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Popcorn Frights 2025 Final Wave of Programming is a Short Film Showcase

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"Bullet Time" directed by Eddie Alcazar

The Popcorn Frights Film Festival is back with its eleventh this year, both in-person and virtually, from August 7-17. The Southeast’s largest genre celebration announces its second wave of programming this morning, from new premieres to repertory screening classics.

The final wave is a short film showcase, featuring seventy-four world premiere shorts. Look for notable entries including Andrew Bowser’s “Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave” and Academy Award-winner Joel Harlow’s “The Specter of Christmas” featuring Paul Giamatti.

Catch up on the first and second waves here for a full rundown of the lineup.

Read on for the third wave:


SHORT FILM LINEUP

Animation Domination

The endless possibilities of genre animation are on dazzling display in this retina-reeling, round-the-world showcase of some of the medium’s most innovative, boundary-pushing, and mind-enhancing short films:

As I Was a Tree, dir. Jalal Maghout (Germany-Syrian Arab Republic); Bullet Time, dir. Eddie Alcazar (USA, U.S. Premiere); Burned Cans for Aluminum Children, dir. Rob Kleinschmidt (USA); Cosmic Crash, dir. James Smith (Germany); Diaboli, dir. Shaddy Safadi (USA); Dolores, dir. Cecilia Andalón Delgadillo (Mexico); Flatastic, dir. Alice Saey (France-Netherlands); La Voix des Sirenes, dir. Gianluigi Toccafondo (Italy); Luz Diabla, dirs. Gervasio Canda, Paula Boffo & Patricio Plaza (Argentina-Canada); Next Show in 90 Minutes, dir. John T. Hill (USA); Worm, dirs. Mattis Dovier & Yoann Dovier (France)

“Want” directed by Zalman Zuckerbraun

Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror

Celebrating the cream of Florida’s homegrown crop:

Alpaca, dir. Sylvia Caminer (USA, World Premiere); Brick Boy, dir. Scott Vasey (USA); Dark Water Rising, dir. Jessica Bachman (USA, World Premiere); It Loves Me So, dir. Colin Dean Treneff (USA); Mimic, dir. Thomas Edward Hindy (USA); Neuropsychosis, dir. Michael Wright (USA, World Premiere); Phantom Pain, dir. Kansas McWhirter (USA, World Premiere); Shift, dir. Lucca Vieira (USA, World Premiere); Shore Gore, dir. Valentino Dors (USA); Swallows, dir. Queenie Zhang (USA, U.S. Premiere); That Ass, dir. Andrew Kiaroscuro (USA, World Premiere); Want, dir. Zalman Zuckerbraun (USA)

“As Pale As Death” directed by Ryan Kukec

International Midnighters

A celebration of some of the year’s most fantastic international short films from new emerging voices and established filmmakers:

As Pale As Death, dir. Ryan Kukec (Canada, World Premiere); Defile, dir. Brian Sepanzyk (Canada); Femme, dir. Nina Noël Raaijmakers (Netherlands); Help, I’m Alien Pregnant, dir. Thunderlips (New Zealand); Mirror, dir. Kathy Hu (China); Nervous Ellie, dir. David Yorke (United Kingdom); Pumpkin Guts, dir. Bryan M. Ferguson (United Kingdom); Reflections, dir. Julia Cassini (Brazil, U.S. Premiere); Snare, dir. Sam Blakeney-Edwards (United Kingdom); Terror Night, dir. Jakob Arevärn (Sweden); Undertone, dir. Shaun Munro (United Kingdom); The Visitor, dir. Tony Morales (Spain)

“Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave” directed by Andrew Bowser

Midnighters

A celebration of new works from cinematic scaremongers that bring nightmares into waking hours with thrills, chills, and spills:

I

Baby Blues – Going Dark, dir. James P. Gleason (USA); Cruelty, dir. Sam Das (USA); Devil’s Prism, dir. Kika Magalhães (USA); Masks, dir. Andre LeBlanc (USA); Obey!, dir. Jordan Wippell (USA, World Premiere); Slow, dir. Rebecca Berrih (USA); Stereo-Vision, dir. Jackson Stewart (USA); There’s Something in My Eye, dir. Richard Louprasong (USA); Tokyo Isn’t Home, dir. M.R. Ellis (USA, World Premiere); Vowels, dir. Rafael De Leon (USA, World Premiere); Will Helm, dir. Bobby Roe (USA)

II

Buzzkill, dir. Amanda Griswold (USA); Crawl Space, dir. Randy Scott Slavin (USA); Princeton’s in the Mix, dir. Jonathan DiMaio (USA); Rabbit, dir. Nathan Catucci (USA); Rebrand, dir. Edoardo Ranaboldo (USA); Red Flag, dirs. Malin Barr & Cleo Handler (USA); REM, dir. Blair Bathory (USA); Up Close, dir. Lukas Hassel (USA); Virgin, dir. Ramone Menon (USA); The Widower, dir. Michael Buran (USA)

