Abstract
This chapter constitutes the first comprehensive study of vampires during the golden age of Spanish horror cinema. It begins by considering the introduction of vampires to Spain through imported, foreign literary models and moves on to the specific contextual and industrial coordinates that determined the contents and intrinsic qualities of vampire films. Although filmic production was broad and varied, two main cinematic vampire strands typical of popular Spanish cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s are identified: erotic horror and comedy. The chapter demonstrates that, in spite of Spanish horror cinema’s emulative nature, it is possible to read specific subversive national meanings into the country’s vampire films due to their emergence during a period of increasing opening up to Europe – “desarrollismo” and late Francoism – nevertheless marked by censorship and conservative social values. The chapter also includes the most thorough list of Spanish vampire films released between 1964 and 1985 to date, including details about co-producing countries, main English-language titles, and the genres to which they belong.
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Notes
- 1.
García Sánchez’s vampire is an alchemist, Gomis’s a tentacular spider and Pardo Bazán’s an aristocratic gold-digger who drains his victims’ breath.
- 2.
The short stories I am referring to are de Hoyos y Vinent’s “El señor Cadáver y la señorita Vampiro” (“Mr Cadaver and Miss Vampire,” 1910) and “Una hora de amor” (“One Hour of Love,” 1913), Wenceslao Fernández Flórez’s “El claro del bosque (historia de pesadilla)” (“The Clearing in the Wood (Nightmare Story),” 1922) and Carmen de Burgos’s La mujer fría (The Cold Woman, 1922).
- 3.
A similar sartorial reference is made in the much later Fantasmas en la casa (Ghosts in the House, 1961), a parody of the old dark house subgenre in which a character dresses up as a vampire-like “Hungarian baron.”
- 4.
- 5.
As of the time of writing (December 2022), there are still no books in English or Spanish entirely dedicated to Spanish vampire films, though there is at least one dedicated to zombies: Rubén Sánchez Trigos’s La orgía de los muertos (2019). José Abad’s influential El vampiro en el espejo (2013) contains a section on Spanish vampires (112–31), and a Ph.D. thesis on the topic, Andrés Peláez Paz’s El vampiro en el cine español (2017), does exist, but access to it is currently restricted to consultation through the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. In English, David Pirie’s The Vampire Cinema (1977) was the first to cover the subgenre in a chapter on Latin vampires (148–69).
- 6.
Hipnosis premiered in December of 1962 in France and Italy but was only shown in Spain in May of 1963.
- 7.
Allegedly, this is why Waldemar Daninsky became a Polish werewolf, even though he was initially conceived as Asturian (Naschy 1997, 73).
- 8.
The exceptions, films like Fernando Fernán Gómez’s El extraño viaje (Strange Voyage, 1964), Pedro Olea’s La casa sin fronteras (The House Without Frontiers, 1972) or Eugenio Martín’s Una vela para el diablo (A Candle for the Devil, 1973) and Aquella casa en las afueras (The House in the Outskirts, 1980), which do not hide their national origin and even deal openly with Spanish societal issues, are a minority. The term “Spanish Gothic” (Sala 2010b, 329–30) has been used to distinguish them from the rest of Spanish horror productions of the time.
- 9.
The Count’s strangling can be explained as a promotional technique, since the actor playing Count Oblensky as “Wal Davis” was in fact Waldemar Wohlfahrt, a German tourist who had been suspected of murdering several hitchhikers in his native country.
- 10.
She was the source for Jorge Grau’s historical melodrama Ceremonia sangrienta (The Legend of Blood Castle, 1973), where Lucia Bosè plays a descendant with the same name. In Carlos Aured’s El retorno de Walpurgis (Curse of the Devil, 1973), Báthory is the leader of a Satanic cult. However, she is not portrayed as a vampire in either film.
- 11.
Sometimes additional softcore scenes were recorded on purpose to aid distribution of films in international erotic markets.
- 12.
The year 1973 is also significant because the Basque terrorist group ETA assassinated Franco’s intended successor, Luis Carrero Blanco.
- 13.
One of the reigning motifs of this period is the male voyeur peeping through keyholes at women in the process of undressing.
- 14.
“Permiso marital” precluded women from employment or property ownership without their husband’s consent.
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Appendices
Appendix: A Filmography of Spanish Vampire Films, 1964–1985
A subsidiary aim of this chapter is to provide the most thorough list of Spanish vampire films from the golden age of Spanish horror to date. Inspired by Michael Guarneri’s own forensic analysis of Italian vampire cinema (2020, 8–11) and born out of many hours of horror viewing, the table below is presented as a first step toward an exhaustive filmography on this significant but still underresearched topic, and an invitation to future scholars to continue combing Spanish films for this creature’s appearances. Any synthesis of a topic demands a number of guiding parameters, and any process of selection involves necessary exclusion. What follows are a few notes that clarify my methodology.
