The festival combines screenings, talks and educational activities in an intense week full of audiences and diverse proposals.
Brandon Christensen, Cristian Ponce, Paco Cabezas, Joan Vilà, Pablo Otero, Caye Casas and Marc Carreté, among the protagonists of the week.
‘'Cuca', by Adriana Galicia, the first project to be awarded the Prize for the production of a horror short film in Catalan.
Adriana Galicia and Margalida Adrover, from the award-winning short Cuca, with the Indústria jury © Joan Gosa 2025
Molins de Rei, November 14, 2025 — The Molins de Rei Horror Film Festival begins its final stretch after a week full of activities, premieres and outstanding presences that have once again turned the festival into an essential reference for lovers of the genre of all ages. TerrorMolins 2025 revalidates its vocation as a meeting place for emerging and local talent, opening up to diversity and international projection, and reinforcing initiatives to promote the creation of horror cinema in Catalan.
The week opened on Monday with the Short Film Festival for High Schools, a session where students from all over the region were able to enjoy the best shorts from the previous edition. The meeting was attended by Sergi Vizcaino, producer and teacher of the group that wrote Ballant amb la mort, and Carlos Roman, director of Barbie Hell.
Continuing with the educational programming, on Wednesday morning the festival hosted the conference “Behind the magic: how VFX works in cinema”, in charge of Pablo Otero, a Galician visual artist and writer with experience in productions such as The Mandalorian, Alien: Covenant or Avengers: Endgame, as well as a member of this year's Official Jury. Otero filled La Peni with a talk that offered a privileged view of the world of visual effects through a journey through his personal career.
On Thursday, one of the highlights of the week was the masterclass “Independent horror cinema: an (even) darker look”, with Caye Houses i Marc Carrete, moderated by Mireia Noguera. The session brought to the table the challenges and freedoms of independent cinema within the genre.
First edition of the Horror Short Film Award in Catalan. On Thursday morning, the main protagonists were the finalist projects of the first edition of the Award for the production of a horror short film in Catalan, an initiative that aims to promote local talent and support filmmaking in Catalan. The eight finalists presented their pitches to the Industry jury, Laia Aubia de Higes, Judit Navarro Lozano i Diana Santamaria Varas. The winning project, announced at noon, was Cockroach, directed and written by Adriana Galicia, who made the presentation accompanied by the executive producer Margalida Adrover. The jury highlighted the original commitment, to deal with a topic that is rarely addressed in audiovisual media and to be a very solid project, and thus awarded a financial grant of €5,000 so that the film can be produced, which will be presented at the next edition of TerrorMolins.
Double sessions, premieres and international tours. Throughout the week, the Peni Theatre has hosted numerous double sessions with highly anticipated Spanish premieres such as About a Place in the Kinki Region (Kôji Shiraishi), Marshmallow (Daniel DelPurgatorio), Missing Child Videotape (Ryota Kondo), Monkey's Magic Merry Go Round (Aidan Leary) or Dark Nuns (Kwon Hyeok-jae). On Wednesday, the shared session with Silencio, the new film by’Eduardo Casanova, was attended by the composer Joan Vila, also the author of the soundtrack for the festival's commercial. Among the most outstanding premieres of the week is also Bramayugam (Rahul Sadasivan), a hypnotic visual journey and Spanish premiere of the Indian film that takes Asian folk horror to a new dimension.
On Thursday, TerrorMolins received a visit from the Canadian director Brandon Christensen, which presented two premieres this year: Night of the Reaper (in competition in the Official Section) and Bodycam (Bloody Madness section). After the international premiere of The Puppetman at the 2023 edition, Christensen's film returned to the festival to star in one of the most crowded sessions of the week.
Closing session and tribute to Paco Cabezas. On Friday night, at closing session the short film Confession will be presented Never Nakanishi and the feature film The Kirlian Frequency, with the presence of the Argentine director Christian Ponce. At this same event, the award will be presented. Honorary Award 2025 a Paco Cabezas, Sevillian filmmaker author of titles such as Aparecidos, Carne de neon or Mr. Right, and collaborator in series such as Penny Dreadful, Fear the Walking Dead or Wednesday. The festival thus recognizes his ability to combine a local perspective with an international projection, consolidating himself as a voice of his own within the genre audiovisual.
Apotheosic finale: J-Horror, music and 12 hours of horror cinema. On Saturday, one of the most anticipated moments of the festival will arrive: the talks dedicated to J-Horror. On the one hand, “TerrorManga: the most terrifying, grotesque and disgusting stories in Japanese comics”, with Oriol Estrada, and “Playable J-Horror: Horror in Japanese Video Games”, with Victor Navarro. The presentations will precede the emblematic 12-hour horror movie marathon.
The marathon will include the previous concert of Tibosity and screenings of Her Will Be Done (Julia Kowalski), Dream Eater (Jay Drakulic, Mallory Drumm, Alex Lee Williams), Flush (Grégory Morin), Hold the Fort (William Bagley) and a surprise film. The session, the spiritual closing of the festival, has the tickets almost sold out, and promises to be a memorable experience once again thanks to the programming, but also to the shows that make it a unique and immersive event.