Movies
Popcorn Frights Film Festival’s First Wave of Programming Celebrates Retro 3D Horror and World Premieres
The Popcorn Frights Film Festival is back this year, both in-person and virtually, from August 10-20 in Fort Lauderdale, South Beach and virtually nationwide. The festival is leaping off the screen in full stereoscopic 3-D glory for its ninth edition, and they’ve unleashed a first wave of programming that includes new premieres and repertory celebrations.
Highlights include the World Premiere of Deliver Us on Opening Night; seven feature film World Premieres including Brandon Christensen’s The Puppetman; a special spotlight of made-in-Florida films featuring World Premieres of Big Easy Queens, Santastein, and a live original score performance for Herschell Gordon Lewis’ splatter masterpiece Blood Feast for its 60th anniversary; a “1983-D” celebration of 3-D films; and a focus on the “Australian Invasion” of bold new genre films coming from down under headlined by the World Premieres of Psychosis and Puzzle Box.
Access to the in-theater experience will be available through individual tickets or an all-access badge, which will provide an all-inclusive experience for films and special events hosted at the Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale and O Cinema South Beach (“The Horror Collective Screening Room”), Popcorn Frights official host venues this year. Separate virtual passes are also available and will provide access to every film streaming in the festival’s virtual program. For more information or ticket purchases, head over to PopcornFrights.com.
A second wave of Popcorn Frights 2023 titles with more than two dozen additional feature film premieres for in-theater and virtual programming will be announced in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, check out this packed first wave of programming:
IN THEATER FEATURE FILM LINEUP
Deliver Us – Opening Night Film
World Premiere
United States | 2023 | 104 Min. | Dirs. Crus Ennis, Lee Roy Kunz
*Directors Cru Ennis & Lee Roy Kunz, producer Isaac Bauman, and actress Maria Vera Ratti expected in person
An ancient prophecy is fulfilled when a nun immaculately conceives twins: one is the Messiah and the other the Anti-Christ.
Big Easy Queens
World Premiere
United States | 2023 | 80 Min. | Dir. Erynn Dalton
*Director Erynn Dalton and actors Miss Bouvèé, Jennifer McClain, Matthew Darren, and Benjamin Shaevitz expected in person
Set in the seamy underworld, this glam horror musical follows Minnie Bouvèé, Mob Queen of the Quarter, and her rivalry with her arch-nemesis, Poodles Makenzie.
The Dive
US Premiere
Germany | 2023 | 91 Min. | Dir. Maximilian Erlenwein
A dive at one of the world’s most remote spots becomes a fight for survival for two sisters when a landslide sends rocks tumbling into the sea, trapping one in the depths and forcing the other to make life-and-death decisions with no outside help in sight.
Perpetrator
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2023 | 100 Min. | Dir. Jennifer Reeder
A coming-of-age high-school body-horror tale about a wild and impulsive teenage girl living precariously in a town where young women continue to go missing, and the power she’s forced to unlock to survive.
The Puppetman
World Premiere
United States | 2023 | 96 Min. | Dir. Brandon Christensen
*Director Brandon Christensen expected in person
The Puppetman, a convicted killer on death row always maintained his innocence and that it was an evil force controlling his body as he slaughtered his victims. Now the killer’s daughter begins to suspect that there may be some truth to her father’s claim when those around her begin to die in brutal ways. She must try and break the curse of The Puppetman before all her loved ones are killed.
Santastein
World Premiere
United States | 2023 | 87 Min. | Dirs. Benjamin Edelman & Manuel Camilion
*Directors Benjamin Edelman & Manuel Camilion, producer Vasisth Sukul, and actors Jared Korotskin, Makenzie Rivera, Kaylie Heyner, and Fernando Morales expected in person
A holiday slasher about a young man that resurrects Santa after accidentally killing him years earlier, but who soon realizes that the creature he has raised is a bloodthirsty killer.
Trim Season
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 100 Min. | Dir. Ariel Vida
A group of young people go to a remote marijuana farm where they hope to make quick cash, but they discover the location’s dark secrets and now must try to escape the mountain on which they are trapped.
VIRTUAL FEATURE FILM LINEUP
Abruptio
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2023 | 94 Min. | Dir. Evan Marlowe
Featuring the voices of Robert Englund, Jordan Peele, and the late Sid Haig, this puppet horror tale follows a down on his luck man who one day wakes up to find an explosive device has been implanted in his neck.
The Banality
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 78 Min. | Dirs. Michael Stevantoni, Strack Azar
A troubled small town priest attempts to council the family of a boy involved in a sudden and mysterious death while wrestling with his own recurring nightmares.
Brightwood
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2023 | 84 Min. | Dir. Dane Elcar
In this twisted and mind-bending time loop horror tale a couple find themselves trapped while on a run around a pond.
