[News] Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2021 Announces its First Wave of Films!

Popcorn Frights is thrilled to unveil the first wave of programming for its in-theater festival experience to take place next month, from August 12-19, 2021. Popcorn Frights will be one of the first film festivals in South Florida to be hosted in-theater since the start of the pandemic and will design a safe and accessible festival experience where fans and filmmakers can safely come together to celebrate and discover the best genre films from around the world.

Popcorn Frights will open with the Florida Premiere of Searchlight Pictures’ hotly-anticipated supernatural thriller THE NIGHT HOUSE, the new nightmare from The Ritual director David Bruckner starring Rebecca Hall (Godzilla vs. Kong). Running August 12-15, the five-day in-theater program is headlined by five feature-film World Premieres, including the wickedly twisted chamber piece SUPERHOST starring Gracie Gillam and Barbara Crampton, the psycho slasher PRETTY BOY, the riotously cathartic revenger TAKE BACK THE NIGHT, and the gritty atmospheric thriller DITCHED.

The festival will also celebrate Florida horror with a dedicated program spotlighting the cream of Florida’s homegrown crop. Included in this special showcase is the World Premiere of THE WELDER, a gnarly thriller shot entirely in the Florida Everglades; Mickey Keating’s new southern gothic horror story OFFSEASON, a ghoulish, tense and utterly fantastical tale set in a Florida beach town and starring The House of the Devil’s Jocelin Donahu; and the HOMEGROWN: 100% PURE FRESH SQUEEZED FLORIDA HORROR short film competition featuring the World Premieres of AMERICAN CRYPTID, AMERICAN DIABLO, IT COMES FROM OUTSIDE, and WHAT CAN BE BROKEN SHALL BE BROKEN, and the regional premieres of DEMONICA, TECH SAVVY, and TOO FAR.

Other highlights in the feature film program include the Southeast US Premieres of the nihilistically unhinged WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING starring Pat Healy, Vinessa Shaw, and Sierra McCormick; Jim Cummings’ brutal dark comedy THE BETA TEST; as well as the premiere of the hallucinatory animated thriller CRYPTOZOO.

Nothing says spooky quite like Friday the 13th, and for the first time, Popcorn Frights falls on this glorious day. To honor the fearful day, it will host a special 35th Anniversary Presentation of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI – JASON LIVES, which will feature several exciting surprises and giveaways to be announced at a later date.

Celebrated as the largest genre film event in the Southeast U.S. and one of “The World’s 50 Best Genre Festivals” by MovieMaker Magazine, Popcorn Frights will complement its in-theater festival program with an online virtual component for those unable to travel to the festival in South Florida. The virtual program will offer an entirely separate and unique lineup that will be available to stream throughout the United States, and which will be unveiled in the coming weeks as part of Popcorn Frights second wave announcement.

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 Silverspot Cinema Coconut Creek, Popcorn Frights official host venue this year. Separate virtual passes are also available and will provide access to every film streaming in the festival’s virtual program. To order an In-Theater All-Access Badge, click here, to order a Virtual All-Access Pass, click here.

A portion of all proceeds from the festival will go to benefit those impacted by the building collapse in Surfside, FL.

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IN-THEATER FEATURE FILM LINEUP

The Night House

The Night House

Florida Premiere
United States | 2020 | 110 Min. | Dir. David Bruckner

THE NIGHT HOUSE follows a widow (Rebecca Hall of Godzilla vs. Kong) who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.

The Beta Test

Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2021 | 90 Min. | Dir. Jim Cummings

Indie auteur Jim Cummings stars as an engaged Hollywood agent who receives a mysterious letter for an anonymous sexual encounter and becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lying, infidelity, and digital data in this gleefully over-the-top dark comedy.

Cryptozoo

South Florida Premiere
United States | 2021 | 95 Min. | Dir. Dash Shaw

In this richly-drawn hallucinatory animated thriller, Cryptozookeepers try to capture a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown.

Ditched

World Premiere
Canada | 2021 | 90 Min. | Dir. Christopher Donaldson

After a routine prison transfer crashes in the forest, a young Inuit paramedic finds herself surrounded by murderers with a mere 100 feet to climb out of a ditch to escape.

