Movies
Popcorn Frights 2023 Capsule Reviews: From Horror Musical ‘Big Easy Queens’ to Experimental ‘Psychosis’
The Popcorn Frights Film Festival is currently underway, both in-person and virtually, unleashing a variety of premieres and events.
Now at the halfway point, the programming still has plenty of horror to come.
Here’s a round-up of some of Popcorn Frights’ feature offerings so far, from musical horror comedies to experimental mindbenders.
Big Easy Queens
Rivalries, betrayal, murder, sisterhood, and musical glamour ensue in the horror-tinged Big Easy Queens from director Erynn Dalton and writer Robert Leleux. Made in Florida but set in New Orleans, the film follows French Quarter mob queen Minnie Bouvèé (Eric Swanson) and her rivalry with nemesis Poodles Makenzie (Jennifer McClain). Their bitter feud for Big Easy domination escalates when Minnie’s estranged sister Mimi (Benajmin Shaevitz) resurfaces, and the body count rises, though Poodles may not be to blame.
What Big Easy Queen lacks in budget, it makes up for in dazzling musical numbers and charming camaraderie between queens. Exterior shots look rough, but Dalton smartly keeps most of the action relegated to interior set pieces, from Minnie’s speakeasy to backyards destined for murder. Voodoo, zombies, and blood flow in a briskly paced 80-minute runtime that culminates in an affecting conclusion that is befitting of its loveable characters.
Eldritch, USA
Music and Lovecraft collide in the horror-comedy musical Eldritch, USA. Siblings Rich (Andy Phinney) and Geoff Brewer (Graham Weldin) barely get along. Not only is Rich the far more popular brother at their workplace, but he’s their parents’ favorite son, too. Their eternal sibling rivalry leads to a horrific accident that sees Geoff seeking out a cult to undo his mistake. But books of the dead are never meant to be opened, and Rich’s return from the dead is only the start of Geoff’s problems.
Co-directors Ryan Smith and Tyler Foreman, working from a script by Smith, embrace a whimsical tone for their horror comedy prone to breaking out in song and dance. Phinney imbues Rich with the proper smugness and entitlement that starkly contrasts with Weldin’s sweet but browbeaten protagonist. Not all of the subplots or melded subgenres mesh well, and the almost two-hour runtime feels stretched thin for this straightforward story. But Smith and Foreman stage the musical numbers with an infectiously humorous energy that’s winsome.
Ghosts of the Void
Writer/Director Jason Miller’s feature debut presents a scathing critique of the American Dream or, more accurately, the fragility of it. Spouses Jen (Tedra Millan) and Tyler (Michael Reagan) get introduced at the outset as recently homeless and living out of their car. Frustration and exhaustion leave Jen on edge, which quickly becomes exacerbated by the fractures exposed in her marriage. That’s before the arrival of hostile masked assailants.
Miller’s confident direction ensures a handsomely shot debut, though one that devastates. Flashbacks intercut throughout chronicle the couple’s course from wedded bliss to shattered dreams and homelessness, driving home the precarious nature of financial stability. The emphasis on characterization in this slow burn means the horror encroaches slowly, favoring the psychological until one downer finale that continues through the credits. Miller seeks to challenge perceptions and dangles hope through Jen, though don’t look for escapism in this bleak, reality-based horror entry.
Puzzle Box
There’s an underlying twist and purpose to writer/director Jack Dignon’s found footage horror feature for sisters Kait (Kaitlyn Boyé) and Olivia (Laneikka Denne). They’ve rented an Airbnb at a remote, rural location with the intent for Kait to rehabilitate her addiction while Olivia documents her journey. But something’s deeply off about the place, and that’s before they even step foot inside. Kait’s path to recovery comes with mind-bending nightmares.
All the found footage techniques and tropes are on full display in this shaky cam effort that struggles to introduce the dynamics between sisters and establish rooting interest organically. It’s compounded by the arrival of a screaming specter (Cassandre Girard), whose shrill, relentless attacks grate rather than terrify. The conceit behind the banshee-like Screaming Woman struggles with its execution; the repetitiveness of the ineffectual screeching scares wears thin quickly, and the reveal amounts to a saccharine whimper.
Psychosis
Writer/Director Pirie Martin’s audacious feature debut ambitiously defies easy categorization as it blends techniques and genres alike. The grainy, high-contrast black-and-white feature with an atypical aspect ratio introduces Cliff Van Aarle (Derryn Amoroso), a criminal fixer with a psychological condition that entails a cacophony of multiple voices competing for attention in his head. When he’s hired by two amateur drug dealers claiming they were attacked by zombies, Cliff finds himself embroiled in a strange conspiracy involving the enigmatic drug lord Joubini.
The noir horror thriller operates with an idiosyncratic tone befitting its oddball protagonist, whose condition often works as an asset rather than a hindrance. Martin weaves in aural and visual clues, including methodically conservative splashes of color and psychedelic sequences that might trigger those with photosensitivity. It’s the precise type of unconventional visual storytelling that evokes extreme reactions; you’re on board with this unique Pi meets Six String Samurai type of eccentric cinematic storytelling, or you’ll find it off-putting. But it’s so daring in form and mythology that it’s hard not to be impressed.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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