Movies
Popcorn Frights’ Second Wave of Programming Includes 50th Anniversary ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ Screening and More
The first wave of Popcorn Frights Film Festival unleashed new premieres and repertory screenings in 3D, and the festival’s second wave announcement today brings more can’t miss horror events. The fest is back this year for its ninth edition, both in-person and virtually, from August 10-20 in Fort Lauderdale, South Beach and virtually nationwide.
Highlights from the second wave of Popcorn Frights 2023 programming include a trio of horror classics. Nightbreed star Anne Bobby is checking into the festival for a special big screen presentation of Clive Barker‘s “Director’s Cut” as well as the world premiere of her new short film “Kindling.” Expect surprises in store for the 50th anniversary screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre on August 18. And what better way to experience the 60th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds than with a special free outdoor presentation on Ocean Drive, Miami Beach’s most famous stretch of sand and nightlife. The special event is made possible with the support of the City of Miami Beach.
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 third wave of Popcorn Frights 2023 titles is still yet to come.
In the meantime, here’s the official second wave of programming:
IN-THEATER RETRO LINEUP
The Birds
60th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1963 | 120 Min. | Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
*Under the stars event
A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.
Nightbreed: Director’s Cut
Special Presentation
United States | 1990 | 120 Min. | Dir. Clive Barker
*Actress Anne Bobby expected in person
A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of friendly monsters are hiding from humanity.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Special 50th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1974 | 83 Min. | Dir. Tobe Hooper
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
VIRTUAL FEATURE FILM LINEUP
A Wandering Path
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 98 Min. | Dir. Michael Dimmitt
The story of underground label Gilead Media and its renown for putting out black metal, doom, and noise rock releases of well-known bands.
Agatha
Florida Premiere
United States | 2022 | 60 Min. | Dirs. Kelly Bigelow Becerra, Roland Becerra
Hoping to find a cure to his sickness, “The Professor” follows Agatha on a strange and risky journey into a forgotten but not entirely deserted urban wasteland.
The Forest Hills
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 80 Min. | Dir. Scott Goldberg
A man is tormented by nightmarish visions after enduring head trauma while camping in the Catskill woods.
Invoking Yell
Florida Premiere
Chile | 2023 | 84 Min. | Dir. Patricio Valladares
Set in 1990s in the south of Chile, a trio of metalhead twenty-something girls venture into the woods to shoot a demo tape for their black metal band, Invoking Yell, while also documenting the eerie and unsettling process of recording electronic voice phenomena in the woods for the final track.
Subject
Florida Premiere
Australia | 2022 | 77 Min. | Dir. Tristan Barr
On his way to prison, a man gets intercepted by a secretive government agency who task him to monitor a secret experiment in exchange for commuting his sentence.
Watchdog
Florida Premiere
United States | 2023 | 93 Min. | Dir. L.C. Holt
After narrowly surviving a violent mugging, a man invites a drifter who saved him back to the isolated home where he and his girlfriend resides, not realizing that he’s opened the door to a night of terror and bloody revenge.
Wintertide
Florida Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 97 Min. | Dir. John Barnard
A volunteer watchperson of an isolated northern city battles a plague of depression that transforms the few remaining residents into empty, zombie-like automatons.
Head over to PopcornFrights.com for badges, and stay tuned for the next wave of killer programming.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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