The Wild Eye

Sad news… one of the most recognisable character actors of Spanish cinema, Victor Israel, died last weekend.  Born in Barcelona, he attended the Escuela de actores de la Ciudad Condal before making his debut in the 1962 film Tierra de todos.  Over the next 45 years he appeared in over 150 films, generally in character [...]

Here’s a decent little Spanish sci fi film that was released with a minimum of fuss back in 2006.  Shame, really, as it’s a really rather good, a well made, low budget mix of the  zombie and post-apocalypse genres, something like a cross between Day of the Dead and I Am Legend, not to mention [...]

This very obscure science fiction / horror crossover merges the then-popular surgical horror subgenre with a more traditional Dr Jeckyll type scenario, and even manages to throw in elements of a more traditional crime film and even a few ideas pinched from the Italian giallos.

Set in 1985, Paco Plaza’s The Christmas Tale – another in the Spanish ‘Films to Keep You awake’ TV series – actually comes across like a nicely warped riposte to the saccharine but hugely popular 1986 coming-of-age film Stand By Me

The plot of Crimson follows a botched robbery attempt at a jewellery store, which goes wrong when one of the gang members, Karl (Victor Israel), surreptitiousy tries to nab a pearl necklace from an alarmed display case. During the frantic escape, another of the robbers, Jack Surnett (Paul Naschy), is shot in the head, leaving their leader, Henry (Oliver Mathot), with a bit of a tricky situation.

Dagon is a 2001 horror film from Stuart Gordon, filmed in Spain and produced by Brian Yuzna’s Fantasy Factory, aka Filmax, the prolific company who have essentially revuneated Catalan genre filmmaking (credits include the likes of KM31, REC, The Machinist etc etc etc)

Thanks to Nzoog for supplying a translation of the Spanish interview with Frank Brana that appeared on locoporelcine.com over at the EFR forum… Frank Braña An international star who lives in Madrid He holds the international record of the most screen deaths An excellent Asturian performer, from Pola de Allende, whom the University of Navarre [...]

Cool! A Frank Brana interview. It’s in Spanish, of course, but still. Here’s a translated taster: It is possible to make westerns today? Certainly yes. Spain is known around the world because of Almeria and its Westerns. Almeria had only the Simón hotel at the time. Spain is very important because of the history that [...]

The Spectre was Matteo Gil’s contribution to the ‘Films to Keep You Awake’ series made for Spanish TV in 2006

Director Nathan Juran on the filming of The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad in Barcelona

To Let is a slight, but highly entertaining, little psychothriller from Jaume Balagueró, the hottest name in Spanish horror at the moment.

Very sad news… Robert Hundar, aka Claudio Undari, died on the 13th May. Hundar wasn’t overly well known internationally, and he was something of a forgotten figure in recent years, but he was one of the true stars of the Spaghetti Western genre. There are lots of notices in the Italian press, but not really [...]

Have just posted up a gallery of screengrabs from The Devil Came from Akasava. As always, if anyone can help identify performers I haven’t put names to, just comment below . To see the character / actor name, just hold your mouse over the relevant image… Here’s the cast list: Cast: Fred Williams (Rex Forrester), [...]

The Devil Came From Akasava is a typically haywire, free-form production from the prolific hand of jazz musician and iconic exploitation director Jesus Franco. It’s one of a batch of films he made for German producer Artur Brauner in 1971 and 1972, the best known of which is undoubtedly cult favourite Vampyros Lesbos. It was [...]

Romasanta is yet another of the numerous films made in recent years by Castelao, Spain’s contemporary equivalent of Hammer (see also To Die in San Hilario). As with all of their productions, it’s a slick, effective and entertaining piece of cinema that deserves more attention than it’s received since its release in 2005. Based on [...]

How fun, a tribute site for Hercules Cortes. Cortes was one of the many fascinating people who found employment in the Spanish film industry, appearing in Spaghetti Westerns (such as Kill them All and Come Back Alone), spy films (Spy Today, Die Tomorrow) and so on. IMDB lists him as appearing in just 7 productions, [...]

Night of the Sunflowers is an excellent Spanish thriller directed with some class by the debuatant Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, who made some acclaimed shorts back in the mid-90s. Influenced by both the ‘backwoods massacre’ genre of the 70s and the multiple viewpoint scripts of Guillermo Arriaga, it’s a gripping, intelligent film that picked up several awards [...]

Carlos Aured, who directed several cult films in the seventies, has died. Particular favourites of mine include Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll, a nutty giallo and Horror Rises from the Tomb, in which Paul Naschy’s head falls off a lot. Quoting Nzoog on the European Film Review Board: Born in Murcia in 1937, he [...]

Here’s a quote from an article about the Hollywood writer’s strike that was in The Observer yesterday (Sunday 13th): “For the rest of the community, there is growing unease and uncertainty. Celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch, who has tentatively started work for the Oscars, said the strike would make itself felt more and more widely. ‘Right [...]

Here”s a quote from an article about the Hollywood writer”s strike that was in The Observer yesterday (Sunday 13th): “For the rest of the community, there is growing unease and uncertainty. Celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch, who has tentatively started work for the Oscars, said the strike would make itself felt more and more widely. ”Right [...]