Latines Love Horror, But We Rarely See Ourselves In Spooky Movies & TV

Latine moviegoers can make or break a horror movie at the box office: Latines represent 26% of horror movie audiences, compared with 20% for other genres, according to the Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak Audience Survey. Despite this, Latine representation in horror films and TV shows remains disproportionate to our love of spooky stories.

Horror movies and TV shows featuring Latines are few and far between, particularly when it comes to leading roles. While we have Colombian-American John Leguizamo in Land of the Dead; Puerto Rican actors Franky G in Saw II and Saw III and Justina Machado in The Horror of Dolores Roach; Dominican American rising star Jaden Michael in Harlan Coben’s Shelter and Vampires vs. The Bronx; as well as the very popular Mexican-Puerto Rican star Jenna Ortega as the titular character in Netflix’s Wednesday, these films and TV shows are the exception to the rule that chilling storytelling is an exclusive realm for non-Latine white actors, directors, and scriptwriters.

The high number of Latine horror fans shouldn’t come as a surprise. Across the diaspora, elders tell and pass down eerie and hair-raising tales, like La Llorona, Pishtaco, La Cegua, and El Chupacabra. With these legends woven into many Latine people’s life experiences and cultural heritage, it makes sense that we are curious about the paranormal. In the entertainment market, this translates into large Latine horror audiences.

“With these legends woven into many Latine people’s life experiences and cultural heritage, it makes sense that we are curious about the paranormal. In the entertainment market, this translates into large Latine horror audiences.”

“Folklore in many Latin American cultures deals with horror and horror-adjacent themes, such as ghosts, spirits, and the macabre,” Latine film critic at FandomWire and horror fan Sean Boelman tells Refinery29 Somos. “Additionally, Catholic imagery and themes are a common motif in the horror genre — think about all the movies following a priest exorcizing a demon from an unfortunate victim. Since 43% of Hispanic adults identify as Catholic, these ideas often resonate with the community’s identity.”

For horror fan Cynthia Najares, a creative coordinator at For All Time Events, Latines love horror because many of us grew up hearing about spirits and petrifying figures. However, despite our penchant for the genre, we don’t often get to see ourselves as the protagonists, even when they are our own narratives.

As Najares points out, the horror characters we grew up with have inspired massive box office hits without featuring Latine characters or actors. “Many horror films I watched growing up did not have Latine leads or supporting roles,” Najares says. “But these stories we grew up listening to, and some we even lived through, have turned into some big hits.”

“Folklore in many Latin American cultures deals with horror and horror-adjacent themes, such as ghosts, spirits, and the macabre.”

The 2019 film The Curse of La Llorona is an interesting example of an attempt to bring a Latine story into the U.S. horror film market. Helmed by Portuguese American director Michael Chaves, the script was not written by Latine writers. The cast featured several Latine actors, but the film garnered an underwhelming approval rating of 28% on Rotten Tomatoes.

For Boelman, The Curse of La Llorona shows that even movies made in the U.S. with Latine actors are not immune to creating stereotypical Latine characters that are damaging to the community. The film focuses on the perspective of an outsider to the Latine community and fails to understand La Llorona. The movie portrays her as a haunting figure, a cruel Mexican woman who decided to kill her children for no discernible reason beyond being evil.

“[Michael Chaves’] previous Conjuring spin-off, The Legend of La Llorona, falls victim to many cliches and stereotypes, despite being influenced by an important story in Mexican and Latino folklore,” Boelman says.

“While the American version of the tale characterizes La Llorona as an evil hag, Bustamante’s version frames her murdering her children as a response to the violence of colonialism, choosing death for her kids in lieu of suffering a lifetime at the hands of Spanish colonizers.”

Luckily for Latine horror fans, that same year, Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante delivered his own stirring take on the tale with La Llorona. The film, which he co-wrote and directed, spotlights the Indigenous roots of the legend and explores the horror of colonialism itself. While the American version of the tale characterizes La Llorona as an evil hag, Bustamante’s version frames her murdering her children as a response to the violence of colonialism, choosing death for her kids in lieu of suffering a lifetime at the hands of Spanish colonizers. Bustamente’s film won multiple awards and holds a whopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s why Boelman suggests that many Latine horror fans depend on productions from Latin America to watch their favorite genre.

