Ángel Mora

Jack—an introverted and solitary man in his thirties—pursues his passion for horror cinema with an almost fanatical zeal. His bedroom resembles a macabre mausoleum, filled with posters, film stills, video tapes, and Super 8 and 16mm films. Eventually, the movies cease to satiate his hunger for fear and morbid thrills; Jack needs to find something stronger—something real: death in the flesh, *snuff* films. His online search for snuff material—combined with his hateful relationship with his violent, alcoholic father and his obsessive, platonic love for his young neighbor—will lead Jack to the very gates of hell.

Made over a two-year period, Animal is a detailed journey through the Spanish geography in search of examples of a subject as concrete as it is horrifying: festivities where animals are hurt. From the classic bullfighting tradition, to all different kinds of celebration, the movie approaches the humiliations animals are subjected to. This long journey includes visits to different towns, from Madrid to the Ebro Delta. It’s all about watching this images outside the popular context, inside a horror film festival, and wonder about the disturbing and essential difference in relation with images of violence in other films: fiction vs reality.