Scares and surprises at Dundead Halloween 2025
We take a look back at a successful spooky season for Dundead
October has come to an end and we wanted to take a look back at all the frights and films of Dundead Halloween 2025.
From Sat 11 to Fri 31 October 2025, we brought a spooky selection of six films to DCA cinema for the creepiest time of the year. We also took 1925's The Phantom of the Opera on tour with our newly-commissioned score created by Scottish musicians Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman, which was performed live at five cinemas across Scotland.
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Dundead Halloween 2025
Celebrating Halloween at DCA
Our six Dundead Halloween screenings started off with a bang at our sold out 50th anniversary showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was a delight to welcome St. Salvatoré and Eden Spaghetti of CLIMAX Dundee to start the screening with live drag performances and an introduction. And the audience brought their fishnets and sequins, with some amazing Rocky Horror looks.
Dr Lucy Fife Donaldson, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at University of St Andrews, gave a fantastic introduction at our 20th anniversary screening of The Descent, at which the audience got a special preview of the film's new 4K restoration. And audiences loved revisiting their childhood fears at our 40th anniversary screening of Return to Oz - it was The Wheelers that got the most votes in our poll of the scariest aspect of the film.
Dundead knocked it out of the park this year with its surprise screening / Scottish premiere of Honey Bunch. It was such a solid and mesmerising mystery drama (& comedy) that had us gasping, laughing and in total suspense. I love when I don't know what's going to happen next and this was such a fun and tragic and deranged and inspired journey that left me saying - GOOD FOR HER!@tombirdwords Instagram
There were lots of lovely Letterboxd reviews left for Mark Reyes’ short film The Nightwalker, which screened before our special VHS screening of Evilspeak. And after the screening, fans enjoyed posing with the original tape we sourced for the occasion.
Our Surprise Preview was unveiled as the Scottish Premiere of weird Canadian thriller Honey Bunch. Audiences took to our comment board and Letterboxd to review the film. And we kept the surprises coming at this screening by revealing the dates for next year's Dundead Film Festival - make sure to add Thu 7 - Sun 10 May 2026 to your diary.
Our Halloween season culminated with a sold out screening of The Phantom of the Opera. To celebrate the film's 100th anniversary, we commissioned Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman to create a new score for the film and took it on tour. More on that below but first, here's more from Dundead Halloween 2025...
The Phantom of the Opera on tour
Thanks to support by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery, we commissioned Scottish composers Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman to create a brand new score for 1925's silent horror classic The Phantom of the Opera.
Mixing acoustic and electronic instruments with elements of sound design, Andrew and Tommy created a score with a present-day approach. Together, we took this special cinema event on tour to venues across Scotland, visiting Filmhouse in Edinburgh, GFT in Glasgow, The Hippodrome in Bo'ness and Eden Court in Inverness, plus appearing in DCA Cienma for a sold out event on Halloween itself.
We received some fantastic feedback from each performance. Read some of our favourites below and watch our interview with Andrew and Tommy for more about how the score was created.
Supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery.