
After a hiatus due to real life horror (the outbreak!), the Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) cult/horror festival returned to all its bloody glory. Running from the 28th April-1st May, four days with twelve films, it was a mix of new films, previews and premieres, along with their retro strand, which this year to honour the 100th anniversary of the classic vampire film Nosferatu was a selection of vampire films.
This was also the 1oth Dundead event, which saw Michael Coull take over as the events programmer replacing Chris O’Neill, although he was there, not only choosing one final film, but also to show his own short film.
If there was a theme among the new films that were shown, it was that they had stories and endings that did leave ambiguity among the audience, certainly with those I spoke with during the event. Personally, I’m a huge fan of endings like that.
THURSDAY – DAY 1
As always, the event opened with the Dundead quiz, which was great fun as always, especially the Nicolas Cage and the sound rounds. But after that, it was on to the films themselves.
We’re All Going To The World’s Fair (2021)

The opening film was We’re All Going To The World’s Fair. It’s a terrific film, about a teenage girl who participates in an online game. After she joins however, her behaviour seems to change. But is it real? Or something else?
The film was the debut feature of Jane Schoenbrun, who, according to Michael Could during his introduction for the film, went through her own transition while making the film. In some ways perhaps, her transition is reflected in the behaviour of Casey (very well played by Anna Cobb in her debut). While she lives with her father (who we never see only hear at one point) we never see her with him or with any friends, instead coming over as a rather lonely girl who only finds comfort in watching footage of a woman who may be her mother. But as she takes part in the game and her behaviour changes, we are pondering if it is the game changing her or is she changing to get more views on her online channel?
Into the mix is a man called JLB, who contacts Casey offering to help her after becoming concerned with her comments and behaviour. But does he have his own agenda? Certainly by the film’s end, you are left wondering.
Schoenbrun asks some fascinating questions about online behaviour and also, I feel, takes a look at how it effects mental health. It also captures Casey’s loneliness very well indeed.
While the film does have one very good scare, it’s a more thoughtful, disturbing film than outright horror but one certainly worth watching.
Ganja & Hess (1973)

The first film of the vampire strand was 1973’s Ganja & Hess. It was made when there were several blaxplotation horror films were made, such as the Blacula films and Sugar Hill. In his introduction, Michael Coull stated that the producers of Ganja & Hess expected something like Blacula, but writer and director Bill Gunn wanted to tell a different, potentially more interesting story, adding a twist on the origin of the vampire here.
Dr. Hess Green is stabbed with a ceremonial dagger that turns him into a vampire. His attacker kills himself, but when his wife Ganja arrives to find out what happened to him, she begins a relationship with Hess, before finding out the truth.
It’s as much a film about that relationship as it is vampire film. It was pointed out during the introduction that the producers were unhappy with the finished film and had it cut down in length, but the version screened at Dundead was the complete one. It has good performances from Duane Jones (forever known as Ben in Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead) and Marlene Clark as the leads. It’s a well made, interesting film, a fascinating film of its time, but it did feel a little too long for me.
FRIDAY – DAY 2
Dashcam (2021)

Friday had two more films, starting with a preview screening of Dashcam, the new film from the team that made 2020’s lockdown horror Host. Dashcam was made with Blumhouse, themselves of course no stranger to the horror genre.
The film focuses on Annie Hardy (playing a version of herself) who has what may be considered extreme views on Covid, vaccines, masks and other issues. She has an online channel called BandCar, where she drives around making music. She’s arrived in the UK to see an old friend, but after rows with him and his partner, she steals his car and soon gets caught up in horrific events.
The opening of the film will divide audiences I think, as we meet Annie. To be honest, the opening of the film could leave you angry at her and as she is the main character that could effect how you react to the events that play out.
But, it has to be said, the events start strange, before frankly going insane. It’s quite possibly the wildest found footage film I’ve seen, but I did sit there with a grin on my face as I loved the scares, the gore and everything else.
I’m not sure how it will play when reduced in June, but for me, the team of Gemma Hurley, Rob Savage and Jed Shepherd have pulled of another terrific found footage horror film.
Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Interview With The Vampire is a film I saw back in 1994 during its cinema release. To be honest, at the time I found it a bit dull. Based on the novel by Anne Rice, who wrote the script for the film, it has the vampire Louis relating the story of his life, death and life as a vampire to the interviewer.
I had never felt the desire to revisit it. But with it being a part of Dundead, I decided to take a second look.
Looked at now, my opinion of the film has changed. I can’t say if my attitude to film has changed, or if it’s simply I’m older, but I thought it a better film this time round. Director Neil Jordan has made a lavish film, covering over 100 years, but wisely chooses to focus on the characters/vampires of the story. Tom Cruise is very good as Lestat (famously Rice was critical of him in the role before publicly recanting), with good support from Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. However the film is stolen by a stunning performance from Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, a child turned into a vampire.
I may have found it dull way back, but thought now it was a compelling film.
But both then and now, I do think it is camp as hell!
Saturday – Day 3
After two days, with two films each, Saturday had 4 films on offer, with more vampire films as well as a documentary(?) and folk horror.
Nosferatu (1922)

Is there anything left to say about Nosferatu? 100 years old in 2022 and still one of the creepiest horror films ever made. Freely adapted from Stoker’s Dracula, something that Stoker’s widow took exception to and wanted the film destroyed, which it almost was, may have been one of the first silent films I ever saw. The version shown at Dundead was a restored one, that, unless I’m misremembering, had scenes in it that I don’t recall ever seeing before. But even if not and still the same film I’ve always seen or not, F.W. Murnau’s classic film is a masterpiece and in Max Schreck’s unsettling Cound Orlok has one of films greatest vampires.
Straight To VHS (2021)

