Know thy doom, for Dundead Film Festival is nigh

It has been foretold: the <b>Dundead</b> film festival will rise again this April

Preview by Kirsty Leckie-Palmer | 19 Mar 2012

With ten films, four days, and innumerable terrors to await, the deliciously dubbed Dundead II is laying siege to Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) centre for another year. Box-fresh treats The Cabin in the Woods and The Raid will spoon with classics The Fog and Cat People, while genres duly ticked include Hammer Horror, body shocker and post-apocalyptic thriller. This year’s event promises more variety and fear than a haunted sushi conveyer-belt.

Thursday 5 April

Wild card: The Cabin in the Woods (8.30pm)
Geek-niche firebrands Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard could spark more than shallow slickery with their collaboration The Cabin in the Woods. A glossy group of stereotypes arrive at a clichéd location for some jumps and threats, but events twist into anything but cut-and-paste doom. This looks to be a self-referential delight.
Symptoms: Feelings of isolation, existential angst.
Case studies: Throw on a blindfold and play Russian roulette with your DVD collection, it’s anyone’s guess.

Supernatural thriller: Inferno (10.45pm)
Inferno is Dario Argento's sequel to Suspiria (1977), the latter of which was screened at last year's Dundead, and both of which are part of his Three Mothers trilogy. Dealing with the supernatural occupation of an apartment building, Argento leads his characters through stylised landscapes of atmosphere and suspense. Horror sage Kim Newman declared it "the most underrated horror film of the 80s". 
Symptoms: Heart-chewing dread, chronic fear of apartment living.
Case studies: The Exorcist (1973) Suspiria (1977).

Friday 6 April

Post-apocalyptic sci-fi: The Divide (8.45pm)
Director Xavier Gens catapults a cult cast into post-apocalyptic NYC. After an earth-ravaging nuclear blast, nine remaining humans must survive at the foot of an apartment block without losing their minds, killing each other or moaning about the destruction of everything they know and love. As if.
Symptoms: Compulsive hoarding, hunger, ennui.
Case studies: The Omega Man (1971), Delicatessen (1991).

Seminal splatter: Blood Feast and the Errand (10.45pm)
Low-budget proto-gore Blood Feast’s trailer urges heart patients and feeble minds to retreat, while its tagline promises ‘nothing so appalling in the annals of horror’. It concerns the tribulations of crazed Egyptologist Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold) as he collects body parts for a cannibalistic dinner party. Like an episode of Come Dine with Me, but with more visible spleen.
Symptoms: Absence of vital organs and/or limbs, feelings of profound emptiness, appetite loss.
Case studies: Black Sheep (2006), Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009).


The Divide (Xavier Gens)

Saturday 7 April

Hammer classic: Dracula (7.00pm)
Before Twilight’s wince-and-sparkle spin on bloodsucking, the fiend of Stoker’s imagination stalked shadowy strongholds, shunned monogamist pining and crushed souls with a glare. The 1958 BFI restoration sees Jonathan Harker arrive in Transylvania to kill Count Dracula, who has other plans.
Symptoms: Anaemia, fatigue, persistent thoughts about stabbing a Capri-sun straw into the human jugular
Case studies: Nosferatu (1922), Thirst (2009).

Paranoid thriller: Babycall (8.45pm)
Noomi Rapace sheds the dragon tattoo to star as paranoid mother Anna who is desperate to keep her son safe from their violent past in this Norwegian chiller from Pål Sletaune. Buying a baby monitor so she can listen to him in the night, she hears something altogether more sinister.
Symptoms: Irrational fear of intercoms, coddling.
Case studies: [Rec] (2007), The Orphanage (2007).

Body horror: Videodrome (10.45pm)
David Cronenberg explores his pet themes of technology and the human body in Videodrome (1983). When TV station owner Max (James Woods) starts receiving transmissions from a pirated channel of torture porn, he plunges into a surreal conspiracy. Look out for Debbie Harry as the disturbed Nicki.
Symptoms: Antisocial behaviour, unexpected new orifices.
Case studies: The Fly (1986), The Human Centipede (2010).

Sunday 8 April

B-movie: Cat People (8.45pm)
Skilful concept-peddler Val Lewton had a gift for churning out horror films for less than $150,000 a stab, and his moody, Jacques Tourneur directed jewel Cat People remunerated RKO with gargantuan returns in 1942. Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) snags his heart on Serbian sultress Irena (Simone Simon), marrying the sweet little mystery in giddy haste. Unfortunately, Irena is somewhat cursed, and any attempt to consummate the wedding will mean hello kitty, adios Oliver.
Symptoms: Jealousy, furballs.
Case studies: The Leopard Man (1943), Barbarella (1968).

Action: The Raid (8.45pm)
Slashing, cracking and blasting across the screens at Toronto International Film Festival 2011, this turbo-violent Indonesian action film from Welsh director Gareth Evans is soon to be slaughtering its way through UK cinemas. A crack team of 20 cops must run the gauntlet of the most dangerous slum apartment block in Jakarta.
Symptoms: Broken bones, third degree burns, gunshot wounds
Case Studies: Django (1966), Fist of Fury (1971).

Atmospheric chiller: The Fog (8.45pm)
Shrouding the festival before it goes back in the coffin: John Carpenter’s 1980s chiller The Fog. On a coastal town’s centenary, a creepy murk crawls in from the sea to wisp destruction. With signature spine-searing soundtrack and requisite quaking from Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau.
Symptoms: Reduced visibility, evisceration.
Case studies: The Blob (1958), The Thing (1982).


The Raid (Gareth Evans)

A Dundead Festival Pass gets you entry to all ten films for £50, and includes a special Survival Pack containing a t-shirt, festival merch and more. To buy your pass visit DCA Box Office or call 01382 909 900 http://www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/films/category/dundead-ii.html