“The only refuge we Latinos have for good representation is horror from Latin American countries,” he says. “Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona (Guatemala), Issa López’s Tigers Are Not Afraid (Mexico), Demián Rugna’s Terrified (Argentina), and the Spanish-language work of Guillermo del Toro (Mexico) are some great examples that spring to mind. Still, it’s time that Latino representation breaks into the mainstream in horror — as we represent a large portion of the audience buying tickets to these movies.”

All of this is to say: Representation without authenticity, without the vulnerability of revealing the deepest issues of Latin American lore and folklore, isn’t enough. Like in other genres, we cannot simply tie the question of representation to market returns or it will fail — it has to come from the passion for creating art and it must push beyond financial interests. We need more scary Latine movies and TV shows, especially as Latin American films are not always available on streaming platforms. They might also be difficult to access because of the physical distance between the U.S. and the Latin American countries where they are marketed.

“The only refuge we Latinos have for good representation is horror from Latin American countries.”

“Some of the best horror cinema to feature Latine representation comes from Latin American countries,” Boelman says. “I would love to see more horror films made within the American studio system by Latine filmmakers, telling Latine stories, for Latine audiences.”

For horror fan and DEI consultant Daniela Herrera, Latine people already have the material to create incredible horror films and TV shows, but she would like to see Hollywood support the community’s creations. “I would like to see the same level of horror story-telling Latin America has been delivering for decades, but with Hollywood budgets, backing, and support.” she says.

Herrera cites Cronos (1993), Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022), American Carnage (2022), Madres (2021), and Tigers Are not Afraid (2020) as some of her favorite Latin American scary movies. “Most of my favorite Latine-led movies are not American-based or Hollywood-backed,” she says. “They were written and created in Latin America, which shows both the type of stories we can create and the lack of support and interest [Hollywood] has demonstrated.”

“Studios should see the size of Latine horror audiences and realize that there is demand for this type of Latine-driven horror movie.”

Boelman agrees and adds that studios aren’t taking advantage of this gap in the market, despite being well-supported by box office data. Just look at the recent performance of The Nun II: According to PostTrak, Latines represented the largest portion of the movie’s audience at 43%, with the next largest demographic being non-Latine whites at 26%.

“Although there have been attempts to do something like Latine Get Out on a smaller scale — the movie Culture Shock by Gigi Saul Guerrero comes to mind as a high-quality one — they’ve never achieved the same level of breakout success,” he says. “Studios should see the size of Latine horror audiences and realize that there is demand for this type of Latine-driven horror movie.”

However, Herrera points out that beyond seeing Latine actors being cast in horror films and TV shows, she would also love to see more Latine characters written into horror productions that would draw on the rich folklore of the diaspora.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen many Latine actors cast on horror shows and movies. … till, the stories behind these characters are not necessarily Latine stories. The actors’ nationality, ethnicity, language, or culture is usually not addressed or written into the script at all.”

“I’m really interested in seeing more Latine character representation as well,” she says. “In the last few years, we’ve seen many Latine actors cast on horror shows and movies, like Ortega in Wednesday, X, Scream, and The Babysitter Killer Queen; or Gael Garcia Bernal in Werewolf Within; or Rubén Blades in The Walking Dead. Still, the stories behind these characters are not necessarily Latine stories. The actors’ nationality, ethnicity, language, or culture is usually not addressed or written into the script at all.”

Indeed, films and TV shows like Netflix’s Wednesday have capitalized off “Latine representation” but hardly incorporate elements from Latine cultures. Instead, they continue to overwhelmingly center American non-Latine whiteness in their productions. While diverse casting is important, the only way to truly fill this gap is to ensure that the writers, crew, and stories are just as diverse as the cast — and that they have creative freedom to place their own experiences at the forefront of their work.