Jesús Palacios has prepared for The Freakiest Night a film selection “still capable of disturbing the audience”

• The programmer of the wildest section included in the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival appeals to redefine alternative sci-fi and horror film culture: “The real 21st century Freak is the one outside the norm”
• The writer and journalist regrets the fact that “there’s young people showing an unbelievably old-fashioned attitude” when recommending new genre products “amid this maelstrom of contents”
• The short films Helen, Don’t Talk to Strangers and Meat Puppet and the feature films Escape from the 21st Century and Krazy House make up Palacios’ selection for next Friday and Saturday nights at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Wednesday, April 30, 2025.- The Freakiest Night is the wildest section within the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival. This hymn to irreverent and black humor, with notes of science fiction and gory horror, has become a benchmark in the national festival circuit. For this edition, its programmer Jesús Palacios has prepared two diverse nights that, without forgetting the classics of the genre, are “still capable of disturbing the audience”. During the presentation of this section’s contents, Palacios, author of numerous essays and books such as Psycho killers: anatomía del asesino en serie (1997), Nosferatu: el libro del centenario (2022) or his latest La matanza de Texas. El libro del 50 aniversario (2025), has appealed to the need to redefine freak culture: with a huge amount of content available on platforms, we need people “who can guide us through that maelstrom of titles.”

An ocean of all kinds of genre productions in which the journalist and writer has noticed that “there are a lot of interesting stuff.” According to him, programmers are forced to drink from those springs nowadays. He has done it, too, in order to design the two freak selections screening at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas.

The Freakiest Night I

The Freakiest Night I is scheduled for this Friday, May 2, at 10:15 p.m. at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas Screen 5. It includes the short films Helen (Helio Mira, Spain, 2024, 9 min.) and Don’t Talk to Strangers (Imanol Ortiz López, Spain, 2023, 5 min.), and the feature film Escape from the 21st Century (Cong 21 Shi Ji an Quan Che Li) (Yang Li, China, 2024, 98 min.).

Palacios recommends the 3D animated short film by Helio Mira because it feeds, in an allusive way, from H. P. Lovecraft, “one of the authors for those of us who love horror.” He also considers Imanol Ortiz López’s work, “a psychological horror and realist piece”, to be “diametrically opposed to Helen.”

The programmer highlights from this selection the original Escape from the 21st Century, “a film that has been celebrated in the festivals where it’s been shown.” And “an example of how science fiction is gaining prominence in new Chinese cinema.” Palacios defines Yang Li’s work as “very risky from a visual standpoint, in an absolutely imaginative way” that “even dares to include some touches of social criticism, something complicated in the current Chinese film industry.” Thanks to the “humor and science fiction resources of his film” he achieves “something that would not have gone unnoticed in a naturalist or realist movie.”

The Freakiest Night II

The Freakiest Night II extends this alternative space within the Film Festival on Saturday, May 3, at 10 p.m. also at Cine Yelmo Las Arenas Screen 5. These are the last two works selected by Palacios: Meat Puppet (Eros V, United Kingdom, 2024, 12 min.) and Krazy House (Steffen Haars, Flip van der Kuil, Netherlands, 2024, 87 min).

Regarding Meat Puppet, Jesús Palacios says that “it is one of the funniest fantastic horror short films we can see today.” One of those freak products that “made all of us horror lovers shudder in the eighties.”

And screening after it, Krazy House, “probably this year’s highlight,” according to the programmer. For Palacios, “it is one of the bloodiest, wildest and most radical movies I’ve seen in years. Perhaps this Dutch sense of humor is not characterized by its elegance, with an absolute lack of good taste.” It might even be “offensive to some people.” But it is precisely its approach “that is most appealing: it still retains the ability of disturbing today’s audience.” Its lead actor, loved by the fans of this genre, also contributes to that appealing: Nick Frost.

Where is the new Freak cinema

Aside from his film selection for this edition of the Festival, Jesús Palacios admitted that “even I, as a programmer, find it increasingly difficult to discover films that have not been in platforms already.” Because these big companies, he added, “at the same time, need a flood of film productions from all genres. And, among them, horror, fantastic, sci-fi ones.” For the expert in counterculture, those are the places “true fans need to look at: we are left to recover these works that go unnoticed amid all that maelstrom of contents.”

Palacios pointed out, too, that big platforms have become production companies as well, “and are fulfilling the role of B series that Troma, Empire or Full Moon had.” He also recommended alternative platforms like Tubi, Shudder, Screambox, Scout Factory, Roku or Peacock, which are devoting a large part of their catalogs to freak cinema.

At this juncture, Palacios noted that “we are now in need of cultural advisors that guide us through this endless maze of titles,” because it is within those forums “where the new great directors and genre films are.”

Re-founding the freak

Palacios claimed before the media that “freak culture is rooted in 20th century attitudes.” Something probably caused by the fact that “the concept itself, which is originally the freak, the monster, has lost its meaning, has been distorted.” He also explained that, in his opinion, it is not acceptable to consider yourself a freak because you enjoy universes like those of Marvel or Star Wars. For him, “those who live outside the norm are the real 21st century freaks.”

“Whether we like it or not,” the writer said, “audiovisual production resides today in all sorts of screens.” He regretted the fact that there is no conventional media following all this production nowadays. Thus, he claimed that we are now going through “a paradigm shift, as it happened with the emergence of television or then video stores. Today, we have to adapt or die.”

And, within this panorama, Palacios pointed out that “the logical and desirable thing would be that this guiding role should be assumed from the digital format itself. That digital media should also be in charge of offering this critical vision.” However, “and that’s why I insist on killing the freak,” he continued, “I keep seeing in all these podcasts, youtubers, etc., an unbelievably old-fashioned attitude in very young people who, instead of investigating those meanders of platforms and low-budget productions, are busy talking about classics or criticizing the last trending thing.”

Partners, sponsors and collaborators of the 24 FICLPGC

The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts], the Visitors’ Program for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE), of the Spanish Public Agency for Cultural Action (AC/E), as well as public support from Promotur Turismo Islas Canarias.

Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Fundación Auditorio Teatro, Cines Yelmo, Las Arenas Shopping Center and Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Toyota, Royal Bliss, Fuze Tea, Coca Cola, Sholeo Lodge, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library &SFX, Blackout Films and International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Proexca.

The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, Digital 104, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media CIMA, the Cartagena International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Barcelona Independent Film Festival, the Tres Puertos Laboratory, Barcelona’s ESCAC, and Very Good Script, Freak World and Fimucité are also collaborators.