The Christ of the Skull
2023 · 13m · Spain
Directed by Chus Lara
Genres: fantasy, historical, horror
In 13th-century Toledo, two knights duel at midnight for a lady’s love as supernatural forces close in around them.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Medieval knights dueling for love while the supernatural creeps in sounds like every fantasy cliché until you actually watch it—Lara's not interested in redeeming the premise, just letting it rot from the inside out, which is either brilliant subversion or a waste of a genuinely unsettling setup.
Lara positions this within the lineage of gothic horror and chivalric romance, but the formal precision—the midnight duel as a contained theatrical space where mythic and supernatural forces converge—recalls the ritualistic intensity of Pasolini or early Valeska Grisbach, a deeply considered exercise in tonal control.
The entire film hinges on Lara's choice to hold the camera static during the duel itself, letting the supernatural encroachment enter the frame peripherally rather than cut; that single formal decision transforms what could be another sword-fight short into something genuinely disorienting on a micro-budget.