[7] Erice worked in the development of (and was set to direct) The Shanghai Spell, the adaptation of the Juan Marsé's namesake novel, but producer Andrés Vicente Gómez eventually tasked the project to Fernando Trueba instead.

[12] Geoff Andrew, in the Time Out Film Guide, praises Erice's contribution to Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (Lifeline) as "quite masterly", adding "it only makes you wish he worked more frequently".

Critic Tony Rayns describes The Spirit of the Beehive as "a haunting mood piece that dispenses with plot and works its spells through intricate patterns of sound and image"[14] and of El Sur it has been said that "Erice creates his film as a canvas, conjuring painterly images of slow dissolves and shafts of light that match Caravaggio in their power to animate a scene of stillness, or freeze one of mad movement".

[citation needed] Erice's work would go on to influence filmmakers such as Carla Simón, Carlos Vermut, Alejandro Amenábar, Oliver Laxe, Estibaliz Urresola, and Jaione Camborda.

[15] His portrayal of children dreaming and their attraction to fantastic worlds during and around times like the Spanish Civil War inspired Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and his respective films, including The Devil's Backbone, and Pan's Labyrinth.