Best Spanish-Language Horror Movies Ranked by Tomatometer
Hot off our guide to the 100 Essential Spanish-Language Movies, we’re galloping into the night for all things spooky en Español!
Here you’ll find only the Freshest scary selections from Mexico (Cronos), Spain (The Orphanage), Uruguay (The Silent House), Chile (The Wolf House), and Argentina (Cold Sweat). Inside each film, an underworld teeming with our favorite monsters. Zombies in [rec]! Mad scientists in The Skin I Live In! Vampires in Dracula! (Yep, there was another version to the Universal classic.) Creepy kids in The Orphanage! And In the Devil’s Backbone, maybe something beyond…
We gathered virtually every Spanish-language horror movie we could find, separating the Fresh and Certified Fresh, but also including the Rotten because, hey, that’s part of the fun with scary flicks! If you’re wondering about the decided lack of chucapbras and La Llarona on this list, it’s because there hasn’t been a critically-noted movie made yet. Though KM 31 comes closest with its take on Mexican folklore.
So quit your Bitching and get to Witching with our guide of the Best Spanish-Language Horror Movies by Tomatometer!
#35
Adjusted Score: 25.168%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The satanic Templars return for more bloodletting and mayhem in this sequel to Tombs of the Blind Dead. This time...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 31%
Critics Consensus: Technically impressive yet narratively repellent, the unremittingly grim and violent Kidnapped will prove difficult for many viewers to take.
Synopsis: Jaime, Marta and their daughter Isabel, a well-off family, move to a luxurious new house. The parents are going through...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 40.903%
Critics Consensus: [REC] 3 Genesis discards the handheld POV of its predecessors and loses the franchise's fresh perspective in the bargain, upping the gags and gore to the detriment of the chills that audiences crave.
Synopsis: Koldo and Clara are about to celebrate the most important day of their lives: their wedding. Everything appears to be...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 46.089%
Critics Consensus: The power of Here Comes the Devil's atmospheric dread compels, but the plot and mystery are too muddled to leave a lasting impression.
Synopsis: HERE COMES THE DEVIL combines modern indie filmmaking and storytelling with a hint of '70s-styled psychological horror that may not...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 49.288%
Critics Consensus: Marrowbone's effective setting and strong cast can't make up for thinly conceived characters and a story short on genuine scares.
Synopsis: Four siblings seek refuge in an old home after the death of their mother, only to discover that the house...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 34.836%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Atrocious is a gruesome, mind-bending thriller shot in a style reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project. The horror film excerpts...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 30.476%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Mexican folklore melds with J-horror elements and the brooding atmospherics of Spanish horror specialist Jaume Balaguero in director Rigoberto Castaneda's...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 45.66%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Stylistically compelling, morally ambiguous, and profoundly unsettling, this Spanish psychodrama from writer-director Agustin Villaronga stands beside Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 67.315%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In 1971, director Amando de Ossorio created what horror fans worldwide consider to be Spain's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD....
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#26
Adjusted Score: 65.802%
Critics Consensus: Shot in a single take, The Silent House may be a gimmick movie, but it's one that's enough to sustain dread and tension throughout.
Synopsis: Laura and her father Wilson settle down in an old farmhouse to make some repairs and update it prior to...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 62.495%
Critics Consensus: After a lackluster third entry, [REC] 4 gets the series back on track, at least to the level of the first sequel.
Synopsis: Angela Vidal wakes up in a high-security quarantine facility, sole survivor and witness to the horrific events inside the building....
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#24
Adjusted Score: 69.423%
Critics Consensus: It lacks the surprising jolt of the first installment, but [REC] 2 almost maintains the original's chilling momentum -- and proves not all horror sequels were made equal.
Synopsis: The highly anticipated sequel to one of the scariest films of all time, "[REC] 2" picks up 15 minutes from...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 72.624%
Critics Consensus: We Are What We Are is elevated horror that combines family drama and social politics, with plenty of gore on top.
Synopsis: A middle-aged man dies in the street, leaving his widow and three children destitute. The devastated family is confronted not...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 27.752%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A man eager to make amends with his ex-girlfriend stumbles upon a bizarre torture cult in this thriller from Argentinean...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 27.487%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A psychologist has already stopped attending her practice for some time. But when a rather unusual case comes up, the...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 46.275%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia followed his outlandish sci-fi/horror debut, Accion Mutante, with this colorful apocalypse fantasy about Father...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 75.107%
Critics Consensus: Visually striking and aggressively confrontational, We are the Flesh may prove as difficult to watch as it ultimately is to forget.
