Popcorn Frights 2026: COLONY Will Kick Off South Florida's Genre Celebration

Every August, the heat is high in South Florida, USA, but the movie theaters are very, very cool, especially with the return of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival.

The 14th edition will kick off on Thursday, August 6, with Yeon Sang-ho's highly-anticipated Colony, which will be paired with a 10th anniversary screening of the director's Train to Busan in a 4K restoration.

Over its 11 days, the festival will include, per the official verbiage, some "14 film premieres and 7 special presentations + live immersive events that bring together horror royalty and live events for a cinematic experience with the volume cranked all the way up."

Special guests include the great Stephen Lang, who will present cult classic Band of the Hand, the gut-churning thrill ride Don't Breathe, and Remains, which is the latest film by his son, Noah Lang

Another genre legend, Michael Ironside, will introduce David Cronenberg's mind-blowing (?!) masterpiece Scanners, as well as the 4K restoration of Paul Verhoeven's incredibly thrilling Total Recall, which is also mind-blowing.

If you are not located in South Florida, but are within the U.S., we quote this portion of the release for planning purposes:

"And for horror fans across the country, Popcorn Frights' acclaimed virtual program returns with more than 20 streaming films, headlined by the U.S. premiere of the darkly comic supernatural road trip ARMAGEDDON ROAD, the visceral Kiwi body-horror nightmare BROKEN BEAK, the blood-soaked anthology IF IT BLEEDS featuring Doug Jones, Dee Wallace, Krsy Fox, and Catherine Corcoran, the nerve-rattling thriller INCUBATION, the haunting psychological chiller MARY KWON, MARY KWON, the emotionally devastating nightmare VARIATIONS OF VIOLENCE, and the monstrous thriller WOOZY starring Emile Hirsch--each pushing the genre envelope in thrilling new directions and designed to blow your genre-loving mind."

This is only the first wave of programming announcements. We will conclude with these reminders from the festival:

"Individual tickets and All-Access Badges for the in-theater experience--hosted at Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale and Classic Gateway Theater--are now available. Virtual All-Access Passes can also be purchased for streaming access to the full digital lineup. To order an In-Theater All-Access VIP Badge, click here, to order a Virtual All-Access Pass, click here.

"Submissions for this year's festival are still open via Film Freeway through the final deadline of July 12. Shorts, features, documentaries, animation, film, and video -- all are welcome and can be submitted at this link.