Sexual Horror Stories: The Eroticisation of Spanish Horror Film (1969–75)

For many cultural commentators, the combination of horror, eroticism and sex characterised many Spanish horror films of the late 1960s and the early 1970s. Spanish horror films of the period partook of the general permissiveness to reveal (parts of) the body and exploit the imaging of eroticism and sexuality. As Fotogramas’ film critic Mr. Belvedere argued in his article ‘España 69, la lenta escalada del erotismo’, the so-called exploitation of ‘erotismo de consumo’ (1969: np) was taking place not only in the auterist works of New Spanish Cinema directors but also in popular comedies. Spanish horror films also joined this growing trend. This chapter therefore contextualizes contemporary horror film production vis-à-vis broader changing attitudes toward sex and its cinematic representation, discourses on cinema and eroticism in the cultural sphere and wider socio-historical changes in sexual mores and depictions of the body.