
He is oblivious that the nurse in charge of his care plans to take revenge. Eye For An Eye (2019)Īfter being diagnosed with a terminal disease, a cartel boss gets early release from prison on medical grounds. With all its flaws, The Invisible Man is one of the best Spanish thrillers there are. While Sujoy Ghosh’s version could never keep its nose above the problematic waters, Paulo’s original never lets itself drown. And I had the same issue with its official Hindi remake, Badla (2019). After a while, the complexity of assembling a thriller in a confined space starts to get consumed. Another aspect that did not fly with me was the locked-room syntax.

What doesn’t work here is the final twist that feels outlandish. The murdered girlfriend has a similar haircut to The Shining ‘s Wendy Torrance. The hotel in The Invisible Guest shadows the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece – The Shining (1980) – a film where the female protagonist is hunted down by a psychopathic lover, much like in this film. And all of it, with virtually no action sequences. The flabbergasting twists, the perpetually rising tension, the unreliable protagonist, and the race-against-time narrative will keep you guessing till the end. It’s a mystery thriller that completely submerges itself in the genre. He hires a prestigious lawyer to defend him, and throughout one night, they work together to find out what happened. The Invisible Guest swings more towards the latter for me, hence its presence on my list.Ī young businessman wakes up in a locked hotel room next to the body of his dead lover. The Innocent (2021), Mirage (2018), and The Body (2012) are all oscillating somewhere between average and excellent. The Invisible Guest (2016)ĭirector Oriol Paulo is now synonymous with Spanish thriller cinema. You can re-order them as your choice, but do not miss them.

I’ve tried to assemble these 20 Great Spanish Thriller films that I think no cinema lover should miss. They are patient in their deliverance but unwavering in their promises. And, much like their French counterparts, many Spanish thriller films are slow-burns.

These films follow the human psyche on the verge of imploding. Most of them are social satires that often attest to the mortifying truth that the removal of the thin veneer of humanity is easy. Wrapped under formidable thrillers, these are the 20 lustrous titles I’ve instantly fallen in love with.
