Spanish Horror

Lili’s Pick: REC

Lanie’s Pick: The Devil’s Backbone

Good horror films should not be measured by the sum of their blood and guts, but by the ingenuity of their scares. But blood and guts are a plus. Foreign cinema is often overlooked due to that 1 inch barrier called subtitles, and while so many disregard a foreign flick because they can’t be bothered to read, they miss out on some truly brilliant works of art. This Double Feature Thursday, on the night of the blue moon of this October, was all about Spanish horror, and all about watching films that have been on our lists for too long. Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone set an eerie and dark tone from the start, as the story centers around some of Guillermo’s staples: children, war, and ghosts. As the unspoken sibling film to Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone tells its story in a familiar, fairytale-esque fashion, making an otherwise bleak story seem magical, even hopeful. REC, on the other hand, was totally, completely, and utterly terrifying. It is exact kind of no holds barred scary that’s so compelling, and so hard to pull off successfully. REC, in its original, horrifying, non-dubbed glory, is not easy to find. There may be a copy on dailymotion that some good samaritan uploaded... but view it at your own risk. As a horror whore with high standards, I was ready to be critical of another heavy-breathed found footage film. But REC was truly petrifying and completely original—not to mention eerily relevant to the literal quarantine vibes we’re currently experiencing. You really can’t anticipate what this movie evolves into when it first begins. There was a surprising amount of substance to this story and a myriad of creative scares in its short 1hr and 17min runtime. I had to watch the last 10 minutes almost completely from underneath a blanket. I hear people speak about movies like Hereditary as if it’s the scariest movie they’ve ever seen... and if that’s the case then they should definitely avoid films like REC.