Cine Latino: 26 Nail-Biting, ¡Ay, Dios Mio! Horror Films

Horror movies increasingly feature the work of Latin filmmakers and themes, so we decided to take a look at a few nail-biting films crafted by directors from Mexico, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, and Cuba. Our roundup includes some classic scary tales and a handful of new titles we hope you'll add to your queue. If you're easily scared - and we don't blame you - grab a friend and have yourself a terrifying movie marathon.

By Elisa Osegueda

The first film in the franchise featuring an all Hispanic cast, this spinoff moved the action from spacious homes to a cramped apartment where terror lives next door.

Directed by Eduardo Sanchez

Written and directed by Eduardo Sanchez, who brought us The Blair Witch Project, Lovely Molly tells the chilling and disturbing tale of a recent newlywed that returns to her childhood home only to battle demonic forces.

Directed by Alejandro Brugués

Juan of the Dead takes the typical zombie infestation story to the next level by injecting Cuban humor, politics and music into the film. It’s undoubtedly inspired by George Romero’s Shaun of the Dead with kills that are often, if not always hilarious. The story is set 50 years after the Cuban Revolution with a lazy, procrastinating hero.

Directed by Jaume Balaguero

Jaume Balagueró (Rec, Rec 2) is back in business with this Hitchcockian-like thriller. In an apartment building in Barcelona, Cesar a diligent doorman gets nothing but sheer joy whenever he sees one resident in particular, Clara. Little does she know that his kindness is really fueled by a dark obsession that’s about to unravel.

Directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza

The film follows a Spanish television reporter, Angela Vidal, through the lens of her cameraman, Pablo. One night the two decide to shadow a team of firefighters who get a call from an apartment building nearby about a trapped woman. What follows is a long nightmare.

Directed by Rodrigo Cortés

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés devoted more than a year and a half to the study of paranormal phenomena before shooting Red Lights, which stars Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy and Robert De Niro. Weaver and Murphy play top paranormal researchers who set out to discredit a powerful psychic (De Niro).

Directed by Adrián and Ramiro García Bogliano

The follow-up to Adrián and Ramiro García Bogliano’s thriller Cold Sweat delivers plenty of chills. The horror follows Marga, a high-powered attorney who needs to rent out her apartment. But her life is about to change when a wealthy potential tenant steps into her life.

Directed by Kapel Furman

Inspired by revenge plots of classic spaghetti Westerns, first-time director Kapel Furman delivers a gritty and violent film in Polvora Negra. The plot goes a little like this: a man is hunted down and left for dead. Years later he returns, hired as a hit man by the same criminals who gunned him down.

Directed by Pedro Almodovar

The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito) chronicles the life of brilliant plastic surgeon (Antonio Banderas) haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.

Guillermo del Toro got his first big break when his horror film Cronos won nine Mexican academy awards. He then went on to win the International Critics Week prize at Cannes. Horror, fantasy, adventure and drama became his specialty, creating an array of titles from The Devil’s Backbone and Hellboy to Pan’s Labyrinth and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. If there's one thing you can count on, it's for del Toro’s films to entertain and scare the living daylights out of you. You’ll think twice before turning out the lights.

Directed by Fernando Barreda Luna

Think Paranormal Activity meets Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark minus the little CGI creatures. On April 4, 2010, the Quintanilla family was found murdered in their countryside house. Police reported the existence of 37 hours of recorded evidence over a five day period, which shows members of the Quintanilla family investigating the disappearance of a young girl in the Garraf woods.

Directed by Guillem Morales

Julia's Eyes (Los Ojos de Julia) tells the story of a young woman who is losing her eye sight while trying to investigate the death of her twin sister. Guillermo del Toro produced.

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

The Spanish language film The Orphanage (El Orfanato) has the power to absolutely make you paranoid about imaginary friends. Belen Rueda plays Laura, a woman who brings her family back to her childhood home, which she turns into orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend, the same one that haunted her as a child.

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

The Others stars Nicole Kidman as Grace Stewart who lives in a darkened old house with her two photosensitive children.  She oppresses and enforces strange religious rules but with the arrival of new servants rules begin to be broken with unexpected consequences.

Directed by Alejandro Amenabar

Chilean director Alejandro Amenabar takes college thesis writing to the next level in Tesis. While researching old movies for her thesis project a young film student in Madrid finds a snuff movie in which a young girl is tortured and killed. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student at their school.

Directed by Ricardo Islas

Calling out all cheaters! Headcrushers will remind everyone of why they shouldn’t cheat on their partner. The story goes like this; a mobster kills his cheating girlfriend and her lover. They get buried in a wall and 20 years later construction workers discover the bodies. Things get really creepy when someone--or something--begins a bloody revenge streak.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

It’s always a feast for the eyes when you have George Clooney and Salma Hayek in a film. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, From Dusk Till Dawn tells the story of how two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in an establishment populated by vampires, which turns out to be a hell of a strip joint. Get ready for strong violence, gore and of course, nudity.

Directed by George A. Romero

No need for an introduction. Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are familiar cult classics written and fine-tuned by the legendary zombie-obsessed director.

Directed by Narciso Ibanez Serrador

One by one they will die. Lilli Palmer owns and runs a school for wayward girls in France. Her absolute discipline has fostered a social order among the girls with rampant sex, lesbianism and torture. Girls are being murdered with no trace left behind.

Directed by Juan L. Moctezuma

Who would expect a trip to the convent to become a demonic filled adventure? Sisters of Satan gets really scary, really fast. A young girl's arrival at a convent after the death of her parents marks the beginning of a series of events that unleash an evil presence on the girl and her mysterious new friend, an enigmatic figure known as Alucarda.

Directed by Amando de Ossorio

A virgin + castle + vampires = Fangs of the Living Dead.

Directed by Rene Cardona

A mad scientist terrorizes a city by kidnapping young women with his ape-man Gomar and then using them as subjects in sadistic brain transplant experiments!

Directed by Jesus Franco

Slashers and serial killers are found all over our list, and The Awful Dr. Orlof fits right in. Dr. Orlof, a former prison doctor, abducts beautiful women from nightclubs and tries to use their skin to repair his daughter's fire-scarred face.

The Spanish thriller series goes to sea with its final installment, bringing back television reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco) to fight a new threat to mankind.