Cinema of Spain the industry; 44 of the 58 films released up until that point had been produced there. The rural drama "La aldea maldita" ("The Cursed Village") (Florian Rey, 1929) was a hit in Paris, where, at the same time, Buñuel and Dalí premiered "Un chien andalou" ("An Andalusian Dog"). "Un chien andalou" has become one of the most well-known "avant-garde" films of that era. By 1931, the introduction of audiophonic foreign productions had hurt the Spanish film industry to the point where only a single title was released that year. In 1935, Manuel Casanova founded the "Compañía Industrial Film Española S.A."
The Spiral Staircase (1946 film) romance," the film has been noted by contemporary critics for its prominent Gothic horror elements. It has also been cited as one of numerous progenitors to the slasher film, specifically due to its female-centric cast and point-of-view cinematography deployed during scenes in which the killer stalks his victims. Film scholar Amy Golden notes several significant visual allusions in the film, such as Luis Buñuel's "Un chien andalou" (1929) and Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943). Golden cites the film as a "quintessential example of 1940s horror." Writer Denis Grunes in 2007 suggested the film is "in fact a masked