El Cristo de la Calavera
2023 · 14m · Spain
Directed by Chus Lara
Genres: fantasy, historical, horror
Tones: dark, mythic, theatrical
In 13th-century Toledo, two friends duel to the death at midnight for the love of Inés de Tordesillas, as supernatural forces converge in the forest around them.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a medieval duel-for-love setup that could've been pure schlock, but Lara actually commits to the supernatural operatics instead of winking at them—which almost makes it boring, except the theatrical excess *is* the subversion.
A formally disciplined entry into the Gothic-historical lineage, where every mythic beat (the midnight setting, the forest convergence, the blood-debt) lands with the weight of deliberate tradition—this is a film that knows exactly which shadows it's standing in.
The choice to let the supernatural forces remain *atmospheric* rather than literalized—to suggest them through blocking and sound design instead of effects—is what elevates this from a student period piece into something genuinely unsettling on a shoestring.