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Herald 2025 Popcorn Frights 3rd Wave

The third and final wave of programming for the 2025 Popcorn Frights Film Festival has arrived, and it’s just as chaotic, bloody, and beautifully bizarre as fans hoped. With 74 short films packed into seven distinct blocks, including 15 world premieres, this year’s festival isn’t easing into genre innovation. It’s leaping in headfirst, teeth bared.

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Running August 7 through 17, the 11th edition of Popcorn Frights will once again be a hybrid experience. The in-theater lineup screens at Savor Cinema Fort Lauderdale and Cinema Paradiso Hollywood, while the full virtual program streams nationwide. Whether you’re catching features from the front row or watching shorts under a blanket at home, this third wave is here to mess you up in the best way possible.

Let’s dig into the lineup.

Bullet Time to Brain Freeze

One of the highlights of this year’s third wave is the U.S. premiere of Bullet Time, a new animated short from Eddie Alcazar, best known for Divinity and Perfect. Alcazar is not interested in soft landings. He makes films that fry synapses and leave residue. Bullet Time promises to be another surreal gut punch that challenges the definition of animation altogether.

It headlines Animation Domination, a shorts block stacked with international entries like Worm (France), Flatastic (France-Netherlands), and Dolores (Mexico). This isn’t cute or cuddly animation. These are aggressive, visceral entries that use animation like a scalpel, slicing into your comfort zone with experimental force.

Florida Horror Still Reigns

Popcorn Frights has always backed Florida’s homegrown horror scene, and this year’s Homegrown: 100% Pure Fresh Squeezed Florida Horror program keeps that weird energy alive. With world premieres like Jessica Bachman’s Dark Water Rising, Kansas McWhirter’s Phantom Pain, Andrew Kiaroscuro’s That Ass, and Sylvia Caminer’s Alpaca, the block proves once again that Florida horror is loud, sweaty, and totally unpredictable.

Whether it’s a supernatural encounter in a swamp or a slasher in a strip mall parking lot, these shorts carry the unmistakable stamp of the Sunshine State: sun-drenched menace and an underlying sense of, “Was that real?”

Midnighters, International and Otherwise

The International Midnighters block brings global mayhem to the lineup with films like As Pale As Death (Canada), Reflections (Brazil), Snare (UK), and Help, I’m Alien Pregnant (New Zealand). These are the kinds of films that start as low-key genre experiments and end in blood-drenched revelations. It’s a global sampler platter of panic and style.

The Midnighters block itself is equally feral. Highlights include Andrew Bowser’s Frankenbabes from Beyond the Grave, Rebecca Berrih’s Slow, and Jackson Stewart’s Stereo-Vision. Genre diehards will also recognize returning filmmakers like Anthony Cousins (The Last Thing She Saw) and Tony Morales (The Visitor), both returning for their fourth appearance at Popcorn Frights.

One to especially watch: The Specter of Christmas, directed by Joel Harlow and starring Paul Giamatti. Yes, that Paul Giamatti. The guy from Sideways and Billions. Now he’s showing up in a holiday-themed genre short, and honestly, that’s the kind of curveball Popcorn Frights lives for.

Premieres That Could Break Your Brain

The world premieres in this wave are not messing around. Sam Schlenker’s Séance for the ‘Gram, Bartley Taylor’s Kilter, and Jordan Sommerlad & Cory Stonebrook’s You Have Her Eyes all offer fresh takes on digital-age dread, personal trauma, and dark ritual. Emily Bennett, whose feature Blood Shine is already part of the fest, is also premiering her short Affirmation, giving audiences two distinct doses of her voice this year.

Also premiering are Rafael De Leon’s Vowels, M.R. Ellis’ Tokyo Isn’t Home, and Ryan Kukec’s As Pale As Death. The titles alone are enough to pique interest, but the filmmakers backing them have histories of crafting smart, unsettling work.

Breaking Records and Raising Hell

With 74 shorts in this wave alone, and 15 of them making their world premiere, Popcorn Frights 2025 is the largest program in the festival’s history. Combine that with the previously announced 60 features and you’ve got 134 films total. It’s a monster of a lineup, and it’s designed to overwhelm you in the best way.

What makes this third wave especially exciting is the depth and variety. These shorts don’t just serve as filler between features. They are fully formed stories, visual experiments, and in some cases, calling cards for future genre stars. If you think of horror as a testing ground for the culture’s deepest fears, this wave is like sticking your hand straight into the socket.

How and Why to Watch

Tickets for in-person screenings are already available, along with All-Access Badges and virtual passes for the full streaming lineup. Whether you’re braving the packed theaters or setting up a darkened living room festival of your own, Popcorn Frights is giving you the tools to dive into one of the most unfiltered, ambitious horror festivals anywhere.

For full details, tickets, and passes, check out PopcornFrights.com. And maybe cancel whatever plans you had between August 7 and 17. You’ll be too busy watching things you’re probably not supposed to see.