Spain’s cabinet of horror

There are zombies in the building and ghosts of dead Republicans in the hallway. Spanish horror films from the late 1990s up to now are a moody, stylish amalgam of urban creepiness, plain supernatural and a touch of historical terror.

From today until Saturday, the “Spanish Film Festival 2023: A Panorama Of Horror And Intrigue Films” will screen a selection of six titles at House Samyan, with one film showing every day at 7pm (two films from the programme will also screen at Thai Film Archive on Saturday).

Unlike the Italian giallo horrors — a 1970s genre featuring black-gloved psycho-killers lurking behind shadowy piazzas — the Spanish ghost, murder, monster, supernatural and good-ol’-exploitation flicks of the same period are little known in this part of the world. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that a wave of Spanish filmmakers (or Spanish-speaking nationals…