The titles of horror films during this period, especially those of Euro Horror, were unstable and prone to dramatic and salacious renamings. I have kept original Spanish titles, or where initially released in a different language, their most common Spanish title. I have included only the most popular of the English titles, which were often the ones through which given films circulated in the US and the UK. If no English title was ever released, a direct translation is provided in brackets. I have included films like La maldición de los Karnstein and La notte dei diavoli (Night of the Devils, 1972) because they had some Spanish involvement, but I want to acknowledge that these are predominantly Italian films and are rightfully treated as such by critics like Roberto Curti (2015, 128–35; 2017, 74–7). Similarly, Vampyres , although directed by the Spanish director José Ramón Larraz, has also been considered a British film (Fenton and Flint 2001, 222–4), and La hija de Drácula (Dracula’s Daughter, 1972), as typical of Jesús Franco’s career, is an international co-production, in this case between France and Portugal. I have included all these films but pointed out their national origins, as well as, to the best of my knowledge, where they first premiered.
All studies of “vampiric” representations must wrestle with the capaciousness of this flexible category. I have included the blood-drinking plant in La isla de la muerte because it operates as, and is called, a “vampire,” as well as El secreto de la momia egipcia (Lips of Blood/Love Brides of the Blood Mummy, 1973), since its mummy is to all extents and purposes a vampire (it can hypnotize others, drinks blood, and leaves neck marks). Despite not fitting most of the contextual coordinates of other vampire films of the time, I have added Iván Zulueta’s Arrebato (Rapture, 1979) because it utilizes vampiric tropes to build its complex allegories of cinema and addiction. I have been rather conservative in other respects. I have not included Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead (they are more clearly reanimated skeletons and usually described as zombies) or Alaric de Marnac/Gilles de Lancré (he is a revenant). Neither have I included Mario Bava’s Italian-Spanish co-production Terrore nello spazio (Planet of the Vampires, 1965), Carlos Aured’s El retorno de Walpurgis (Curse of the Devil, 1973), Miguel Iglesias’s La maldición de la bestia (The Werewolf and the Yeti/Night of the Howling Beast, 1975), José Ramón Larraz’s Polvos magicos or Jacinto Molina’s La bestia y la espada mágica (The Beast and the Magic Sword, 1983). Despite its international title, Terrore nello spazio (literally, “Terror in Space”) does not actually feature any vampires; the film is a science-fiction horror film about alien body snatchers. El retorno de Walpurgis is set in motion by a curse placed on the Daninsky dynasty by Countess Elizabeth Báthory, but blood is only used in the black magic rites, rather than consumed. Sulfurina (Carmen Villani), in Polvos mógicos, may need sacrificial human blood to stay young forever, but is a Satanic witch. Both La maldición de la bestia and La noche de los brujos feature actors wearing vampire fangs, but their monsters are not vampires: the women in the former are described as “demonios” (demons) and, given that they eat raw human flesh and their bite infects Waldemar Daninsky with lycanthropy, might best be understood as werewolves; those in the latter are voodooesque leopard women. Lastly, the prologue of La bestia y la espada mágica calls the Hungarian enemy “vampires,” but these do not display any supernatural or vampiric traits. Vampire bats appear minimally in films like Sebastián d’Arbó’s Viaje al mas allá (Journey to the Beyond, 1980) and Ignacio F. Iquino’s Secta siniestra (Bloody Sect, 1982) but not as supernatural beings.
NB. To save space, the columns “Premiere” and “Country” in the table use a number of abbreviations. These are: “A” (Argentina), “F” (France), “I” (Italy), “L” (Liechtenstein), “P” (Portugal), “S” (Spain), “UK” (United Kingdom), “US” (United States) and “WG” (West Germany).
