José Ramón Larraz

José Ramón Larraz Gil (1929 – 3 September 2013) was a Spanish director of exploitation and horror films such as the erotic and bloody Vampyres (1974), The House that Vanished (1973), Symptoms (1974), Black Candles (1982) and Rest in Pieces (1987) among others.

Early life
Born in Barcelona, Larraz earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree and moved to Paris in 1952, where he started his career as a comics writer for magazines like Pilote and Spirou. His most known creation was the action-comic series "Paul Foran", which he wrote under the name "Gil" and also made some artistic contributions to.

Career
Larraz moved to England, where he began making films, then in 1976 apparently relocated his operations back to Spain. He made many different types of films, but is best known for his horror films. Symptoms was an official British entry at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. His last few horror films were Spanish-American co-productions. He apparently retired from filmmaking in 1992 at age 63.

Death
Larraz died, aged 84, in Málaga on 3 September 2013.