Synopsis: After the end of the world, a young brother and sister roam an apocalyptic city looking for food and shelter....
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Directed By:
#18
Adjusted Score: 32.971%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#17
Adjusted Score: 68.861%
Critics Consensus: Filled with wild splatter slapstick, Juan of the Dead also deftly uses its zombie premise as an undead Trojan horse for insightful political commentary.
Synopsis: Juan is 40 years old, most of which he spent in Cuba doing absolutely nothing. Juan's only emotional tie is...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 86.048%
Critics Consensus: The Skin I Live In lacks Almodovar's famously charged romance, replaced with a wonderfully bizarre and unpredictable detour into arthouse ick.
Synopsis: Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 67.519%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this suspenseful Spanish thriller, a film student's curiosity over an accidentally discovered "snuff film" places her in mortal danger....
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#14
Adjusted Score: 86.244%
Critics Consensus: Dark, nasty, and delightfully subversive, Witching and Bitching is gross-out genre fun with a heaping helping of warped comedy for good measure.
Synopsis: When your marriage has you on the brink and your bank account in red, it's time to rob a Cash-for-Gold...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 88.298%
Critics Consensus: The Untamed attempts some ambitious tonal juggling between fantastical and disturbing -- and draws viewers in with its slippery, inexorable pull.
Synopsis: Alejandra is a young mother and housewife who raises her children with her husband Angel in a small town. His...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 92.633%
Critics Consensus: Deeply unnerving and surprisingly poignant, The Orphanage is an atmospheric, beautifully crafted haunted house horror film that earns scares with a minimum of blood.
Synopsis: Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro produces director Juan Antonio Bayona's gothic frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 89.312%
Critics Consensus: Plunging viewers into the nightmarish hellscape of an apartment complex under siege, [Rec] proves that found footage can still be used as an effective delivery mechanism for sparse, economic horror.
Synopsis: After teaming up in 2002 for the dramatic music documentary OT: The Movie, Spanish horror specialists Jaume Balagueró (Darkness) and...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 90.661%
Critics Consensus: Timecrimes is a low-budget thriller that's well-crafted and loaded with dark humor and bizarre twists.
Synopsis: An ordinary guy takes an extraordinary step through time in this science fiction thriller. Hector (Karra Elejalde) is spending a...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 90.346%
Critics Consensus: Smart, suspenseful, and visually distinctive, Julia's Eyes marks another modern Spanish thriller that quickens the pulse while engaging the mind.
Synopsis: A woman is trying to unravel a mystery that she literally can no longer see in this thriller from Spanish...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 93.005%
Critics Consensus: Guillermo del Toro's unique feature debut is not only gory and stylish, but also charming and intelligent.
Synopsis: This surreal variant on the classic vampire tale is the directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who garnered...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 91.376%
Critics Consensus: The strong lead performance, clever plot turns, and the unsettling ending makes Sleep Tight worth stalking.
Synopsis: Toiling silently amongst the residents of an everyday Barcelona apartment building, doorman Cesar (Luis Tosar) harbors a dark secret: his...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 95.563%
Critics Consensus: Creepily atmospheric and haunting, The Devil's Backbone is both a potent ghost story and an intelligent political allegory.
Synopsis: The mournful fable of the Santa Lucia School during the last days of the Spanish Civil War. An imposing stone...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 64.501%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Directors Juanfer Andres and Esteban Roel team-up for this suspenseful thriller set in 1950s Spain, where simmering tensions between a...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 76.476%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: On the rainy night of October 2, 1968, eight people waiting in a remote bus station for a bus heading...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 101.176%
Critics Consensus: Tigers Are Not Afraid draws on childhood trauma for a story that deftly blends magical fantasy and hard-hitting realism - and leaves a lingering impact.
Synopsis: A haunting horror fairytale set against the backdrop of Mexico's devastating drug wars, TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID follows a group...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 65.754%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Mary is a girl who seeks refuge in a mysterious house in southern Chile, after escaping from a sect of...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 97.696%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The grisly doings of Bram Stoker's vampire count are featured here as he ventures from his native Transylvania to England...
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