Spanish title | English-language title/s | Director/s | Premiere | Country | Genre | Nudity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
La maldición de los Karnstein | Crypt of Horror/Terror in the Crypt | Camillo Mastrocinque | 1964 (I) | I, S | Horror | None |
Un vampiro para dos | A Vampire for Two | Pedro Lazaga | 1965 (S) | S | Comedy | None |
La isla de la muerte | Island of the Doomed/Maneater of Hydra | Ernst Ritter von Theumer | 1967 (S) | WG, S, US | Horror | None |
La marca del hombre lobo | Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror/Hell’s Creatures | Enrique López Eguiluz | 1968 (S) | S, WG | Horror (Monster mash) | None |
Malenka, la sobrina del vampiro | Fangs of the Living Dead | Amando de Ossorio | 1969 (I) | S, I | Horror | None |
El Conde Drácula | Count Dracula | Jesús Franco | 1970 (WG) | S, WG, I, L, UK | Horror | None |
El vampiro de la autopista | The Horrible Sexy Vampire | José Luis Madrid | 1970 (WG) | S | Horror | Partial |
Los monstruos del terror | Assignment Terror/Dracula vs. Frankenstein | Tulio Demicheli | 1970 (F) | S, WG, I | Horror (Monster mash), Sci-fi | None |
La noche de Walpurgis | The Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman/Werewolf Shadow | León Klimovsky | 1971 (S) | S | Horror (Monster mash) | Partial |
Cuadecuc Vampir | Vampir-Cuadecuc | Pere Portabella | 1971 (F) | S | Documentary, Arthouse | None |
Las vampiras | Vampyros Lesbos/Lesbian Vampires | Jesús Franco | 1971 (WG) | WG, S | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
Pastel de sangre, “Terror entre cristianos” segment | Cake of Blood/Blood Pie, “Terror among Christians” segment | Francesc Bellmunt | 1971 (S) | S | (Anthology) Horror, Historical drama | Partial |
La noche de los diablos | Night of the Devils | Giorgio Ferroni | 1972 (I) | I, S | Horror | Full frontal |
La mansión de la niebla | The Murder Mansion/Maniac Mansion | Francisco Lara Polop | 1972 (I) | S, I | Horror | None |
La novia ensangrentada | The Blood Spattered Bride | Vicente Aranda | 1972 (S) | S | Horror | Full frontal |
Drácula contra Frankenstein | Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein | Jesús Franco | 1972 (S) | S, F, L, P | Horror | None |
La hija de Drácula | Daughter of Dracula/Dracula’s Daughter | Jesús Franco | 1972 (F) | F, P | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
La llamada del vampiro | Horrortrip/(The) Curse of the Vampire | José María Elorrieta | 1972 (S) | S | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
Horror Story | Horror Story | Manuel Esteba | 1972 (S) | S | Comedy | None |
La tumba de la isla maldita | Crypt of the Living Dead/Hannah, Queen of the Vampires | Julio Salvador, Ray Danton | 1973 (US) | S, US | Horror | None |
El gran amor del conde Drácula | Count Dracula’s Great Love | Javier Aguirre | 1973 (F) | S | Horror, Erotica | Partial |
El secreto de la momia egipcia | Lips of Blood/Love Brides of the Blood Mummy | Alejandro Martí | 1973 (F) | S, F | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
La orgía nocturna de los vampiros | The Vampires Night Orgy | León Klimovsky | 1973 (S) | S | Horror | Full frontal |
Ceremonia sangrienta | The Legend of Blood Castle | Jorge Grau | 1973 (I) | S, P | Horror, Historical drama | Full frontal |
La saga de los Drácula | The Dracula Saga | León Klimovsky | 1973 (S) | S | Horror, Erotica | Partial |
Las hijas de Drácula | Vampyres/Daughters of Darkness | José Ramón Larraz | 1974 (UK) | UK, S | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
Las alegres vampiras de Vögel | Vampires of Vogel | Julio Pérez Tabernero | 1975 (S) | S | Horror, Comedy | Nonea |
El ataque de las vampiras/La mujer vampiro | La Comtesse noire/Female Vampire/Erotikill | Jesús Franco | 1975 (F) [shot 1973] | B, F | Horror, Erotica | Full frontal |
Leonor | Leonor, the Devil’s Mistress | Juan Luis Buñuel | 1975 (S) | S, F, I | Horror, Historical drama | None |
El extraño amor de los vampiros | Night of the Walking Dead/Strange Love of the Vampires | León Klimovsky | 1975 (S) | S | Horror | Full frontal |
El jovencito Drácula | Young Dracula | Carlos Benpar | 1976 (S) | S | Comedy | Partial |
Tiempos duros para Drácula | Hard Times for Dracula | Jorge Darnell | 1976 (S) | S, A | Comedy | Partial |
El pobrecito Draculín | Draculin | Juan Fortuny | 1977 (S) | S | Comedy | Partial |
Arrebato | Rapture | Iván Zulueta | 1979 (S) | S | Horror, Melodrama | Full frontal |
El retorno del hombre lobo | Night of the Werewolf | Paul Naschy | 1981 (S) | S | Horror (Monster mash) | Full frontal |
La momia nacional | The National Mummy | José Ramón Larraz | 1981 (S) | S | Comedy | Full frontal |
Buenas noches, señor monstruo | Good Night, Mr. Monster | Antonio Mercero | 1982 (S) | S | Comedy, Musical | None |
El hundimiento de la casa Usher | Revenge in the House of Usher | Jesús Franco | 1983 (S) | S, F | Horror | None |
El retorno de los vampiros/El misterio de Cynthia Baird | The Return of the Vampires | José María Zabalza | 1985 (S) [shot 1972]b | S | Horror | None |
Vampiros en La Habana | Vampires in Havana | Juan Padrón | 1985 (C) | C, S | Animation | Full fontal |
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Aldana Reyes, X. (2024). Spanish Vampire Films. In: Bacon, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Vampire. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36253-8_33
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