October isn’t complete without a scary movie marathon or a maratón de películas de terror! A pesar or despite Hollywood being known for the scariest of movies, there are plenty of películas de terror in Spanish that are worth watching. Get ready to practice and scream in Spanish with the following suggestions.

Photo taken by Nick Kenrick found on Flickr.com with license CC BY 2.0

Los Tigres No Tienen Miedo

This movie, also released by the name Vuelven or ‘(they) return’ is a wonderful mix of scary and suspense or suspenso. It was written and directed by Issa Lopéz and was released in Mexico in 2017, but has been making its rounds in the U.S., Canada and Europe this year. The story tells the tale of the children who have been orphaned by the cartels in Mexico. Through the movie, we follow Estrella whose mother was killed but who comes back. Estrella is very scared and joins a group of children who are also orphans or huérfanos, and through their eyes, you see not only the drug related violencia, but also how the dead or muertos are always with us.

Los Ojos de Julia

Julia’s Eyes is another great movie to watch this month. It was written and directed by Guillem Morales from Cataluña in Spain and was released in 2010. Los Ojos de Julia starts with the horrible death of Sara whose death police label as suicide. Sara’s twin sister, Julia, is devastated by the death of her sister. Both women had a enfermedad degenerativa that caused them to loose their eye sight. Julia doesn’t believe that Sara committed suicide and begins  to follow her sister’s tracks. The movie keeps you in suspense over what is real and what could be caused by Julia’s loss of vision.

Mientras Duermes

Released in 2011, Sleep Tight is the story of Cesar, a man whose mission in life is to make his neighbours unhappy. Clara, who is very hard to agitate, becomes a target of Cesar’s furia or fury and he goes out of his way to hurt her. He becomes creepier and creepier pushing all boundaries. Will Cesar manage to make Clara’s life hell? How far will he go to do this?

Clásicas Mexicanas

If you are more into the classic styles of scary movies like Frankenstein and Dracula, the following movies are for you.

Mas Negro Que La Noche

‘Darker than Night’, directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada, is the typical gory scary movie with lots of blood and espiritus sobrenaturales. Ofelia inherits a house from an old aunt with the condition that she takes care of the aunt’s black cat. One day, Ofelia and her friends discover that the cat is dead, and what follows are several unexplained and bloody deaths. This movie was released in 1975. You can watch it below.

https://youtu.be/sMejv3b3MPE

Venenos para las Hadas

Also by Carlos Enrique Taboada, Poison for the Fairies tells the story of two friends Verónica and her new school friend Flavia. Verónica is very imaginative and is obsessed with witchcraft or brujería. Thanks to some horrible circumstances, Verónica is able to convince Flavia that she is a witch or bruja. The ending of this macabre childhood story is quite bizarre and leaves so many things up in the air.

https://youtu.be/2xBUVcdbZUM

Cronos

This was the first movie of the famous Mexican director Guillermo del Toro who is responsible for movies like The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth. Cronos tells the story of Jesús who is an antiques dealer. In his latest finds, he discovers a small artefact hidden inside a statue. He polishes and is curios about what it could do when it suddenly stings him. After the sting, Jesús feels rejuvenated and his health and physical appearance changes. However, his youth comes at a price: he is very thirsty for blood.

Have you seen any of these movies? What other Spanish horror movies would you add to this list?