Cries In the City! Urban Modernity, Serial Killing and Female Liberation in the Spanish Horror Film in Franco's Dictatorship (1963-1975)

The article focuses on the urban representation in the horror films of the second Franco regime as a scenario of fear in the face of the profound transformations of the period. The city in Spanish horror was constructed as a degenerate space and container of vices that facilitated the rupture with traditional roles. Through four films (Ella y el miedo, El espectro del terror, Una libelula para cada muerto and El sadico de Notre Dame), the urban serial killer embodies a monstrosity based on two fundamental discourses. On the one hand, Spanish conservatism shaped an antagonist based on distorted National Catholic and patriarchal values. Thus, the urban monster also symbolized youth insecurity before a relentless repression, whose measures were hardened during the last years of the dictatorship.