Who Can Kill A Child? (1976)

Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador

Genre: Horror

Country: Spain

Summary: A British couple visits an island from their past, but when they arrive they are shocked to discover that the only inhabitants are now children. As they struggle to unravel the mysterious disappearance of the island’s adults, they become caught up in a bloody, supernatural horror.

Impressions: I totally forgot I watched this last week! This movie hasn’t been available for years; it only became available in 2007 when it was finally released on DVD. I recommend watching it with out the dubbing. The dialogue is mostly in Spanish, but the British couple speaks English. I watched the dubbed version, where the couple has Spanish voiceovers, and it really detracted from the effects of disorientation in the film.

The first half of the film is a very mysterious segment, where the couple is trying to figure out what’s going on. The second half, after things start getting explained, is more of a thrill ride/chase scene played out over an hour. The movie, running almost two hours in length, is a little too long for its subject matter, and the ending is bittersweet but delightful in its foreshadowing. If you can spare the time to sit through the whole thing, you could do worse than this horror flick.

3 out of 5

A Real Friend (2008)

Director: Enrique Urbizu

Genre: Horror

Country: Spain

Summary: A little girl begins to see specters haunting her apartment complex. Meanwhile, her mother, a nurse at a local hospital, fears that she has become a target for a mysterious stranger. Finally, an elderly priest has come to their hometown seeking an ancient enemy.

Impressions: You get three perspectives in this film, but the movie doesn’t really start to make sense until the last thirty minutes. By then I realized it was more surreal than real. It’s not as solid as An Xmas Tale, in my opinion, but the effects and makeup were awesome, and the characters were also very intriguing. It made me want to watch it all the way to the end, no matter what.

4 out of 5

An Xmas Tale (2008)

Director: Paco Plaza

Genre: Horror

Country: Spain

Summary: A group of children are terrorized by a zombie.

Impressions: I seriously don’t want to give anything away in this film so the summary is short. It’s a short film, too, less than an hour and a half, but it’s still good. “Some people” complained that they empathized with the antagonist, but if you empathize with anyone in the film that means the director’s at least managed to make you care about the characters. Not the strongest film in the series, but one of the better ones.

3 out of 5

Shiver “Eskalofrio” (2008)

Director: Isidro Ortiz

Genre: Horror

Country: Spain

Summary: Santi is a young man born with a rare skin condition that causes his skin to rapidly burn when exposed to light. In order to protect her son, his mother moves them to a small Spanish valley town, where the people are highly superstitious. When a murder occurs, the most likely suspects are the newcomers.

Impressions: This movie wowed me. I don’t know if watching films in foreign languages makes them better or not, but I was hooked immediately by the premise of the film and by the beautiful Spanish that fills it.

One thing that struck me was how quickly you forget about Santi’s photophobia, although it does drive the plot and reappear later in the film as a plot device. The filmmakers do a good job of foreshadowing and making sure that anything that could be construed as a deus ex machina is properly explained long beforehand.

Not only that, but the reveals are amazing. The big reveal of the film’s “monster” was so well-executed, and so unexpected, that I almost closed my eyes out of fear. It’s been quite a while since I felt such unease while watching a horror film. In the final act of the film, everything comes together and there are several genuinely unsettling moments of cringe-worthy nature.

This was an excellent horror film, I am so happy I had the opportunity to watch it, and I only regret that American audiences will never get to see this on the big screen because it’s a foreign language flick.

5 out of 5