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Popcorn Frights Film Festival Adds ‘Super Dark Times’, Primal Scream’, ‘Jackals’ and More!

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Popcorn Frights Film Festival returns bigger, bolder, bloodier with its second wave of programming for the annual celebration of all things genre. Featuring over 40 film premieres from 8 countries, special guests, and live DJ sets inspired by iconic horror film music, this year’s Popcorn Frights promises more thrills than ever before as it rages through Miami from August 11-17.

For the first time, Opening Night will feature a triple-bill of premieres, including the previously announced slasherfest Tragedy Girls. The wild night will be completed with the Final Cut presentation of the All Hallow’s Eve spinoff Terrifier and the North American Premiere of the 80’s set psychological thriller Jackals starring Stephen Dorff.

It wouldn’t be Popcorn Frights without some exciting film premieres and this year is no exception. Popcorn Frights will present the hotly anticipated US Premiere of the gory horror comedy Dead Shack starring Lauren Holly, the North American Premiere of the Russian gothic nightmare The Bride, and the North American Premiere of The Hatred, produced by Malek Akkad (Halloween) and based on the award-winning short Hush which the Festival premiered at its inaugural edition.

Other buzzy titles encompassing the ever-burgeoning cutting edge of genre cinema include the Florida Premieres of the mind-bending sci-fi thriller The Endless, the Cronenbergian horror romance Sequence Break, the savage social satire Happy Hunting, and the 90’s set dark coming- of-age tale Super Dark Times, as well as the South Florida Premiere of the breakneck non-PC pulp noir 68 Kill.

Popcorn Frights prides itself on providing a fertile ground for new and emerging filmmakers, and this year will present 20 extraordinary short films, including the World Premiere of the mind- melding thriller Level, the North American Premiere of the remarkably brutal animated film Fierce, the North American Premiere of the eerie found footage film IMedium, and the Florida Premiere of the award-winning short Great Choice. This is in addition to the Festival’s previously announced inaugural sidebar, Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror, which is toplined by the Florida Premiere of Rodney Ascher’s Primal Scream.

Joining Popcorn Frights for the first time is Miami-based record label Bribery Corporation, who will be curating a live aural journey highlighting the marriage of music and horror with DJ sets from Mystvries and Dr. Mofongo. These performances will shine a spotlight on iconic theme music from John Carpenter, Goblin, Steve Moore, S U R V I V E, and Disasterpeace as well as Darkwave, Synthwave, and Retrowave from across the spectrum of classic and modern horror films.

It’s time for rampage. It’s time for chaos. It’s time for gory fun. It’s time for Popcorn Frights!

FEATURE FILMS

68 KILL

Directed by Trent Haaga US | 93 minutes | 2017

SOUTH FLORIDA PREMIERE. This southern-fried caper focuses on infatuated nice guy Chip and his crazy girlfriend, Liza, whose relationship takes a sharp turn into homicide when they try to rob Liza’s sugar daddy – only to end up with two corpses, a hostage, and $68,000 in stolen cash.


THE BRIDE

Directed by Svyatoslav Podgayevskiy Russia | 93 minutes | 2017
Russian with English subtitles

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A young woman travels with her soon-to-be husband to his family home in the outskirts and becomes increasingly suspicious of their strange behavior. Sheer psychological terror soon overwhelms her as she starts witnessing terrifying visions when his family prepares her for a mysterious ritual ceremony.


DEAD SHACK

Directed by Peter Ricq Canada | 85 minutes | 2017

US PREMIERE. T

Three kids on a weekend getaway are holed up at a run-down cottage in the woods and must save their hard-partying parents from a shotgun-toting psycho (Lauren Holly), who wants to feed them to her slavering zombies.


THE ENDLESS

Directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead US | 111 minutes | 2017

FLORIDA PREMIERE. A mind-bending delight from the directors of Spring, The Endless follows two brothers who return to the death cult from which they fled a decade ago and discover that there might be some truth to the group’s otherworldly beliefs.


HAPPY HUNTING

Directed Joe Dietsch & Louie Gibson US | 91 minutes | 2017

FLORIDA PREMIERE. A gory thrill ride about an alcoholic drifter who gets stranded in a one-horse town deep in the American desert. It turns out that the town’s psychotic rednecks celebrate a gory pastime rounding up drifters and hunting them for sport.


THE HATRED

Directed by Michael G. Kehoe US | 90 minutes | 2017

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.