III

Endzgiving, dir. Tina Carbone (USA); Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave, dir. Andrew Bowser (USA); The Last Thing She Saw, dirs. Anthony Cousins & Rebecca Daugherty (USA); Séance for the ‘Gram, dir. Sam Schlenker (USA, World Premiere); Skeeter, dir. Chris McInroy (USA); The Specter of Christmas, dir. Joel Harlow (USA); They Came Home to Die, dir. Zeke Farrow (USA); Whitch, dir. Hoku Uchiyama (USA); Wild Animals, dir. David B. Jacobs (USA)

IV

Did You Remember the Cat, dir. Daniel Foster (USA); don’t.4get2smile, dir. Stefano Alessandro Pennisi (USA); Kilter, dir. Bartley Taylor (USA); Look Closer, dir. Tyson Edwards (USA, U.S. Premiere); Never Let You Go, dir. Alex Domenici (USA); Pandora, Inc., dir. Joel Lueben (USA); Sewing Machine, dir. Tyler Hagen (USA); Turn It Off, dir. Senda Maud Bonnet (USA); You Have Her Eyes, dirs. Jordan Sommerlad & Cory Stonebrook (USA)

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon, SeriesFest, and Popcorn Frights Film Fest.

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Movies

Friday, June 5 – These 7 New Horror Movies Released Today

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Pictured: 'Scary Movie'

Ghostface is back on the big screen this weekend… well, sort of… with the release of Scary Movie, which marks the Wayans brothers’ return to the horror spoof franchise for the first time since Scary Movie 2 back in the day. It’s likely to be the talk of the horror community for the weekend, but don’t overlook the other six genre movies that were freshly unleashed today.

Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, June 5, 2026.


The horror spoof franchise is back with Scary Movie now playing in theaters!

Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.

Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…

Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!

Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs Scary Movie 6 from a script written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory WayansCraig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).


Chum review

From IFC, shark attack movie Chum is now available on Digital.

Alice Eve (Haunting of Queen Mary) stars in shark attack movie alongside Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond, Lisa Yaro, Johnny Gaffney, and Sarah Siadat.

This one sounds very similar to last year’s Dangerous Animals

Here’s the plot: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst-transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”

Jonathan Zuck directs Chum, from a script by Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone.


Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) come together in Carolina Caroline, a sexy crime thriller now playing in theaters.

It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but it’s worth a mention here all the same.

Kyra Sedgwick (Family Movie) and Jon Gries also star in the romantic crime thriller.

Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s film stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.

Adam Rehmeier previously directed the films Dinner in America and Snack Shack.

Tom Dean wrote the screenplay for Carolina Caroline.


Similar to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming big screen blockbuster Disclosure DaySignal One explores humankind’s enduring question: what if we aren’t alone in the universe?

The sci-fi thriller is now available on Digital.

Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Raoul Bhaneja (Possessor), Emma Ho (“The Expanse”), and Dennis Quaid (The Substance) star in Signal One from director Jonathan Sobol (The Art of the Steal).

When tech billionaire Sam Houston (Quaid) hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika (Fuhrman), she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence.

Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us.

When the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.


A schoolyard dare becomes an urban legend in the creepypasta-inspired horror anthology The Summoning. The indie film is now available on Digital from Brainstorm Media.

“A babysitting gig becomes a nightmare of urban legend when three teens summon Baby Blue. Survival depends on uncovering the past to escape a mother’s wrath from beyond the grave.”

Felipe Vargas (RosarioHive), Sergio Gonzalez, Brandon Piskorik, Corey Benson Powers, and Brian Sepanzyk direct the segments. Valeria San Martín, Justina Ceballos, Daniela Flombaum, Nannu Spannauss, Agustín Olcese, and Giovanni Onetti star.

The Summoning is written by Camilo Zaffora.


Happy Death Day actress Jessica Rothe stars as a mom struggling to keep her grip on her sanity and memory in the mind-bending Affection, now available on Digital at home.

In Affection, “Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again.

Joseph Cross (Big Little Lies) and Julianna Layne (Chicago P.D.”) also star in the sci-fi horror thriller. Affection marks the feature debut by writer/director BT Meza.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review out of the film’s premiere, “Affection is steeped in existential questions and fears that plague modern society, while it embraces the ethos of the ’80s through bold body horror. Add to that Rothe’s revelatory performance, and Affection is a hidden gem that will connect with your mind, body, and soul.”


Lucile Hadžihalilović’s latest dark fairy tale, The Ice Towerloosely reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen,” and it’s now streaming on Shudder.

In the ’70s set film, “Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot of a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star Cristina (Marion Cotillard), an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.

Clara Pacini stars as Jeanne. August Diehl and Marine Gesbert also star in The Ice Tower, and look for a cameo from director Gaspar Noé (ClimaxIrréversible).

For me, The Ice Tower solidified Lucile Hadžihalilović’s place amongst the most fascinating creators of fairy tales today,” said distributor Yellow Veil Pictures co-founder Joe Yanick.

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