8. The Awful Dr Orloff (1962)
Directed by Jess Franco, The Awful Dr Orloff is regarded to be the first Spanish horror film. The plot borrows heavily from Franju's Les Yeux Sans Visage which had been released two years earlier. The difference between the two films is that there is a lot more nudity, sex, violence and horrific content in The Awful Dr Orloff. The story is simple. Dr Orloff is a surgeon who has gone mad because his beloved daughter is facially disfigured. Along with his blind henchman Morpho, he kidnaps young girls and surgically removes their faces in order to graft them on to his daughter's face. Eventually a detective cottons on to his caper. As the first Spanish horror film, The Awful Dr Orloff is an historical relic. It is an offshoot of the 'Mad Doctor' sub genre of horror which was particularly popular in Spain. It was also a theme that Franco would frequently incorporate into his work - right up to Faceless in the 1980s which has a highly similar plot to The Awful Dr Orloff. Different versions of The Awful Dr Orloff were released to different countries - depending on their individual tolerance for sex, nudity and violent content. The critics were not kind to Franco's film when it was first released, but its critical image has improved with the years as critics realise how important the film is to Euro horror and how it was ahead of its time. A film made by Jesus Franco before he became obsessed with the Marquis de Sade, zoom shots, pubic hair and depravity of every shade, it is interesting to look at The Awful Dr Orloff as a relatively straightforward horror film made by Franco. The rest of Franco's output was a lot more complex.