Feratum 2013 kicks off on October 3 with the screening of Calvin Reeder's The Rambler. As a cool fact, Ulises Guzmán, director of Alucardos, Retrato de un Vampiro and Feratum programmer, presented The Rambler paraphrasing an extract from Chase Whale's ScreenAnarchy review!
"If David Lynch and David Cronenberg teamed up with Werner Herzog early in their careers and made a movie together, it would have been Calvin Reeder's The Rambler."
It sure looks like a killer opening film, but perhaps the definitive out-of-competition highlight is Fantasia 2013 winner Big Bad Wolves, reviewed by Joshua Chaplinsky back in late April. Here's an extract from that review:
"Big Bad Wolves is about a loose canon cop (You're out of control! Turn in your gun and your badge!) and the father of a murdered child who decide to take the law into their own hands. Separately. And then as a team. After the alleged murderer/rapist walks due to police misconduct, the two vigilantes kidnap the suspect with the intention of forcing a confession (and the whereabouts of the victims' pretty little heads) out of him. What follows is some gruesome torture and a number of reversals which leave the audience wondering who the hell the good guys are."
This is the complete out-of-competition lineup:
The Rambler (United States), by Calvin Reeder
Opening Film
Big Bad Wolves (Israel), by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado
Closing Film
OXV: The Manual (Australia, United Kingdom), by Darren Paul Fisher
Eega (India), by S.S. Rajamouli and J.V.V. Sathyanarayana
If you ask J Hurtado, Eega would be the definitive highlight. He called it the best film of 2012! You can read his ScreenAnarchy review here.
Kajola (Nigeria), by Niyi Akinmolayan
With director Niyi Akinmolayan in person!
Ismael Rodríguez Jr. Homage:
Masacre en el Río Tula (1985), Pandilleros (1992), La Hiena Humana (1995).
Guest of honor Mojica Marins is confirmed for a really incredible "masters of horror's master class", together with Ghoulish Gary and Rodrigo Gudiño! The festival offers other interesting master classes, such as Jorge Grajales' "Fantasy Cinema of Nigeria and India", and the book presentation of Gudiño's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See.
Three films by Mojica Marins will be screened at Feratum 2013: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1963), The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe (aka Exorcismo Negro, 1974) and his latest Embodiment of Evil (2008). I was hoping for the entire Coffin Joe trilogy but guess what? Mojica Marins is making a stop in Mexico City after the festival, saving his renowned trilogy for Mexico's capital. Cineteca Nacional is dedicating an entire day to the Brazilian legend on October 8, with the exhibition of the Coffin Joe trilogy (At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse and Embodiment of Evil) and a public conference.
Feratum is taking part of its official selection to Mexico City as well. Cineteca Nacional will be home for the upcoming festival's winners, both feature length and short films, through its annual horror season Masacre en Xoco, curated by José Luis Ortega and Mauricio Matamoros Durán. I'll be posting the Masacre en Xoco schedule and reporting Mojica Marins' first visit to Mexico. Stay tuned!
Feratum illustration by Eduardo Santaella (Guro Mx)