Horror Island Film Festival – A Celebration of Underground Cinema

Posted on by Jim Cox

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A celebration of all things underground cinema, Horror Island is a fledgling film festival established in 2021 by award-winning filmmaker Domiziano Cristopharo beginning its life on the luxurious island of Gran Canaria, Spain. Hosting films from creators located globally, the festival is a showcase of indie horror & sci-fi filmmaking in its new location of Tenerife, Spain, an island shrouded in a deep history of haunting locations and spooky goings on. What’s more, the festival has partnered up with Grimoire of Horror (hey, that’s us!) for 2025 to bring light to some of the best there is on the fringe of cinema.

The winners of Horror Island 2024:

Best Short Film

NAP (2023)
Four people are about to take part in a dangerous experiment. The rules are simple: if you want to live, you have to go to sleep.
Director: Javier Chavanel
in SHORT/MEDIUM/VIDEOCLIP
Spain

Best Feature Film

Suicide for Beginners (2022)
Writing the perfect suicide note isn’t easy. Murdering a garage full of people is also pretty hard. But getting your victims to like you while you kill them, that’s the really tricky part.
Director: Craig Thieman
in FEATURE
United States

Best Actor

Laurence R. Harvey in FISTER (2024)
Director Anthony Moran
in SHORT/MEDIUM/VIDEOCLIP
United Kingdom

Best Actress 

Núria Florensa in Sincopat (2023)
Ona, a creative executive of a large company, is about to launch the latest technological revolution into the market: a device that allows listening to music directly inside the brain.
Director: Pol Diggler
in SHORT/MEDIUM/VIDEOCLIP
Spain

Best FX Make Up

MOULD (2024)
Leon is trapped away from everything he once loved, left with no answers and is isolated. Visited daily by a carer who’s actions are unknown. finding answers proves difficult as he gets weaker everyday, being surrounded by mold.
Director Gilbert Robert
in SHORT/MEDIUM/VIDEOCLIP
United Kingdom

Special Mentions:

THE VILLAGE OF SIX
La Villa del Seis takes us into the life of an ordinary family, who are diverted from their destination route, by road, taking them to a small abandoned and dilapidated village. A place with a dark legend where reality merges with fantasy. Once there, everyone will witness how secrets begin to be revealed through bloodshed, in search of the truth.
Director: GERARD Bertomeu
in FEATURE
Spain

Ace of Spades
Submitter Alessio Leombruni
in SHORT/MEDIUM/VIDEOCLIP
Italy

The Tourists. A Season in Hell.
A group of friends go on a vacation trip to a town in the middle of the woods. Everything seems to go as planned until they decide to attend a street horror show that will change their lives forever.
Director Gaby Smiths
in FEATURE
Argentina

The Juniors for Horror Island 2025

Daniele Arturi: is an engineer with a passion for writing; in recent years he has taken part as an extra in 3 horror films (‘Tales to tell in the Dark’ by Lorenzo Zanoni, ’61: scorecard killer’ by Poison Rouge and ‘Confessions of a Necrophile girl’ by Cristopharo) and, subsequently, he played two more as lead actor (‘The house guest’, ‘Blue Sunset’ both directed by Domiziano Cristopharo).

Domiziano Cristopharo: “The Italian baron of bold, sensual, and extreme horror”, according to the international press. He’s been the first Italian director in years to try and revive the erotic/horror film genre. With more than 30 movies to his credit, he probably is the most prolific independent Italian director currently active. He has frequently been defined as a perfect mix of Dario Argento and Federico Fellini, for the vintage quality of his aesthetics, married to an extreme, shocking, and yet classic narrative style.

Jon Devlin: was formerly an independent pro wrestler who went by the ring name Devlin Valek. His experience with stunts and fight choreography led him to work on a scene in Amazon Hot Box. Since then he has had starring roles in the feature-length films, Joe Stryker and Mother Noose’s Once Upon A Nightmare. He has also worked on short films with starring roles in multiple short films such as DJ Slay, The Hiker, Icons of Horror 3, and Ritual.

Jim Cox: He’s a Writer and Managing Director at Grimoire of Horror. A lifelong love of horror and writing has led him down this rabbit hole; He is specialised in world cinema, manga/graphic novels, and video games but will sometimes traverse into the unknown in search of adventure.

Cory DeAn Cowley: Established in 2020, C.D.C. Works is composed of Cory Cowley & Jim Mejía. Specializing in acting, dark photography, SFX, and writing—the duo have starred in a multitude of music videos for international/domestic musical acts, procured album artwork, and performed onstage at Inferno Festival Norway in April 2022.

We will have more on the upcoming Horror Island Film Festival 2025 as it comes in. For now, check out some highlights from 2024’s festival below!

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