Sacamantecas, film on Spain's first documented serial killer, opens in cinemas on 6 November

A film on a 19th-century killer

David Pérez Sañudo's Sacamantecas opens in Spanish cinemas on Friday, 6 November 2026. The film is set in rural Álava during the Third Carlist War and follows Ángela Berrosteguieta, the sister of one of the women strangled outside Vitoria, as she pursues Juan Díaz de Garayo. The film presents him as an illiterate peasant and the culprit. Antonio de la Torre plays the killer and Patricia López Arnaiz plays Berrosteguieta, with Josean Bengoetxea also in the cast. ABC reports that filming began in 2024.

The killer and the record

According to ABC, Juan Díaz de Garayo was born in Eguílaz, Álava, around 1821, and little is known of his childhood. The chronicler Ricardo Becerro de Bengoa visited him in prison and recorded his account. ABC dates his first murder to 2 April 1870 and says he admitted six killings after his capture, although the people of Vitoria accused him of more. El País notes that a caption at the end of the film puts the number of victims at no fewer than 13, while historians credit him with six murders.

Critics divided

El País praises the film's credible period setting and calls it a well-told portrait of a monster. El Mundo gives it three stars and reads it as a portrait of machismo that persists, arguing that the story of 19th-century violence against women is still close to the present day. ABC's critic gives it two stars and describes an improvised investigation into a killer with no plan, saying the thriller moments do not engage. El Periódico finds the first half-hour visually strong but says the film bogs down in its second half, when the killer appears more often.

“I care more about being one hundred percent honest with the period than with the character's experiences.”

The director told ABC on set in the Old Cathedral of Vitoria, where one of the film's key scenes was shot, that the film aims at naturalism rather than historical accuracy.

Playing the killer

Antonio de la Torre described the challenge of playing the killer to RTVE. He recalled that the character speaks less than the original script called for, which left the performance to gesture and expression. The actor said the role demands a sense of danger that the audience has to believe.

“He is a character who is dangerous, and you have to believe it.”

Patricia López Arnaiz's character drives the story as she hunts the killer, and reviewers credit both leads with giving the film its emotional weight.