Juan Piquer Simón

Born in Valencia, Juan Piquer Simón continues to be a rarity in Spanish fantasy production. After years of experience in the documentary field and advertising, which allowed him to get to know the world of trick photography and special effects from up close, Piquer Simón decided to commit to a genre in 1977, that of adventures and fantasy, that no one had decided to explore until then. The result was Viaje al centro de la tierra (Journey to the Center of the Earth), an adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, that became a huge box office hit and channeled his career toward fantasy for all audiences, continuing with Supersonic Man (1979) and Mystery on Monster Island (1981). Mil gritos tiene la noche (Pieces, 1982), an effective American-style slasher that has little to envy its models, was distributed around the world and marked his entrance in horror movies, as well as Slugs (1987) and The Rift (1989), both filmed in English with a well cared for technical finish. Producer and special effects supervisor on several productions like Escalofrío (1978) or Más allá del Terror (1980), in the 90’s he returned to adventure films with a big-scale project that became La Isla del Diablo (1994), Manoa, la Ciudad de Oro (1997) and El Escarabajo de Oro (1999) but which, unfortunately, didn’t achieve the expected success.

Sitges Film Festival