Latin Horror Film Picks: Halloween 2010
Ah, Halloween. One year, you’re a ninja taking the strange candy your tia returned with from her latest jaunt back to the motherland. The next, you’re dressed as Spongebob Squarepants, taking strange candy from a dude named Double Love on Hollywood Boulevard.
However, if you don’t want to wake up in a dumpster covered in bong water, Schlitz and what could be soy sauce (again), then we think you should stay in, lock the doors and watch one of these fantastic horror films directed by—or starring some—of Latino cinema’s greatest and goriest.
*films ranked by year, not awesomeness
Vampyres (1974): Orgies! Lesbian vampires! Insatiable thirsts for blood! Spanish director José Ramón Larraz directs this recently recognized cult classic that follows the tale of two beautiful (in a ‘70s Playboy way) vampires Fran and Miriam who roam the English countryside, luring men to their castle to suck them… of their blood. Featuring the kind of skin you’d see on a late-night Skinemax flick, the highlight of the film has to be sequence where the two vampire nymphettes, having recently turned a pasty Englishman pastier by draining his blood, head off to the shower to join each other in a bit of bathtub lovin’. Great flick for those who like some T&A with their B&G (blood and guts). (Available on Netflix streaming.)
Vampiros en la Habana (1987): Another cult classic, Vampiros is part Fritz The Cat, Mafalda and Buena Vista Social Club. This animated political satire follows Count Dracula’s scientist son, Bernhardt, as strives to turn vampires into sun-dwellers using his “Vampisol” serum. After his first attempt fails, he gets booted from a European vampire consortium and flees with his nephew Pepito to Cuba. Pepito, unknowingly a bloodsucker himself, is Bernhardt’s guinea pig, and the results have caught the eye of a group of vamps from Chicago, including vampire mobster Johnny Terrori. It’s a really good flick, especially if you’re not into hot lesbian orgies or gore and doubly great if you have any of the aforementioned strange candies. (Available on Netflix streaming.)
Cronos (1993)/The Devil’s Backbone (2001): Guillermo De Toro’s ascent into Hollywood mainstream director all begins here. While these two films differ in terms of subject matter, they both draw from the same well as Del Toro’s later works—history, insects and Ron Perlman. These are technically horror films, but Del Toro is more interested in investigating the horror than just showing it. In both Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone, greed is the root of all evil, whether it’s immortality at whatever the cost or more earthly riches that eventually will bring you down. While thrills and chills line both movies, what makes them so great is making the viewer such an integral part of the experience. (The Devil’s Backbone is available on Netflix streaming.)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996): Robert Rodriguez isn’t afraid to get bloody messy, even in this, his most mainstream film not using kids as spies. The film revolves around two homicidal bank robbers, George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, who take a preacher and his kids hostage and try to make their escape into Mexico. They end up at a bar in the middle of nowhere run where the bouncer is Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo is the bartender and Salma Hayek is a stripper named Satánico Pandemónium. With that unholy trinity, you know shit’s about to go down. Once Satánico’s sexy dance ends and the place is revealed as a vampire den, let the slaying and splattering commence. As Clooney’s crew tries to fight their way to see light again, holy water guns and wooden stake arms are used to bring laughs and gore to this great nod to ‘60s Mexican horror cinema.
Rooms For Tourists (2004): In terms of scope, this is Argentina’s answer to The Blair Witch Project. An ultra-low budget scarefest that came out of the festival circuit with raves, Rooms For Tourists looks like it was shot with a HandiCam someone had laying about. But it uses that perfectly to capture the horror of five girls who missed their connecting train to Buenos Aires and have to stay at a Bed and Breakfast run by Norman Bates’ South American cousins. After one of the girls, ahem, vacates the premises, the rest are left to fend for themselves in a script that mirrors the feminist underpinnings the script for The Descent had. The film deserves bonus points for having hacked off limbs that don’t look like they were dissected cleanly by a laser.
REC (2007): If you’re freaked out by movies that use tight spaces and darkness as devices to ratchet up the suspense, you’ll definitely enjoy REC. This Spanish horror flick inspired the really good shot-for-shot U.S. remake, Quarantine. For more chills, however, the Spanish version is the way to go. One of the better films that use the first-person “shaky-cam” genre, it takes place in an apartment building where a TV reporter and her cameraman have gone to investigate an outbreak of an unknown origin. The scares begin when they’re locked into the building with residents and rescue workers by the government. As more of the locked in characters become infected with a virus and begin attacking each other, the chills amp up. You’ll never look at your neighbors the same way again.
The Orphanage (2007): Another film that was remade in the States. Unlike the American remake of REC, however, this one is superior and remains the one to watch. A couple and their child return to the wife’s home, an orphanage where she grew up. As with most ghost stories, this where things start to go wrong. The son starts talking to imaginary kids, the history of the house begins to wreak havoc on the marriage and the well-being of everyone now there and outsiders with hidden agendas show up. Plus, the “imaginary” kid wears a sack like the lead psycho in The Strangers. It’s definitely scary stuff, but with an ending so depressing that it takes the genre to another level. Not just one of the best horror movies to come out of Spain, but one of the best, period. (Available on Netflix streaming.)
So there you have it. Hopefully these films can get you through Devil’s Night until the last minutes of Halloween night. That is, unless the yellow SpongeBob outfit’s cries become too much. If that’s the case, put down the special candy and put on another movie!