By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Anniversaries as well as new filmmakers will be celebrated at the Florida showcase.
The folks behind the ninth annual Popcorn Frights Film Festival, running August 10-20 as both an in-theater and virtual event, have announced another wave of titles, to go with the initial announcement we reported on here. These include three special-event showings of landmark fright films:
THE BIRDS
60th Anniversary Presentation
United States | 1963 | 120 Min. | Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
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. (Under-the-stars event on Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive)
NIGHTBREED: DIRECTOR’S CUT (pictured above)
Special Presentation
United States | 1990 | 120 Min. | Dir. Clive Barker
A troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of friendly monsters are hiding from humanity. (With star Anne Bobby in person, world-premiering her new short film KINDLING)
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. (Screening 50 years to the day after the movie’s events of August 18, 1973)
New to the virtual lineup are:
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. Features Shelley Duvall, Edward Furlong, Dee Wallace, Felissa Rose, Debbie Rochon, Stacey Nelkin (HALLOWEEN III), and Marianne Hagan (HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS).
INVOKING YELL
Florida Premiere
Chile | 2023 | 84 Min. | Dir. Patricio Valladares
Set in 1990s in the south of Chile, a trio of metalhead 20something 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 reside, 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.
In-theater film screenings and special events will take place at the Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale and O Cinema South Beach; individual tickets are now available at Popcorn Frights’ official website, and In-Theater All-Access Badges can be ordered here. Virtual All-Access Passes are available here. A third round of movies and events will be announced in the coming weeks.
