Horror Stays Home

Abstract

This article presents a brief view of Latin American horror films by studying two of the most acclaimed films of the last two decades: Cronos (1992) directed by Guillermo del Toro and Juan of the dead (2011) by Alejandro Brugués. By analyzing the ideas of the monstrous and he domestic in both films, I show the ideological origins of Latin American horror films. It is true that these films have European and American literary and film traditions as origins, but there is no doubt that they have developed an original identity of their own. Both films, even when they have different main subjects (the vampire in Cronos, the zombie in Juan of the dead) have similar visions about domestic and familiar structures when they undergo the invasion of monstruosity. The two films analyzed in this text are foundational to study the most important strategies of the genre in the region.