Six Films to Keep You Awake!

A three-disc collection, 6 Films To Keep You Awake (Lionsgate), is out and it’s a must-own for horror fans. This superior anthology of fright films is from six great Spanish directors done for Spanish TV that puts Showtime’s Masters Of Horror to shame. Catholic guilt, superstition, sensuality, and all sorts of shuddery elements make these films really first-rate and often chilling.

Blame: Directed by Narcisco Ibanez Serrador (Who Can Kill A Child?), is about a single mom Gloria (Montse Mostaza) and her six-year-old daughter Vicky (Alejandra Lorenzo) who move in to the sprawling old house of Dr. Ana Torres (Nieve de Medina). The doctor’s office is right in the house and Gloria becomes receptionist to the doctor and even assists in the abortions. But when Gloria finds herself pregnant, Ana convinces her to terminate the pregnancy. After the procedure, the extracted fetus suddenly disappears, and weird sounds permeate the house at night, especially from up in the attic. This gets pretty damn creepy, and the women are just sensational.

Spectre: This is atmospheric ghost story directed by Mateo Gil (who wrote Open Your Eyes and Vanilla Sky). An elderly man Tomas (Jordi Dauder) returns 40 years later to his hometown in Spain, haunted by an incident that happened to him when he was young. When he was in his teens, Tomas (his youthful incarnation played by Juan Jose Ballesta) is bewitched by a mysterious woman Moira (Natalia Millian) who lives alone in a remote house up in the hills. The villagers call her a witch, and Tomas’ friends taunt him that she is visited by the devil at night. While spying on her he trips and sprains his ankle outside her door, and Moira attends to him and he falls for her. But his sexual obsession with Moira triggers his jealousy and paranoia and it all ends badly. The outcome colors his life and drives him back to the town many years later to confront his demons in this stylish, haunting, entry.

A Real Friend: Little, lonely Estrella (Nerea Inchausti) lives with her mom (sensational Goya Toledo) in a modern apartment complex and lives for horror movies. Her bedroom is loaded with monster dolls and she fantasizes about conversing with Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when she takes out the garbage, or Nosferatu, the vampire, while waiting for the bus after school. Unfortunately one of her imaginary “monsters” is very, very real -- and very deadly. Directed by Enrique Urbizu, this nicely goes off the deep end towards the end, but in perfect keeping with Estrella’s fertile imagination. A girl after my own heart.

A Christmas Tale: Paco Plaza (co-director of the terror classic .REC) helms a delightfully twisted entry set at Christmas time in 1985 about a gang of five kids (who dig zombie flicks and The Karate Kid) who find a female robber in a Santa outfit trapped in a deep hole in the woods. They decide not to tell the police and try to force the thief to tell them where she hid the stolen money, but this tactic eventually comes back to bite them with a vengeance. Imagine the Goonies gang being chased by a crazed woman in a Santa suit dragging an axe.

The Baby's Room: A newspaper man, Juan (Javier Gutierrez), his wife Sonia (Leonor Watling) and their baby move in to a new home and are in the process of remodeling when Juan buys a baby monitor with an infrared camera and suddenly sees a strange man sitting in the baby’s room. But when he enters the room the man’s not there. Directed by Alex de la Iglesia (Dance With The Devil), this one really is genuinely unnerving.

To Let: Directed by the talented Jaume Balaguero (The Nameless, .REC), To Let is about a couple shopping for an apartment. Clara (Macarena Gomez) is a nurse, and expecting a baby, and is in no mood to drive with her husband Mario (Adria Collado) to a remote bad side of town to look at this place. And then when they arrive and it’s a rundown ominous looking place and the female realtor (Nuria Gonzalez) is just a tad too friendly. Well, look out. I refuse to say anymore except that it’s the most horrifying of all, and that’s saying something in this frightening six-pack.