Offseason

Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2021 | 83 Min. | Dir. Mickey Keating

Anchored by a mesmerizing performance by Jocelin Donahue (The House of the Devil), this southern gothic horror story follows a woman who travels to a desolate Florida island town after receiving a mysterious letter and soon becomes trapped in an unending nightmare.

Pretty Boy

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 97 Min. | Dir. Marcel Walz

In this gloriously melodramatic suspense slasher, a masked killer named Pretty Boy takes a blind woman from her home in the Hollywood hills and crashes a Valentine’s Day party where the bloodshed continues as he runs amok with his butcher’s knife.

Superhost

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 83 Min. | Dir. Brandon Christensen

Sara Canning, Osric Chau, Gracie Gillam, and Barbara Crampton star in this wickedly twisted chamber piece about two travel vloggers who check into a vacation rental with a host that will do anything for a good review.

Take Back the Night

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 90 Min. | Dir. Gia Elliot

Finding herself the victim of a violent monster attack, a young woman launches a vigilante campaign to hunt the beast that tried to kill her, even though her family, friends, and authorities question the authenticity of her account in this biting social critiques and downright gripping horror thrill ride.

We Need to Do Something

Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2021 | 97 Min. | Dir. Sean King O’Grady

With a tornado on the way, a dysfunctional family (Pat Healy, Vinessa Shaw, and Sierra McCormick) takes shelter in their bathroom, only to end up trapped. As hours turn to days, it's clear something even deadlier is at play beyond the walls, toying with them.

The Welder

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 90 Min. | Dir. David Liz

In this ambitious and unsettling Florida-set horror film, a young couple travels to the Everglades for a vacation that they hope will bring them closer together. But what at first appears to be a seemingly pastoral paradise soon transforms into a sinister, dread-soaked nightmare as a vicious madman terrorizes them for his demented experiments.

IN-THEATER SPECIAL EVENTS

Home Grown - Demonica

Friday the 13th Part VI – Jason Lives

35th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1986 | 86 Min. | Dir. Tom McLoughlin

After an intended victim impales the corpse of Jason Voorhees with a metal pole during a lightning storm, the deranged killer is resurrected, rising from the grave to wreak havoc upon a new group of unsuspecting campers.

Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror

This film showcase is designed to be a springboard for new filmmakers from Florida and a space that helps forge a new direction for Florida’s genre scene by further cultivating and nurturing its growing film community:

American Cryptid

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 5 Min. | Dir. Erynn Dalton

Campfire stories, passed down for generations, may give you a thrill... but you never know who (or what) is listening.

American Diablo

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 10 Min. | Dir. Juan Carlos Castaneda

A police checkpoint turned awry takes an undocumented, deaf woman on a downward spiral into the underworld hiding beneath Miami.

deMonica

Southeast US Premiere
United States | 2021 | 22 Min. | Dir. Miguel Angel Ferrer

A former gang member must recruit a Jesuit priest in order to help her save her younger sister, not only from the ruthless prostitution ring she fell into, but from the demon that’s possessing her body.

It Comes from Outside

World Premiere
United States | 2021 | 10 Min. | Dir. Jack Kierski

After she sees a mysterious figure staring at her from the window, a curious but skeptical woman goes outside in her back patio area to find who it is. Is it human or something supernatural?

Tech Savvy

South Florida Premiere
United States | 8 Min. | 2020 | Dir. Scott Vasey

A mom discovers her Photoshop program can make changes that become permanent in real life. After some friendly fun, she destroys a photo of her Ex’s prized car, inadvertently creating a disaster in need of an “undo” button.

Too Far

South Florida Premiere
United States | 15 Min. | 2020 | Dir. Juan Alonso

A jokester tries to pull a prank on his girlfriend with the help of his two friends, but when a masked figure sabotages the prank, they quickly learn that someone has been the punch line of their jokes for way too long and now is taking matters into their own hands.

What Can Be Broken Should Be Broken

World Premiere
United States | 20 Min. | 2021 | Dir. Steve Vaynshtok

A mob hit gone awry embroils two mobsters in a series of unfortunate events too calculated to be a coincidence, leading ultimately to ruin and an act of savage revenge.