Eldritch, USA
East Coast Premiere
United States | 2023 | 108 Min. | Dirs. Ryan Smith, Tyler Foreman
In this Lovecraftian horror musical a backwoods cult unleashes forces beyond its control in a quiet Midwestern town.
Ghosts of the Void
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2023 | 98 Min. | Dir. Jason Miller
Spending the night in her car, a newly homeless woman wrestles with exhaustion, her crumbling marriage, and the threat of mysterious, masked strangers.
The Last Movie Ever Made
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 95 Min. | Dir. Nathan Blackwell
With the world about to end, a man convinces a group of friends and strangers to help finish the sci-fi movie he abandoned in high school.
No More Time
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2022 | 82 Min. | Dir. Dalila Droege
A couple seeks refuge in a remote mountain town to escape a mysterious viral disease that makes people disappear or turn into murderers. As messengers emerge from the forest, the couple must decide who to trust and what to do to survive.
Psychosis
World Premiere
Australia | 2023 | 98 Min. | Dir. Pirie Martin
A criminal fixer who experiences auditory hallucinations must confront old demons when a mysterious contract drags him into a surreal maelstrom of mind-altering drugs, delusional vigilantes, and a sadistic hypnotist who seems more monster than man.
Puzzle Box
World Premiere
Australia | 2023 | 73 Min. | Dir. Jack Dignan
An addict flees to a house in the woods to self-rehabilitate, where her sister joins to document the process, but the house’s layout begins to change, trapping them inside an inescapable puzzle box.
Quantum Suicide
World Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 87 Min. | Dir. Gerrit Van Woudenberg
A lone physicist builds a particle accelerator in his garage and embarks on a quest to understand the nature of reality.
Saint Drogo
Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2023 | 87 Min. | Dirs. Michael J. Ahern, Ryan Miller, Brandon Perras-Sanchez
A folk-horror tale about a gay couple who take an impromptu trip to Cape Cod in the winter and confront a secret society corrupted by arcane forces. You can read our review here.
Sorry, Charlie
World Premiere
United States | 2023 | 75 Min. | Dir. Colton Tran
A remote helpline volunteer is targeted by a stranger who lures women from their homes with a recording of a crying baby.
T Blockers
Southeast US Premiere
Australia | 2023 | 74 Min. | Dir. Alice Maio Mackay
Ancient parasites rise from a small town, taking the most fearful and susceptible hosts. A young filmmaker finds herself as the only one who can sense the possessed resistance before the horror escapes and spreads.
RETRO LINEUP
Blood Feast
60th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1963 | 67 Min. | Dir. Hershell Gordon Lewis
*Live Performance
An Egyptian caterer kills various women in Miami Beach to use their body parts to revive a dormant Egyptian goddess while a police detective tries to track him down.
Friday the 13th Part III 3-D
1983-D Special Event
United States | 1982 | 95 Min. | Dir. Steve Miner
*3-D Screening
Jason Voorhees stalks a group of friends who just arrived to spend the weekend at a cabin near Crystal Lake.
Jaws 3-D
40th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1983 | 109 Min. | Dir. Joe Alves
*3-D Screening
A giant thirty-five-foot shark becomes trapped in Orlando’s SeaWorld theme park and it’s up to the sons of police chief Brody to rescue everyone.
Parasite 3-D
1983-D Special Event
United States | 1982 | 85 Min. | Dir. Charles Band
*3-D Screening
In a post-apocalyptic USA, a doctor/scientist infected with a new strain of parasite ends up in a small desert town, trying to find a cure.
Silent Madness 3-D
1983-D Special Event
United States | 1984 | 93 Min. | Dir. Simon Nuchtern
*3-D Screening
A psychologist goes undercover as a sorority sister when a serial killer in a mental hospital is freed by a computer glitch and returns to kill again.
Head over to PopcornFrights.com for badges, and stay tuned for the next wave of killer programming.
Sony returns to their own Marvel universe with the upcoming Kraven the Hunter, which has been bumped all over the release schedule. This week, it’s been bumped once more.
There was a time when Sony was going to unleash Kraven in theaters in October 2023, but the film was then bumped to August 2024. It’ll now release on December 13, 2024.
Kraven the Hunter will be the very first Marvel movie from Sony to be released into theaters with an “R” rating, with lots of bloody violence being promised.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the title character, Marvel’s ultimate predator.
“Kraven the Hunter is the visceral story about how and why one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Set before his notorious vendetta with Spider-Man, Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as the titular character in the R-rated film.”
Ariana DeBose will play Calypso in the upcoming Kraven the Hunter movie.
Christopher Abbott (Possessor) is playing The Foreigner, with Levi Miller (Better Watch Out) also on board. Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark) will play another villain, but character details are under wraps. Russell Crowe and Fred Hechinger also star.
J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year) is directing Kraven the Hunter.
The screenplay was written by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and Richard Wenk.
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