil Wed, and don't forget to check out
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11:38So you've got horror movies, horror games, comes together to make a lovely Wednesday
11:42don't you think, hey?
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11:49Thanks for watching!