The torrential downpour that greeted me at the theater for the sixth day of Popcorn Frights turned out to be a good omen for a pair of very good gothic horror movies, one of the campier teen variety and one a bit more serious.
First up, we get the return of a genre that provided some campy thrills last year: Russian teen horror.
Queen of Spades: The Looking Glass (Pikovaya dama. Zazerkalye) (2019)
With the weekend behind us, Popcorn Frights has cooled down a bit; from here, there's only two movies a day. Fortunately, they still delivered quality.
First, we get a supernatural horror film with an unusual lead...
Popcorn Frights 2019's second weekend gauntlet was another doozy, packed with a diverse lineup of films that included a war thriller, torture porn, zombies, Satanic horror-comedy, and supernatural horror.
First up, it's Red Dawn, Swedish style.
The Unthinkable (Den blomstertid nu kommer) (2018)
Buckle up. Day three of Popcorn Frights was the first of two gauntlets, and I had to scramble to and from my house between movies in order to care for the dogs while still squeezing everything in. The quality varied, but I still got two standouts.
Things really picked up on the second day of the festival. We got what will likely be one of my favorites so far, followed by what will likely be one of my least favorite, all wrapped up with an entertainingly trippy, gritty take on vampires at the end.