From the producer of Halloween comes the terrifying new feature centering on four young women who travel to their college professor’s new country home for a weekend getaway, only to discover that the house has a malevolent past. Featuring Andrew Divoff (Wes Craven’s Wishmaster), David Naughton (An American Werewolf in London), and Amanda Wyss (A Nightmare on Elm Street).


JACKALS

Directed by Kevin Greutert US | 90 minutes | 2017

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE. A potent ’80s-set psychological thriller that centers on an estranged family who hire a cult de-programmer (Stephen Dorff) to get back their teenage son from a murderous cult, only to find themselves under siege when the cultists surround their cabin, demanding the boy back.


LAKE BODOM

Directed by Taneli Mustonen Finland | 85 minutes | 2017 Finish with English subtitles

FLORIDA PREMIERE. A smart, slick, savage slasher that riffs on a notorious real-life Finnish murder still unsolved. More than 50 years later, four teens get some gruesome surprises when they camp out at the site of the grisly massacre.


SEQUENCE BREAK

Directed by Graham Skipper US | 80 minutes | 2017

FLORIDA PREMIERE. A loner video arcade technician experiences bizarre bio-mechanical mutations and Cronenbergian hallucinations when a mysterious new arcade game appears in his shop. Reality itself threatens to fracture as he works to solve its mystery and the new chaos that has entered his life.


SUPER DARK TIMES

Directed by Kevin Phillips US | 100 minutes | 2017

FLORIDA PREMIERE. An incinerating and strangely dream-like teenage nightmare set in the leafy American suburbs of the early 1990s when a group of best friends get caught up in an abrupt and violent accident that results in a gruesome death.


TERRIFIER

Directed by Damien Leone US | 82 minutes | 2017

FINAL CUT SOUTHEAST PREMIERE. It’s Halloween night and Art the Clown, the cold-blooded killer who also stalked the omnibus All Hallow’s Eve, is not wearing a creepy costume just for show. He terrorizes three young women and everyone else who stands in his way in this gritty and jarringly depraved new cut.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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“Bite Size Short: Her House of Horrors” Announce Short Grant Program!

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Her House of Horrors, the horror division of Independent Production House WOMXNOGRAPHY, has launched its Bite Size Short Grant Program, ahead of its film festival Dollhouse of Horror, which will take place in March 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

The Bite Size Short Grant Program awards $2,000 film grants to female-identifying and queer horror filmmakers. Shorts must be able to be made for $2,000, with a minimum runtime of 8 minutes. Submissions are now open on Filmfreeway, and are being judged by a panel of horror lovers and content creators.

The 2024 Bite Size Short Grant Program judge lineup is as follows:

“James H. Carter II- A documentary director, film producer, podcaster, marketing specialist, and writer. James is the founder and co-owner of Creepy Kingdom. Creepy Kingdom was founded in 2011 and is a multimedia website, and production studio specializing in creepy content. Their primary focus lies at the intersection of childlike fantasy and the macabre, covering horror films, theme parks, haunts, and much more. Beyond their extensive media coverage, Creepy Kingdom hosts events, offers original merchandise, and engages in film production under the Creepy Kingdom Studios brand producing original films like “Foolish Mortals”, exploring Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” fan culture, and “Georgie”, featuring Tony Dakota from the original “It” miniseries.

“In addition to founding Creepy Kingdom, James has won awards for his documentary work, including the award-winning “Foolish Mortals,” which has earned him recognition. He has been featured on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween special.

“Ashleeta Beauchamp is the editor-in-chief of Peek-A-Boo! Magazine, a cheeky horror magazine created to uplift marginalized writers, artists, models and other creators within the horror community. She also runs The Halloween Coalition, a community group to provide support and marketing for horror and Halloween events around the Southern California area.

“Titeanya Rodríguez is a multi-hyphenate creative, and the founder and owner of HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, home of DOLLHOUSE OF HORROR and the horror division of WOMXNOGRAPHY. As a fellow storyteller and a self-proclaimed artivist, Titeanya’s mission is to create opportunities for women of color and queer women, across film, tv, sports, music, and beyond. She is also the creator of the BITE SIZE SHORT grant program.”

Winners will have a one-night theatrical screening at Regal Cinemas. Submissions Close April 8 at Midnight. Winners will be announced on May 27, 2024. Shorts must be shot and through post-production by June 30, 2024. The screening will take place on July 8, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.

WOMXNOGRAPHY, HER HOUSE OF HORRORS, and Rodriguez are represented by Azhar PR, Granderson Des Rochers, and Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir.

To submit your short to the Bite Size Short Grant Program, go to the FilmFreeway link here.

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