Tomorrow is the official end of National Hispanic Heritage Month, and while we’ve already given you some quality Latine Spooky Season horror picks, we thought we’d close out with some additional Spanish-language selections from Spain to round out your viewing between now and Halloween.

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Horror en Español

by Teresa Jusino

As we approach the end of what is technically National Hispanic Heritage Month (even though we’ve been referring to it as National Latine Heritage Month around here!), we’re gonna close out with some Spanish-language horror film options de España.

THE ORPHANAGE, 2007 (Spanish: El orfanato)

Director: J. A. Bayona; Writer: Sergio G. Sánchez

The Orphanage stars Belén Rueda as Laura, a woman who was adopted from an orphanage when she was a child. Thirty years later, she returns to reopen the orphanage as a home for disabled children with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their seven-year-old son, Simón (Roger Príncep). After Simón claims to have befriended a little ghost boy named Tomás, Laura begins seeing and hearing strange things, which culminates in Simón going missing. As Laura searches for her son, she’s led on a compelling and emotionally affecting journey through her own history and the lives of all the children to which the orphanage has been home. The Orphanage will knock the wind out of you in the best way. Strong recommend.

PIGGY, 2022 (Spanish: Cerdita)

Writer/Director: Carlota Pereda

Piggy shows us how far a person might be willing to lash out when they are the target of vicious bullying. Sara (played beautifully by Laura Galán) is a fat teenager living in a small town where three girls bully her mercilessly. One summer day, Sara tries to swim at a local pool when she is bullied by the three girls who end up stealing her clothes. Forced to walk home in her underwear, Sara is then harassed by a group of men. After escaping that harrowing experience, she sees a white van on a side road. Suddenly, she sees one of her bullies begging for help out of the rear window. Her bullies have been abducted by a mysterious man with whom Sara locks eyes in his side-view mirror. Rather than call for help or tell anyone, however, Sara chooses to go home and keep what she saw to herself.

The rest of the film is a strange cat and mouse game between Sara and the mysterious man as the events of that summer day start to close in. Sara grows into her power, and has to decide whether she will use it to save others, or herself.

JULIA’S EYES, 2010 (Spanish: Los ojos de Julia)

Director: Guillem Morales; Writers: Guillem Morales and Oriol Paulo

While this is a slightly more “meh” movie than the ones above, Julia’s Eyes is an intriguing watch thanks to the way it incorporates the protagonist’s disability into the storytelling. Julia (The Orphanage’s Belén Rueda) is dealing with the apparent suicide of her twin sister, Sara, who had a degenerative eye disease that left her completely blind.

Julia, who suffers from the same disease but is still sighted at the beginning of the film, is convinced that her sister was not suicidal, and that there is more to her death. As she investigates she begins to lose her vision. As she gets closer to the truth, she’s plunged into a world getting darker and darker and is forced to summon other resources within herself to solve the mystery…and survive.

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Thoughts? Ideas? Reply here, or write to us at [email protected] to tell us how we’re doing and what you’d like to see!