Film critic Rowan-Legg begins with the same question that I
asked when I saw Devil’s Backbone;
why have Spain’s horror-thrillers only gotten attention in the last 15 years?
What was their standing before that? Why were Armando D’Ossorio’s horror films
ignored? His Tombs of the Blind Dead
and subsequent works are so obscure, not to mention his other films. If Spain
was renowned for Pedro Almadovar’s neurotic-woman comedies, why not horror?
It seems that
D’Ossorio’s movies were meant for the kind of people that liked Dario Argento’s
Italian gore fests. When it comes to Spain’s late development in the horror
film genre, the author blames it on the country’s instability. First there was
the civil war of the 1930’s, when few theaters were functioning, then the
country’s strict censorship, then the strong influence of the Catholic church,
and finally the Franco regime’s dislike of foreign influence. As time went on,
the country’s filmmakers created celebrations of the country’s music and
dancing, which were more acceptable to the country’s conservative leaders.
Franco’s death in 1975 flooded Spain with American movies, so what use was
there for poor-quality native cinema?
When the Spanish
horror films began in earnest, the directors like Franco, Martin, and Naschy
took their cues from Britain’s Hammer horror films, hiring actors like
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The use of American and/or British actors
did help get them some exposure outside the country, but even that was limited.
Franco’s movies never went much further than the cult circuit, and they bear a
strong resemblance to Argento’s works. Should they be classed as Eurotrash
films? If the USA already had enough horror movies to fill a video rental
store, what use was there for Franco’s horror films?
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