San Cristóbal de La Laguna, November 13, 2024.- The Festival de Cine Fantástico de Canarias Ciudad de La Laguna Isla Calavera, which celebrates its eighth edition until Sunday, November 17 with the sponsorship of the City Council of La Laguna, through the Department of Culture, the Cabildo de Tenerife, Promotur, the Canary Islands Institute of Cultural Development and Canary Islands Film, reaches its halfway point with the farewell to some of its guests and its reception to other big names, such as Henry Thomas, who is already on the island. The actor who brought to life the iconic boy Elliot in the movie E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) will receive an honorary award at the festival's Closing Gala in recognition of his career.
To celebrate the visit of Henry Thomas, the Isla Calavera Festival offers this Friday, November 15, at Multicines Tenerife a special event that includes the screening of Steven Spielberg's classic film and a discussion with the actor, one of the most eagerly awaited proposals of the program, which sold out shortly after going on sale.
Henry Thomas' career, after being part of the cast of titles such as Valmont (Milos Forman, 1989), Psycho IV: The Beginning (Mick Garris, 1990), Legends of Passion (Edward Zwick, 1993), All the Beautiful Horses (Billy Bob Thornton, 2000) or Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002), has experienced an important resurgence at the hands of Mike Flanagan, one of the great masters of horror and contemporary fantastic cinema. In 2015, the filmmaker counted on Thomas for his film Ouija: The Origin of Evil, and they have subsequently worked together on feature films such as Gerald's Game (2017) or Doctor Dream (2018) and series such as The Curse of Hill House (2018), The Curse of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021) or The Fall of the House of Usher (2023).
María José Cantudo, Legend of the Fantastic Award
Another of the most awaited visits of this edition of the Festival Isla Calavera is that of the Andalusian actress María José Cantudo, who will collect at the Closing Gala a Leyenda del Fantástico Award, one of the muses of Spanish fantaterror of the 1970s.
María José Cantudo shot El espanto surge de la tumba (Carlos Aured, 1973) at the age of 16, written by and starring Paul Naschy, with whom she would work again in El huerto del francés (1978). In his genre filmography, he has other works such as Las alegres vampiras de Vogel (Javier Elorrieta, 1975), El asesino no está solo (Jesús García Dueñas, 1975) or Secuestro (León Klimosvsky, 1976).
The actress will be participating on Saturday, November 16 in an encounter that will also feature the participation of Ángel Sala, director of the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival and author of the book Profanando el sueño de los muertos: 1896-2022 ("la historia jamás contada del cine fantástico español") and film director, screenwriter and expert Víctor Matellano. Both authors were distinguished with the Isla Calavera Award for the Dissemination of Fantastic at previous editions of the Festival.
In addition, Víctor Matellano will present this Thursday the screening of his new feature documentary, Call me Paul, which explores the personality and creative character of the legendary filmmaker from Madrid, Jacinto Molina, who, under the pseudonym of Paul Naschy, became a fundamental figure in world fantastic cinema, first as a screenwriter and actor, and later also as a director.
The story of Call Me Paul is told by American actor Jack Taylor, who shared with Paul Naschy projects such as Dr. Jekyll and the Wolf Man or The Mummy's Revenge and English actress Caroline Munro, who worked with him in The Devil's Howl. Both performers have visited the Isla Calavera Festival in previous editions and received honorary awards in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Ron Perlman, Skull Island of Honor Award
The final touch will be the visit to the festival of the American actor Ron Perlman, immortalized for his starring role in the Hellboy films directed by Guillermo del Toro, with whom he has maintained a star collaboration since he appeared in his debut film Cronos (1993).
Perlman will collect the Isla Calavera Honorary Award at the closing gala on Saturday, and on Sunday he will star in another of the most eagerly awaited special events: a meeting with the audience after the screening of the action, science fiction and dark fantasy film Hellboy (2004), based on Mike Mignola's comics published by Dark Horse Comics. Tickets for this exclusive talk also sold out quickly after its release.