Straight To VHS is a curious film. It’s billed as a documentary, about a filmmaker obsessed with a film he watched, trying to find out about the filmmaker only to be met with mystery after mystery both with its making and the enigma of its director.
The film is in three chapters as we seen numerous talking heads, other filmmakers and such talking about the film and the way it was made. There is a mystery as to why no one involved with the making of the film wants to talk publicly about it. It sounds like a compelling story, but in the second chapter it becomes a more conventional film or takes the appearance of one, before a final chapter that doesn’t really add anything to what we had seen to this point.
Manuel Lamas, the director of the film in question, called Act Of Violence In A Young Journalist and the director of Straight To VHS only have the one director’s credit each. It’s as if both are part of a wider mystery, but one that might have been more compelling than the film here.
Upurga (2021)

People go out to the woods. Bad things happen.
As a basic story, it’s turned up many, many times over the years in films. What makes this Latvian folk-horror film stand out, is that while there are touchstones such as Southern Comfort, or Deliverance or even the Wrong Turn films that film might be influenced by, it twists its story in some very intriguing ways indeed. Without giving anything away, it also does something you don’t see often in a horror film, which was a genuine surprise.
Director Ugis Olte has made a creepy folk-horror film, one I liked it a great deal.
Vampire’s Kiss (1988)

Like Interview With The Vampire, I hadn’t seen Vampire’s Kiss since I saw it way, way back. I think it was on VHS. Again, like Interview… I didn’t like it. But thinking back on the film, it may have been the first time I saw the full on ‘Nicolas Cage’ performance.
Rewatching the film and despite great work from Jennifer Beals as vampire Rachel, Maria Conchita Alonso as his secretary Alva, Elizabeth Ashley as his psychiatrist and Kasi Lemmons as his on/off again girlfriend, the sheer power of Cage as Peter Loew, an executive who becomes convinced he’s a vampire blows everyone else off screen.
The film is written by Joseph Minion and directed by Robert Bierman and has a tone it quite can’t match up. The comedic aspect works very well indeed. But there are a few more serious moments, that don’t sit well with that tone.
As a vampire film, it’s an oddity, certainly of its time, but worth watching for a full on Cage performance.
*Quick note: Both Interview With The Vampire and Vampire’s Kiss were screened in 35mm. Screenings in this format are becoming rarer sadly, which is a shame as they both looked wonderful on film.*
Before the screening of Vampire’s Kiss, the former programmer of Dundead, Chris O’Neil, said his farewells. Vampire’s Kiss was his selection for this event, but before it we saw a short called Dreams Can’t Hurt You, an experimental film that played around with footage from a notorious horror, Nightmares In A Damaged Brain, going forward and backwards. It is well put it together, and a great, fun short.
Sunday – Day 3
The final day of Dundead brought more Vampires, a domestic ghost story and a genuine surprise.
The Vampire Doll (1970)

The Vampire Doll is a Japanese horror film, one that was inspired by the success both Hammer Horror and Roger Corman with his Poe inspired films. Unlike those films however, The Vampire Doll was sent in present day. It also has influences from other sources too, but to reveal those would give away too much I feel. Like Ganja & Hess, it is a different take on the vampire story, but one I liked very well indeed.
The film was directed by Michio Yamamoto, who had worked with the great Akira Kurosawa in the past and you can see that, both in the look of certain shots and also in one blood soaked shot.
I hadn’t seen The Vampire Doll before, which is part of a loose trilogy apparently, but after seeing it, I will have to check them out too.
I liked this a lot.
Ultrasound (2021)

I never watch trailers when attending film festivals or events. I like to go in blind or know as little as possible before seeing the films being shown. But sometimes, the festival or event will show a trailer or two of the films they show. In the case of Ultrasound, the DCA did screen the film’s trailer but if anything it made the film more intriguing.
To say anything about the plot would do the film an injustice. It’s a very well thought out Sci-Fi thriller that takes its time and reveals its story in clever ways indeed.
Written by Conor Stechschulte and directed by Rob Schroeder, it’s an impressive debut feature from both, which is very well acted by a cast of, to me at least, unknown actors.
If Nosferatu was the best of the vampire films shown at Dundead, Ultrasound was, for me, the best of the new films.
Mlungu Wam (Good Madam) (2021)

There are times when a film focuses on the wrong part of the story. Such was the case with Good Madam. The story of a mother who moves into the house her estranged mother lives in, with her own daughter, it could be considered a domestic drama/ghost story. But whereas the ghost/horror aspect didn’t work for me, as a domestic drama I thought it a very compelling one.
The performances from the cast are good. In a rare move, due to the improvised dialogue in the film, the entire cast are credited as co-writers of the film, alongside director Jenna Cato Bass. She also directs the film well too.
It’s worth watching for the performances and the drama, less so for the horror for me.
Blade (1998)

The final film of Dundead was a screening of Blade, a film nearly 25 years old. And yet looks (aside from a few of the visual effects) like a film made much more recently. The director, Stephen Norrington, has made a superb action superhero horror film, with more emphasis on the action than horror. It’s written by David S. Goyer, who has written or co-written many superhero films over the years, including Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. It’s a fast paced film, with some moments of humour to offset the brilliantly staged action.
Wesley Snipes is terrific as Blade with good support from Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson and N’Bushe Wright.
It’s not a Marvel film exactly, certainly not part of the MCU (about to get a new Blade in the form of Mahershala Ali), but it is without doubt one of the best films to feature a Marvel character.
And with the credits rolling, Dundead came to an end. It was another good event, getting the chance to inteact with other fans, to talk about the films and also, thanks to the Jute Bar, a great place for coffee and cake!
With thanks to the staff of the DCA/Jute Bar and especially Michael Coull for programming the event, I look forward to the next one.