One day in the woods, Moni (Ivana Baquero, Pan’s Labyrinth), Koldo, Peti, Eugenio and Tito discover that a woman in a Santa suit has fallen into a pit. That woman is bank robber Rebeca Expósito (Maru Valdivielso) who they decide to keep as their secret. They decide to start feeding her and trying to get her to tell them where the millions she store are, but soon, she’s escaped and she has an axe.

Luckily, they have the training they’ve picked up from a childhood of watching horror movies on VHS, like the film within this film Zombie Invasion which looks a lot like The Gates of Hell. It also has Elsa Pataky from Beyond Reanimator and Fast and the Furious. Oh yes! She’s also in Argento’s Giallo.

As the Santa with an axe chases the kids, only what they have learned from those films — and The Karate Kid — can save them. Maybe. Maybe not.  This has a dark ending with a little bit of hope, as at least one of the kids gave her actual food and not just junk. Also, she didn’t shove something into her eye like she was some kind of Fulci-obsessed lunatic.

Películas para no dormir means 6 Films to Keep You Awake. They include Blame by Narciso Ibáñez Serrador (Who Can Kill a Child, The House That Screamed), Spectre by Mateo Gil, A Real Friend by Enrique Urbizu, The Baby’s Room by Alex de la Iglesia (El Dia de la Bestia) and To Let by Jaume Balagueró (Rec). This story was Paco Plaza (who also directed Rec) and written by Luiso Berdejo (Quarantine).

This is a great watch and I loved the other ones I’ve seen, so I need to hunt them all down.