Films by country: Uruguay

URUGUAYAN HORROR [1950-1990]

Uruguay was just the second Latin American country (behind only Mexico) to get involved in film production with the 1898 release of Félix Oliver's short Carrera de ciclismo en el velodrome de Arroyo Seco, which was simply the filming of a bicycle race. Their first fictional film wouldn't be made until 1919 while their first feature-length fictional film didn't come until 1923. There'd be very few others made there in the coming decades in comparison to neighboring countries but that really shouldn't be of much surprise considering that, at 3.47 million, it's the 20th most populated of the 33 Latin American countries. War, repressive government, political corruption (including widespread financial fraud) and several socioeconomic crises (starting with fallout from the Great Depression) have all plagued the country and thus its attempts at a lucrative film industry. However, it's said that the fact the country has imported in most of its entertainment from other countries (namely Argentina) over the years has had even more of an effect. At most points, Uruguay simply didn't have the financial means to compete and early attempts at creating film studios failed.

Seeing how there was very little film production period over the years it's no surprise there were very few horror films. It wouldn't be until the late 1980s that a teenager named Ricardo Islas ▼ emerged on the scene with a series of shot-on-video genre films. At the time, he worked for television station Canal 3 Colonia and that's exactly where his homemade films would air. His vampire film Crowley (1987), made when he was just 16-years-old, appears to be the very first genre feature from the country. He followed that with a sequel and continued to make low budget horror films in Uruguay until the late 90s. These went unseen in most of the world until the internet and, even now with the internet, are still seldom viewed. Islas eventually moved to the U.S. and relocated to Chicago to continue making low budget movies like Headcrusher (1999), Night Fangs (2001) and Lookout (2006).

To date, Gustavo Hernández's 2010 feature La casa muda (The Silent House) is the most viewed / famous entirely-Uruguayan horror film that's been made. Nowadays, the country only produces on average five films per year and more actively participates in co-productions.

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1950s

😒

1960s

😒

1970s

😒

1980s

- Possession (Posesión) (1986; Ricardo Islas) [short]

- Crowley (1987; Ricardo Islas)

- Feather Pillow (Almohadón de plumas) (1988; Ricardo Islas)

- Crowley's Ashes (Las cenizas de Crowley) (1990; Ricardo Islas) ▼

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TOTAL:

4

NOTES:

- Islas also made a short called Gag (1987) but I'm not sure whether it's horror or not.

- The plot synopsis of Acto de violencia en una joven periodista / "Act of Violence Against a Young Journalist" (1988) suggests it's also a possibility for inclusion: "A brilliant young journalist is writing a thesis on violence, unaware that a psychopathic murderer is following in her footsteps with a furious thirst for revenge." The shot-on-video film apparently is a SBIG minor cult item in Uruguay.

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