Five Horror Classics to See at Popcorn Frights Film Festival

At this year's edition of Popcorn Frights, South Florida's biggest horror movie festival, the most terrifying thing might be the scary amount of movies to see.

This year, the festival takes place across two venues in Fort Lauderdale and virtually. It will bring 131 film premieres, including 48 features and 83 shorts. International horror films from Sweden, Turkey, Serbia, India, and elsewhere will screen alongside their American counterparts, while the festival's "Homegrown" program features films made in Florida. There's even an "Animation Domination" block focusing on cartoon carnage.

Best of all, the in-theater component is free. The festival uses a first-come, first-served system with optional donations for individual screenings; just RSVP online and show up. For guaranteed seating at any and all screenings, the festival also sells a VIP badge for $66.60.

"Popcorn Frights was launched a decade ago with $500 and a full heart of excitement to bring to South Florida its first-ever genre festival experience," cofounders and codirectors Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman tell New Times via email. "Over this time, it's presented more than 1,000 film premieres, hosted more than 200 filmmakers from all across the US, and positively impacted nearly 100,000 fans who have called Popcorn Frights home not just for a horror fix but for the loving community they can always find."

It's a daunting task to sort through all the gory goodness, so while you check out the complete lineup at popcornfrights.com, New Times has highlighted a handful of films from the festival's equally impressive classics program, complete with special appearances from industry icons. Vintage slasher films, J-horror remakes, and a legendary director's most infernal vision are all in the offing.

Society

Years before the likes of True Detective and the Jeffrey Epstein scandal reignited conspiracy theories about the perversity of the powerful and ultra-wealthy, Re-Animator director Bryan Yuzna's film Society made a meal out of the same themes. The film follows Bill Whitney (Billy Warlock), a teenager who's always felt out of place in his upper-crust Beverly Hills family. When he starts to investigate a mysterious recording, a series of gruesome killings follow, and the terrifying secret behind the (literal) inhumanity of his class comes out in a shocking, disgusting finale replete with flesh and filth – think Eyes Wide Shut as if David Cronenberg directed it. Yuzna himself will be on hand to introduce and discuss the film, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, at Savor Cinema on Saturday, August 10.

The Grudge

Hollywood can be pretty shameless about remaking foreign films, and when it comes to horror movies, cultural elements often don't translate. That can't be said for The Grudge, which saw producer Sam Raimi recruit Japanese director Takashi Shimizu to remake his own film Ju-On: The Grudge. Unlike our American proclivity for sicko slashers and serial killers, J-horror is much more interested in ghosts and paranormal beings, like Kayako (Takako Fuji), a murdered housewife turned vengeful onryo. An iconic villain who has done battle with Sadako from The Ring, in The Grudge, Kayako haunts a succession of new owners of her former home, including American college student Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar). If you're interested in learning how the filmmakers translated this Japanese story for American audiences, Popcorn Frights has invited the film's screenwriter, Steven Susco, for a Q&A after the movie on Saturday, August 10, at Savor Cinema.

Bringing Out the Dead

New York has never looked more hellish than in Bringing Out the Dead. Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader's spiritual successor to their own Taxi Driver makes the city look and feel even more infernal than it did in that '70s classic, as we follow Frank (Nicolas Cage), a paramedic burning the candle at both ends. Much like Travis Bickle before him, Frank prowls through a late-night New York populated by the desperate and the damned. Facing a streak of failure in his unending quest to save lives, Frank's sleepless delirium turns the city into a vision of pandemonium, with bravura, hallucinatory sequences in which exhaustion gives way to insanity. Bringing Out the Dead has been underappreciated for years, overshadowed by Scorsese and Schrader's more high-profile films. With an impending 4K Blu-ray release, the film is rightfully seeing renewed appreciation. If you catch one film at Popcorn Frights, make it this one on Wednesday, August 14, at Gateway Theater.

Candyman

Before Jordan Peele revolutionized racial horror with Get Out, Bernard Rose gave us this sharp (no pun intended), socially conscious tale of gothic horror adapted from a short story by Hellraiser director Clive Barker. The film follows a Chicago grad student (Virginia Madsen) researching urban myths whose research leads her to the Candyman, a monster supposedly haunting the notorious Cabrini-Green housing project. She gets much more than she bargained for: Candyman is real as can be, and the vengeful ghost of a black man taking revenge for his lynching begins to haunt her. The film wouldn't have succeeded if it hadn't been for the powerhouse performance of Star Trek actor Tony Todd, who imbues the Candyman with a seductive menace and extraordinary pathos. That may be why Popcorn Frights is giving the legend its first Golden Skull award. The actor will accept the award and introduce a screening of the film on Friday, August 16, at Savor Cinema. During the festival, he'll also be on hand for screenings of two recent films, The Activated Man and The Bunker.

Up All Night With Freddy

Much like his iconic slasher villain Freddy Krueger was born of fire, Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street started a franchise fire that burned for years. The original 1984 film, which pitted a group of middle-American teens against a monster killing them off in their dreams, launched careers (Johnny Depp) and spawned a frightful amount of sequels and reboots. Popcorn Frights is giving you the chance to watch the entire original series — seven films in all, from the very first movie to the '94 meta-horror reboot New Nightmare — all in one night, hosting its Up All Night With Freddy movie marathon on the festival's final night at Gateway Theater on Saturday, August 17. Be sure to stick around (if you dare) for a secret eighth movie: Mahakaal, a Bollywood musical rendition of the iconic Elm Street story.

Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2024. Thursday, August 8, through Friday, August 16, at Savor Cinema, 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale; and Paradigm Cinemas Gateway Fort Lauderdale, 1820 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale; popcornfrights.com. Tickets and passes are available via popcornfrights.eventive.org.