"The Sunshine State is about to get a whole lot more badass and bloody as we unleash the most twisted, bold, breathtaking, hilarious, and downright wildest films in the world. It's a collection of the weird and awe-inspiring from the most thrilling visionary artists and master nightmare-makers on this planet. Summer will see a fury of cinematic terror unlike Florida has ever seen!" said Igor Shteyrenberg & Marc Ferman, Co-Founders & Co-Directors of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.
The festival has announced their first wave of programming that will be featured and it will be as follows:
FESTIVAL LINEUP (FIRST WAVE)
FEATURE FILMS
ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE
Directed by John McPhail
UK-USA | 107 minutes | 2018
EAST COAST PREMIERE. In this gleeful genre-mashing holiday horror musical a zombie apocalypse threatens a sleepy town at Christmas forcing Anna and her high school friends to fight, sing, and slash their way to survival with a fast-spreading undead horde in relentless pursuit.
BOOGEYMAN POP
Directed by Brad Michael Elmore
USA | 90 minutes | 2018
EAST COAST PREMIERE. In this striking Blumhouse production set over the course of one summer weekend, a bat-wielding, masked killer in a rusted-out black Cadillac weaves in and out of three interlocking stories awash in sex, drugs, punk rock, black magic, and broken homes.
THE DARK
Directed by Justin P. Lange
USA | 94 minutes | 2018
SOUTHEAST US PREMIERE. In this blend of macabre storytelling, coming-of-age frankness, and shocking gore, a flesh-eating young girl haunts the woods where she was murdered. When she discovers an abused kid inside the trunk of a car after dismembering his guardian, her decision to let the boy live throws her existence into upheaval.
HAVANA DARKNESS
Directed by Guillermo Iván
USA | 86 minutes | 2018
English and Spanish with English subtitles
WORLD PREMIERE. Touted as the first English language horror film to be shot in Cuba! Traveling to Havana, Cuba, to investigate the origins of a mysterious manuscript supposedly written by acclaimed American novelist, Ernest Hemingway, three friends are thrust into a terrifying game of cat and mouse when they find themselves trapped inside an abandoned building nestled in the center of the country's vibrant capital.
ONE CUT OF THE DEAD
Directed by Ueda Shinichiro
Japan | 96 minutes | 2018
Japanese with English subtitles
US PREMIERE. Opening with an utterly awe-inspiring nearly 40-minute single take of cheerfully gory monster mayhem before hitting the reset button and turning into an irresistibly funny satire of low-budget genre filmmaking, this wonderfully inventive horror-comedy breathes new life into the zombie genre and proves there's somewhere the apocalypse movie hasn't yet gone.
PROSPECT
Directed by Chris Caldwell & Zeek Earl
USA | 98 minutes | 2018
EAST COAST PREMIERE. A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moon's toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive.
PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH
Directed by Sonny Laguna & Tommy Wiklund
USA | 84 minutes | 2018
FLORIDA PREMIERE. During a road trip to a convention for the 30th Anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders, a comic book nerd, his new girlfriend and his best friend come face to face with a set of sadistic Nazi puppets. All hell breaks loose when a strange force animates the puppets at the convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree that's motivated by an evil as old as time.
SATAN'S SLAVES
Directed by Joko Anwar
Indonesia-South Korea | 107 minutes | 2018
Indonesian with English subtitles
FLORIDA PREMIERE. When Mawarni, a famous Indonesian singer, dies of a mysterious illness, her husband and four children are left behind to pick up the pieces, only to discover that they are being haunted by a pack of rabid spirits headed by Mwarni herself.
ST. AGATHA
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
USA | 90 minutes | 2018
EAST COAST PREMIERE. Horror film impresario Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, III and IV) brings to life his latest nightmare, a period piece concerning a troubled woman running from her past who finds herself kept hostage by a coven of vicious nuns.
WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE
Directed by Colin Minihan
Canada | 98 minutes | 2018
FLORIDA PREMIERE. Majestic mountains, a still lake and venomous betrayals engulf a female married couple attempting to celebrate their one-year anniversary in this brutal tale of claustrophobic survival starring Brittany Allen and Hannah Emily Anderson.
WOLFMAN'S GOT NARDS
Directed by Andre Gower
USA | 91 minutes | 2018
EAST COAST PREMIERE. A heartfelt documentary exploring the power of one of the strangest, scariest, and most iconic kids films to ever grace the silver screen - The Monster Squad - and its 30-year impact on its rabid fan base, the cast and crew, and the future of horror comedies.
For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www.popcornfrights.com. Festival Premiere Badges will be on a sale for a limited time and single screening tickets will be available beginning June 27. You can also follow the Popcorn Frights Film Festival on Facebook (/popcornfrights), Twitter (@popcornfrights), or Instagram (@popcornfrights) for updates with the latest information about the Festival. Join the conversation using the hashtag #popcornfrights on social media.