STARBURST is sad to learn of the death of Spanish film director José Ramón Larraz. The 84-year-old will be remembered for films such as the erotic chiller Vampyres (1974), Whirlpool (1970) and the former video nasty The Violation of the Bitch (aka The Coming of Sin, 1978).

His 1973 film Symptoms, starring Donald Pleasence’s daughter, Angela is on the BFI’s 75 Most Wanted list for films with no existing 35mm prints (although a rough print under the title The Blood Virgin screened at a festival in Brussels in March this year). Another, La muerte incierta is also lost, with only bootleg copies of a 16mm print in existence.  Despite retiring in 1992, he became a regular interviewee on documentaries covering Euro-horror and directed a mini-series about Spanish poet Miguel Hernández in 2002.

A full retrospective had already been planned for a future HORROR OBSCURA in STARBURST, and will appear soon.

Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

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