‘The Dead 2,’ ‘Big Bad Wolves’ Bookend FrightFest
LONDON — Film4 FrightFest, which Guillermo Del Toro dubbed “the Woodstock of Gore,” will open with the world preem of the Ford Brothers’ India-set zombie pic “The Dead 2: India,” and closes with Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s revenge thriller “Big Bad Wolves.”
“The Dead 2: India” is helmed by brothers Howard and Jon Ford, the British director, writer and producer team behind the African-set zombie road movie “The Dead,” which launched at FrightFest in 2010.
The new film, which claims to be the first-ever international production of a zombie film to be shot in India, follows the story of India-based American engineer Nicholas Burton (played by Joseph Millson) in a race against time to reach his pregnant girlfriend, played by Meenu. Burton enlists the help of an orphan street kid Javed (Anand Goyal), and together they make a perilous 300-mile journey across deadly landscapes as a zombie apocalypse threatens to engulf the nation.
“Big Bad Wolves” is a fairytale suspenser that follows the lives of three men on a collision course: the father of a murder victim out for revenge, a vigilante police detective operating outside the law, and the main suspect in the killings — a religious studies teacher arrested and released due to a police blunder.
Fest co-director Alan Jones said that Keshales and Papushado’s “Rabies” in 2011 became the only movie in the fest’s 14-year history to warrant successive extra screenings based on overwhelming demand.
The directors and some cast members of both pics will be attending the festival.
“Both ‘The Dead 2: India’ and ‘Big Bad Wolves’ represent everything FrightFest is about: the discovery, nurturing and celebration of vital new voices in the genre,” Jones said.
FrightFest, the U.K.’s biggest genre film festival, runs Aug. 22-26 in London. The full lineup will be announced on June 28.
Related stories
Universal, Red Granite Team on 'Dumb and Dumber' Sequel
Selma Blair Officially Out on FX's 'Anger Management' After Charlie Sheen Feud
Batman and Superman Join Forces in 'Lego Movie' Trailer (VIDEO)
Get more from Variety.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter
