Eagerly anticipated zombie flick The Dead 2: India will open this year's Frightfest, it was announced today. The sequel to 2010's grim African survival story, which was praised for reclaiming the genre from comedy spoofs as well as for its satirical content, the film sees a US engineer and a street kid making a desperate trip across the subcontinent as a zombie plague takes hold.
Closing the festival will be Big Bad Wolves, an Israeli revenge thriller which brings together a vigilante police detective, a serial killings suspect and the father of a victim in a tense plot with something of the quality of a fairy tale.
"FrightFest launched the Ford Brothers' The Dead to worldwide acclaim in 2010 and Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado's Rabies in 2011 became the only movie in our entire 14-year history to warrant successive extra screenings based on overwhelming want-to-see demand," noted festival co-director Alan Jones, "So to welcome both duos back with their stunning new movies, both exploring unusual cultural aspects within a remarkable genre framework is an absolute thrill."
This year's Frightfest will run from Thursday 22 August to Monday 26 August at the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, London.