South Florida’s horror film fest features drag queens, blood and local talent
What do drag queens, zombie Santa Claus and murderous puppets have in common?
This isn’t the set up for a lame joke. This is the campy, spooky and risk-taking lineup for Popcorn Frights, South Florida’s largest genre film festival. The 10-day-long fest, which runs from Thursday to Aug. 20, features horror, fantasy, action and cult classic movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. The festival’s program ranges from indie horror films to screenings of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Jaws 3-D.”
The lineup features 116 films representing 20 countries at three venues: Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale, the Gateway Theater in Fort Lauderdale and O Cinema South Beach. This year is the festival’s most ambitious yet with something for everyone to enjoy, said co-founder and co-director Igor Shteyrenberg.
“We were drawn to films that were aesthetically and politically urgent that transported us somewhere new as viewers and that were, above all, fun and push the boundaries of storytelling,” Shteyrenberg said. “Popcorn Frights is a safe space where everyone is welcome.”
Shteyrenberg and colleague Marc Ferman started Popcorn Frights nine years ago with a $500 budget and a simple goal, to celebrate films that were not being shown in South Florida. Before Popcorn Frights, genre film screenings were hard to come by here, pushing fans to travel to cities like New York and Los Angeles for premieres, Shteyrenberg said.
When the festival first launched at O Cinema in Wynwood, every screening was sold out, Shteyrenberg said. Popcorn Frights, which also includes a virtual program, expects to reach an audience of at least 10,000 fans.
“We knew that there was an untapped community,” he said.
Comedy, Camp and ‘Nightmare Fuel’
Fans will recognize several classic films in the festival’s program. On Friday is a screening of “Friday the 13th Part III 3-D” followed “Jaws 3-D” the next day. On Aug. 17 is a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds.” And there’s a screening of Tobe Hooper’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” on Aug. 18, exactly 50 years after the fictionalized massacre occurred.
Popcorn Frights presents a rare opportunity to watch weird, obscure films on the big screen, Shteyrenberg said.
On Friday at Savor Cinema is a unique screening of “Blood Feast,” a 1963 movie considered to be the first “splatter film.” The movie, which was filmed in Miami, tells the harrowing tale of Fuad Ramses, who acquires the body parts of “young nubiles” for a party. The original trailer for the 1963 film includes this warning: “This picture, truly one of the most unusual ever filmed, contains scenes which under no circumstances should be viewed by anyone with a heart condition or anyone who is easily upset.”
Popcorn Frights is celebrating the film’s 60th anniversary with a live original score performance by artist Richard Vergez. In the past, Vergez has done live score performances for Popcorn Frights, but with silent films like “Nosferatu.” This time, he’ll have to work around the dialogue.
While the movie plays, Vergez will use a guitar, cassette tape player, cake mixer, ice crusher and bicycle wheel to create music and sound effects on the spot.
“It’s really campy and silly,” he said about the movie. “My approach to it is to make it a little more modern, but staying in that time frame, so I’m not using any advanced technology.”
On Aug. 20 at O Cinema South Beach is a special screening of “South Beach,” which Shteyrenberg described as a “silly romp of a film.” This 1993 murder mystery film follows a serial killer who targets phone sex operators in South Beach. During the screening, local comics Lisa Corrao and Elli Scharlin will provide live, comedic commentary on the film.
Fans of camp will find it in the program’s modern films, too. There’s “Hundreds of Beavers,” which looks to be exactly what the name suggests. In “Santastein,” a 2023 Florida-made horror movie, a kid named Max accidentally burns Santa to death on Christmas Eve and then resurrects him 12 years later. As part of the festival’s virtual program, fans can watch “The Last Movie Ever Made,” a charming comedy about a man who convinces friends and strangers to help him finish a sci-fi movie he abandoned in high school before the world ends.
If you’re looking for “nightmare fuel,” there’s “Abruptio,” a gore-filled film made entirely with puppets starring horror legends Robert Englund and Jordan Peele that took nearly a decade to complete. In the movie, a man who is ridiculously down on his luck finds a bomb implanted into his neck. In order to survive, he has to commit heinous crimes and figure out who the evil mastermind is.
Fresh Florida Films
This year’s program boasts the “biggest spotlight on Florida filmmakers that we’ve ever had,” Shteyrenberg said.
Film fans who like to keep an eye on the next big thing can dedicate an afternoon to “Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror” on Aug. 20 at O Cinema South Beach. This sidebar event features seven short films all made by emerging Florida filmmakers. A man trying to cook dinner goes insane while trying to kill a fly in “The Housefly,” a 10-minute film by Darshan Patel. In “They’re Real,” a 14-minute film directed by Jack Kierski, a group of friends on vacation have to fight for their lives when an alien-masked maniac attacks. In the 8-minute long “Unknown,” directed by Jay Henric, a girl finds a sinister phone after her roommate dies.
Also hailing from the Sunshine State is “Big Easy Queens,” a feature-length drag queen horror flick so highly anticipated the festival added an encore screening after its Aug. 11 world premiere sold out. (Tickets for the Aug. 12 screening are available online.)
This “glam horror” movie, directed by local filmmaker Erynn Dalton, stars Eric Swanson as his drag persona Miss Bouvèé. Set in New Orleans, the film follows a bitter turf war between Minnie Bouvèé (Swanson) and her arch-nemesis Poodles Makenzie. After Minnie has Poodles’ crew slaughtered, a creepy masked figure begins to stalk her. But who’s behind the mystery? Is it Poodles? Or is it Minnie’s estranged sister who stole her man years ago? The thriller features blood, glitter, zombies, hijinks and original musical numbers.
“If ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ and Carol Burnett had a child, it would be ‘Big Easy Queens,’” Swanson said.
While Swanson has worked full-time as a drag cabaret performer for years, this was his first time acting in a feature film. The screenplay was written by a friend, Robert Leleux, who approached Swanson about starring in a movie as Miss Bouvèé. The next day, Swanson happened to meet Dalton, a horror film producer and director.
“It felt like we have been struck by lightning,” Swanson said.
The premiere of “Big Easy Queens” comes at a fraught time for the LGBTQ community in Florida. Though the movie wasn’t specifically made in response to conservative politicians’ rhetoric against drag artists or the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” education laws, Dalton said the current political climate made the cast and crew “even more determined” to make the film.
Representation in film is important, Swanson said, even in fun, campy thriller movies.
“We were in that moment of history, and we were like, ‘OK, we cannot wait two years for this film to be edited,’” Swanson said. “We have to do what we can do to get this out because we want to prove that we have a voice. There’s representation in the state of Florida, even regardless of this kind of government.”
While the film industry is stuck in a loop of big budget superhero movies and remakes, indie horror films have been making waves by offering viewers original, risk-taking content, Dalton said. That is what she set out for with “Big Easy Queens.”
“Horror has always embraced the rebels in the in the film industry,” she said. “We fit there perfectly.”
Popcorn Frights Film Festival
When: Aug. 10 - 20
Where: Screenings and events hosted at Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale, the Gateway Theater in Fort Lauderdale and O Cinema South Beach
Info: Tickets and full schedule available online at popcornfrights.com
This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
