Spanish Vampire Films

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.