The pure terror, the gore comedy and the new fantastic cinema are concentrated this weekend in Alicante in a new Bloody Christmas. This film festival, increasingly horror and less gore directed by the director Manolito Motosierra, celebrates its nineteenth edition this year with the screening of some thirty short films, two feature films and a medium-length film.
This marathon of terror will take place in two days and not one “because people ended up bursting after twelve hours in a row,” says the director, on December 17 and 18 from 5:00 p.m. at Ocho y Medio , on Friday, and at Clan Cabaret, on Saturday. The entrance is free and free, limited to the capacity of the premises, in which the covid passport will be required. And the festival, which usually closes with the awards ceremony at 9:30 p.m., this year closes after the awards, at 10 p.m., with the premiere of the documentary about the Alicante cartoonist Joaquín Ladrón, Ladroncomix. Ink and high voltage by Rock’N’Roll, co-directed by Manolito Motosierra himself and Xes Vilà.
Bloody Christmas (or Weekend Horror) will screen a selection of the best short films chosen by the jury -composed this year by David Valero, Alejandro Díaz, Isaac Vicente, Fer Zaragoza and Juan C. Gastón- among more than 350 works received from all over the world .
The official section has twelve works (Salpicón, Carnivores, She and the darkness, The light, The dream of the dogs, Tram, Bienvenue à Thiercelieux, Lovemaking of Trolls, Mira, Toc-Toc, Satanic Opus Death and Teratoma), which They will be shown in their entirety, as well as those of the Aguántalos como Puedas section, “the unclassifiable ones, which no festival would admit and which are competing for the Horríbilis award,” explains the director, and those of Alicante Fantástika, which include the two winners of the latest edition of Fanta Elx (Dana, by Lucía Forner, and The Incredible Vaccine of Doctor Dickinson, by Álex Rey). At the same time, the finalists of the Panorama Macabre section will be screened, which “repeats” some shorts that did not reach the official section, those of Animation and Other Worlds, focused on the fantastic.
Among the shorts there are works such as La luz, by Iago de Soto, premiered in the official section of Sitges, or by well-known authors such as Borja Crespo, from whom Hikikomori is projected, set in the pandemic, or international ones such as the German Lovemaking of Trolls or the Spanish co-production with the US Tranvía.
Terror, gore and fantastic cinema are the genres that predominate, but gore – blood and comedy is the specialty of Chainsaw – “has been declining a lot, it has not disappeared, but almost no one is betting on it here in Spain”, indicates the director.
In addition, the writer Octavio López will talk about his books Critters and The Closet Monster; Jesús Puente will present There is no mercy for the damned; the director José Luis Alemán, author of The Valdemar Heritage and The Forbidden Shadow, will hold a meeting with the public; and the Prada brothers, directors and producers, will receive the honor award.
The Ladrón festival closes, a benchmark for underground comics and the tremendous line, with the documentary in which 38 people gloss over their figure among comics, the music press and rock since the 90s. «I have always swam against the current, but my comics always They have been based on rock and this is an opportunity to show my world “, says the cartoonist from San Vicente.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.