Matador

Diego Montes, a former bullfighter who was forced into early retirement after being gored, has turned to watching slasher films for sexual gratification. He runs a bullfighting class where Ángel is among the students. The atmosphere is saturated with violence and control, reflecting Diego's psyche.

During a vertigo episode in the practice ring, Ángel has a vision of a woman killing a man during sex with an ornamental silver hairpin. The image shows the stabbing at the base of the neck, echoing Diego's brutal world. The vision unsettles him and foreshadows the violence to come.

Diego questions Ángel about his sexuality and notes he is not experienced with women. Ángel denies it and vows to prove himself. The moment establishes Ángel's motive to demonstrate his worth.

Later that day, Ángel follows Diego's girlfriend Eva to a neighborhood alley and makes a fumbling attempt to rape her. Eva slaps him and, as she leaves, trips in the mud and gashes her cheek. The confrontation intensifies the tension surrounding all characters.

Guilt drives Ángel to seek psychotherapy. His domineering mother, a member of Opus Dei, insists he go to mass and confession. He eventually goes to the police to confess to rape.

Eva is brought to the station and dismissively says Ángel ejaculated without penetrating and declines to press charges. Alone with the detective, Ángel confirms that he killed the other victims and the two missing women as well.

Ángel leads the police to the buried bodies of the two missing women on Diego's property. The detective remains unconvinced, questioning how Ángel could have buried them without Diego's knowledge and noting Ángel's aversion to blood. The missing women were Diego's students, tying the killer to Diego's circle.

The much younger Eva, desperately in love with Diego, is eager to please him. When they have sex, Diego asks Eva to lie perfectly still and pretend to be dead; she complies without any qualms.

María Cardenal, Ángel's lawyer who wears the ornamental silver hairpin from Ángel's vision, suspects Diego killed the two missing women. She sets Ángel up with a psychiatrist and leads Diego to a secluded warehouse, where they kiss and recognize their shared killer impulses.

María takes Diego to her remote home, where she has collected memorabilia related to Diego since he first killed a bull. Eva overhears their plan and warns María that Diego cannot be satisfied; María scoffs at Eva's threat.

María and Diego acknowledge their killer instincts and push to carry out their plan immediately. They realize they are both serial killers and have a mutual, dangerous alliance.

Ángel, via his psychiatrist, informs the detective that Diego and María are in danger. Using his trance-like vision, Ángel guides the police, Eva, and the psychiatrist to María's house as an eclipse begins.

The group arrives to find María and Diego dead, killed during their final act of violence. María stabbed Diego with her hairpin at the base of the neck and shot herself in the mouth while they were engaged in sex. Ángel laments that he could not save Diego, while the detective notes the killers look happy.