Dundee Contemporary Arts presents the eerie, the weird, and the wild with this year’s edition of Dundead. Offering both cutting edge new horror and cult films along with a selection of curated classics, Dundead is serving up a top-notch selection of fear fare. Following is the official press announcement.
Dundead, Dundee Contemporary Arts’ annual film festival celebrating horror, cult and weird cinema, returns to Dundee, bringing four days of terrifying premieres and bone-chilling vintage scares to the big screen. Taking place from Thu 7 to Sun 10 May, the festival offers a long weekend full of new thrills and retro chills for horror fans. And the Dundead team aren’t working alone. They’ve collaborated with feminist collective Invisible Women for this year’s retrospective titles.
Repertory Programme: She’s a Maneater!
New for the 2026 festival, Invisible Women, an archive activist feminist collective based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Berlin, have curated She’s a Maneater! Cannibalism, Consumption and Carnal Appetites. This programme of six repertory horror films will be shown across the Dundead festival weekend, alongside two UK premieres and four Scottish premieres selected by festival programmer Michael Coull.
Invisible Women shared: “Bloodsuckers, flesheaters and nymphomaniacs: horror cinema has long traded on a primal fear of uncontained female appetites. Afterall, in a world where women’s desire for food, sex and capital has been fiercely policed by patriarchal social norms, what could be scarier than a hungry woman?”
The films in She’s a Maneater! all explore women who are willing to go to terrifying extremes to satisfy their insatiable appetites, covering a broad spectrum of female authored and women-centred horror. The programme includes Raw (2016), Julia Ducournau’s debut feature which is celebrating its 10th anniversary; Dumplings (2004), a stylish and darkly humorous film by Fruit Chan about an aging starlet obsessed with retaining her youth; and Trouble Every Day (2001), a film directed by Claire Denis that was a forerunner to the notorious New French Extremity film movement.
Rounding off this section of the festival, Invisible Women have delved into the 20th century to highlight the work of overlooked women filmmakers, stars and stories with Blood Diner (1987), a campy and gleeful horror comedy directed by Jackie Kong;
Santo vs Frankenstein’s Daughter (1972), a gloriously pulpy entry in Mexico’s beloved luchador franchise with a formidable female villain played by Gina Romand; and The Velvet Vampire (1971; our featured image for this article), a cult classic directed by Stephanie Rothman (one of very few women directors working within LA’s B-movie industry during this period) that will close the festival.
Invisible Women said: “We are delighted to have been invited by DCA to curate the repertory strand for this year’s Dundead festival. The history of women in horror is a complicated and fascinating one, which we are excited to sink our teeth into and give a taste of the extraordinary diversity of feminist-inflected horror cinema.
From boundary-pushing arthouse, to reclaimed cult classics, to outrageous B movie provocations, these are bold, sometimes brazen films, yet beneath the gory spectacle they also offer a blood-stained critique of contemporary life, exploring themes such as aging, women’s bodies, consumerism, and “deviant” sexuality with guts and gusto. From vengeful goddesses to urbane vampires, fading starlets to mad scientists, these villainesses and anti-heroines hold up a cracked mirror to the absurdities of the female experience – leaving a trail of gore and destruction in their wake.”
Scottish Premieres
As well as the six classic titles as part of She’s a Maneater!, the festival will showcase six premieres of brand-new films, all freshly made in 2025. There’s a lot of exciting genre filmmaking happening in Canada with Dundead’s two UK premieres hailing from there. The festival opens with the UK premiere of Camp, the second feature from Avalon Fast that tells an eerie tale about the horrors of growing up. And then there’s Buffet Infinity, a totally unique film from Simon Glassman that takes the form of a string of advertisements which reveal a narrative.
Her Will Be Done
Four Scottish premieres complete the selection of new titles, offering local audiences the chance to see thought-provoking, campy and mysterious horror from across the world. There’s charming horror comedy Theater is Dead from the USA, and Roquia, a disturbing supernatural horror from Algeria. Spanish film Silencio, a generation spanning vampire mini-epic will be shown, as will Her Will Be Done, a beautifully observed coming-of-age tale set in the French countryside which explores some of the same ideas as the films in the She’s a Maneater! strand.
Festival programmer Michael Coull said: “This year marks my fifth festival programming Dundead, and I thought what better way to celebrate that than to open up the programming of the repertory side of this year’s festival to our friends from Invisible Women archive activist film collective. They really are some of the best programmers and curators in our industry, ceaselessly seeking out under-explored corners of cinema history. I often think about how we can make the often horrific worlds we are drawn to more inclusive, more thoughtful and more open, and to have Invisible Women on board in this way is really special.
While Invisible Women have been leading on this year’s vintage picks, I’ve been searching for the best in new and emerging horror, cult and weird cinema. My intention is always to offer as much variety as possible, while teasing out ideas, connections and contradictions. I’m thrilled to say this year we have two UK premieres of films (both from Canada!) and four Scottish premieres of films from the USA, Algeria, Spain and France.”
Tickets, T-shirts, and Trivia Quiz
Alongside film screenings, there’s also a chance for teams to put their horror film knowledge to the test at the nail-biting Dundead Film Quiz, this year taking place in DCA Cinema, where there will be some special Dundead prizes up for grabs. And that’s not the only chance for visitors to get their hands on some festival merch, as t-shirts and prints will be available featuring this year’s eye-catching festival design. This has been created by Glasgow-based illustrator Agnes Xantippa Boman and inspired by She’s a Maneater!
Tickets go on sale on Fri 27 March at 10:00. Horror fans can enjoy the whole terrifying weekend with a Full Pass for £102. This includes a ticket to all 12 films, plus a festival t-shirt and special edition print. For those who want to pace themselves, a Half Pass will also be available for £54 which also includes a t-shirt. Passes and individual tickets will be available to buy in person, by phone via DCA Box Office (01382 213 610) and online. DCA Supporters, Members and 18-25 Members get priority booking and special pass prices from Tue 24 March. Visit www.dca.org.uk to find out more.
