Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this critical anthology. The anthology sets out to explore the boom that horror cinema and TV productions have experienced in Spain in the past two decades. It focuses on the contemporary gothic heroine as a figure that maintains the inquisitive, truth-searching spirit of earlier heroines of the genre amidst today's relativistic, overtly skeptical postmodern environment. The anthology explores representations of motherhood, fatherhood, and children as it tackles questions of reproduction and repetition. It presents varied approaches to the styles, careers, and/or public images of individual filmmakers. Upon reading the anthology, it seems fair to say that horror is alive and well in Spain, that neither in Spanish culture nor in its cinema and TV is there a shortage of monsters, menaces, collective nightmares or anxieties of any kind.