Feratum 2013 Dispatch, Day 3: Masters of Horror's Master Class And A Perfect Closing With BIG BAD WOLVES!

While the very last Feratum 2013 screening was scheduled at 7 PM on October 6, the film press returned to Mexico City that same day around 1:30 PM, hence day three of the festival (Saturday, October 5) was really my last one. It began early in the morning with a showing of the really striking Chilean film Apio Verde. Exploring mostly real-life horror, it's worth watching stuff, with a serious and explicit denounce against the abortion law of that South American country.

As you can read in the Feratum dispatch of day one, opening film The Rambler suffered of technical problems and wasn't exhibited in its entirety. It was scheduled again for Saturday, taking the spot originally designated to the Chilean effort The Gravity of the Pugilist, which strangely couldn't get to the Feratum programmers' hands.

Before The Rambler, I got to see a Mexican short film called Atroz and directed by Lex Ortega. This young man Ortega was in attendance and presented his work saying it had been banned in some countries due its gruesome images. At least five persons actually gave Atroz the highest compliment a torture film can hope for by walking out disgusted. However, I don't think hard-core horror fans would be impressed with this short film, which departs from the typical found footage premise. It's well made but unimaginative and ultimately not extremely shocking. The Rambler, on the other hand, is quite crazy but I sure enjoyed more its first half.

After this I went to the Rayón museum only to found out that the venue for the highly anticipated "masters of horror's master class" had been changed. Now the reunion of José Mojica Marins, Gary Pullin and Rodrigo Gudiño was going to be inside the same church where a day before I had enjoyed Mojica Marins' At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul. It wasn't the best location for it (too small), and I didn't have the best spot, but the master class was terrific. Mexican filmmaker Aaron Soto was the moderator, asking questions to the three guests, but soon Mojica Marins changed the dynamic and involved the public. When the class ended, I had the fortune to talk about ScreenAnarchy and Birth of the Living Dead with the kind and awesome Pullin (one of the best Feratum 2013 moments)! He didn't understand what Coffin Joe and Gudiño said during the master class since they spoke in Portuguese and Spanish, respectively, but I hope he gets to read my upcoming article with the best quotes.

This year's final visit to Tlalpujahua's main theater (Teatro Obrero) was for the award ceremony and the closing film Big Bad Wolves. Unpredictable and exciting, Aharon Keshales's movie was, by far, the festival's best and it should have been part of the official competition to win something (you can read here which were the awarded films).

Feratum 2013 ended for me on this high note!