In the grand scheme of things, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is a new city. Established in 1911, there were cars before the place was made official, but even young cities have their ghosts. In this case, the phantom comes through the movie screen in the form of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.
As legend has it, for five years the festival haunts South Florida. The cinema spirit was first sited at O Cinema in Miami, but now roams the historic Savor Cinema in Ft. Lauderdale. Audiences speak of horrific experiences resulting from viewing some of the best horror films around. Year after year, films like Terrifier and Anna and the Apocalypse made their mark in the memories of the faint-hearted. And in those five short years, the legend continues to grow and bring greater levels frightening fun.
So, what’s in store for this year so far from Popcorn Frights?
HAUNT
The first big announcement from Co-Founders and Co-Directors Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman is the World Premiere of Haunt, a new film from Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, the writers of the smash-hit A Quiet Place. The dynamic duo will also be in attendance at the screening so you’ll get a chance to sit quietly watching a movie. See what I did there?
Popcorn Frights Wave One Announcements
THE DARE (World Premiere)
A rare family night for Jay takes a brutal twist when he awakens in a basement with three other prisoners. As their vengeful captor runs riot, Jay engages in a twisted battle to solve the puzzle to his past and save his family’s future. The Dare comes from the director of World of Darkness, Giles Anderson.
BIT
A transgender teenage girl on summer vacation in Los Angeles fights to survive after she falls in with four queer feminist vampires, who try to rid the city’s streets of predatory men.
SATANIC PANIC
From Chelsea Stardust (Into the Dark), a pizza delivery girl at the end of her financial rope has to fight for her life – and her tips – when her last order of the night turns out to be high society Satanists in need of a virgin sacrifice.
KNIVES AND SKIN
Jennifer Reeder’s (Signature Move) mystical teen noir that follows a young girl’s disappearance in the rural Midwest and its effect on teens and parents.
VILLAINS
After a pair of amateur criminals break into a suburban home, they stumble upon a dark secret that two sadistic homeowners will do anything to keep from getting out. The film stars Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe and features Kyra Sedgwick.
Depraved
From director Larry Fessenden (The Dead Don’t Die), a disillusioned field surgeon suffering from PTSD makes a man out of body parts and brings him to life in a Brooklyn loft.
Daniel Isn’t Real
A troubled college freshman, Luke, suffers a violent family trauma and resurrects his childhood imaginary friend Daniel to help him cope. Based on the novel In This Way I Was Saved by DeLeeuw the film stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Paradise Hills
A mysterious boarding school perfectly reforms wayward girls to fit their surroundings’ exact desires. Emma Roberts (Scream Queens) and Eiza González (From Dusk Til Dawn Series) star.
Bliss
A brilliant painter facing the worst creative block of her life turns to anything she can to complete her masterpiece, spiraling into a hallucinatory hellscape of drugs, sex, and murder in the sleazy underbelly of Los Angeles.
The Sonata
A young violinist unravels her long lost father’s past, triggering dark forces that reach beyond her imagination. The film stars “tears in the rain” and Blind Fury legend Rutger Hauer.
Popcorn Frights begins August 8th and runs through the 16th.
Make your way to Ft. Lauderdale to join in the fun.
Are you excited by the films in the first wave of announcements
from the Popcorn Fights Film Festival?
