Narciso Ibañez Serrador. Spanish Horror Master

Narciso Ibañez Serrador (aka Chico Ibañez Serrador) is one of the most unfairly forgotten horror directors of the 60s/70s. Even in Spain, he is mostly famous for his television impact, with two masterpieces, "Historias para no dormir" ("Stories for not sleeping") and "Un, dos, tres" ("One, Two, Three").

He filmed only two movies, two totally different horror movies; the gothic "La residencia" (1969)and "¿Quién puede matar a un niño?" (1976).

"La residencia" is one classical gothic horror from the sixties. Shot with surprising mastership and astounding technical capability for the spanish cinema of the time, "La residencia" sets Ibañez Serrador as one director of the same level as Roger Corman, Terence Fisher, Roy Ward Baker...

But Ibañez Serrador's most influential work was "¿Quién puede matar a un niño?" ("Who can kill a child?"). Even nowadays it is still shocking to see a child die on film (remeber "Mimic", for instance), but at the same time evil children are really disturbing ("The Omen" or lately "Orphan"). "¿Quien puede...?" played with those two aspects.

The movie was based on a book, "El juego de los niños", by Juan Jose Plans. It is undeniable that this movie has had a great impact in modern horror. It is true that "The village of the damned" (1960) already played with the dark side of children, but in that case it was in the envolope of a sort of alien invasion.

But the horror shown in ths movie is reasonless and that is the really scary thing, and that is what inspired Stephen King for his short story "Children of the Corn" or the really interesting "Vinyan".