Written by: Sam Santiago
There is something uniquely unsettling about Spanish Gothic horror. Maybe it is the decaying castles, candlelit crypts, fog drenched cemeteries, or the constant feeling that death itself is quietly lurking just behind every crumbling stone wall. While Italian horror often splattered audiences with operatic violence and style, Spanish Gothic cinema preferred to slowly tighten the noose, wrapping viewers in atmosphere, dread, sexuality, and existential doom.
Now, Severin Films is once again opening the coffin lid on one of horror cinema’s richest and most underappreciated subgenres with the announcement of DANZA MACABRA VOLUME FIVE: THE SPANISH GOTHIC COLLECTION.
The latest entry in Severin’s acclaimed DANZA MACABRA series arrives loaded with four uncut classics spread across five discs, delivering another essential dose of Euro horror madness for collectors obsessed with Gothic terror and deep cut cult cinema.
Leading the collection is the North American disc premiere of 1964’s Strange Voyage from director Fernando Fernán Gómez. The film blends true crime paranoia with Gothic atmosphere and features a rare dramatic performance from legendary cult filmmaker Jess Franco, whose fingerprints remain all over European exploitation cinema decades later.
Also included is the deeply disturbing 1971 psychological drama Exorcism’s Daughter, presented in both its complete U.S. version and the original Spanish cut Las Melancólicas. For the first time ever, viewers will finally be able to see the notorious orgy sequence fully restored as Severin delivers both versions together in one definitive release.
The collection continues with 1973’s The Dracula Saga from legendary genre director León Klimovsky, a grim and grisly reinterpretation of vampiric damnation now arriving uncut in North America for the very first time.
Rounding out the set is 1985’s The Turn of the Screw, directed by controversial filmmaker Eloy de la Iglesia, who transforms Henry James’ classic ghost story into something far more psychosexual and deeply unnerving.
According to Severin Films, every feature included in DANZA MACABRA VOLUME FIVE has been newly scanned from original camera negatives or archival 35mm prints, with the box set containing more than 10 combined hours of audio commentaries, interviews, featurettes, and video essays exploring the dark legacy of Spanish Gothic horror.
The set is now available for preorder through the Severin Webstore. In addition, Severin has announced that all four previous DANZA MACABRA collections will be available at 50% off SRLP through June 8.
For horror collectors who worship at the altar of European nightmare cinema, this latest release feels less like a Blu-ray set and more like an invitation to wander through a haunted cathedral filled with vampires, madness, forbidden desire, and freshly dug graves.
As Severin ominously teases:
“STEP GINGERLY INTO THE DARK WOODS AND BEWARE OF HANDS THRUST UP FROM THE EARTH…”