by Stef Nunez
I’ve seen a lot of movies.
I first moved to Miami about 2 1/2 years ago out of a desperate need to change my surroundings. Moving to a big city where you don’t know anyone is not for the weak, and I cried for almost 2 months straight thinking I made a huge mistake. I was never going to pack it in, mostly because I had no more money after moving, but I just needed a ray of sunshine. Imagine my surprise when I was doom scrolling on Facebook and I saw a random ad for a theater in Fort Lauderdale putting on a big-screen showing of Fright Night.
I kind of feel like I should be embarrassed about it. But the powers that be made me a Cinephile with a horror movie podcast and the grownup money to afford a Regal Unlimited membership. On top of these fun facts I also live in South Florida, which if you didn’t know, is home to Popcorn Frights. Popcorn Frights is one of “The World’s 50 best genre festivals” and attending their events bring my dopamine-starved ADHD brain so much joy. I’ll never stfu about them. So, instead of being embarrassed, I’m just going to brain dump in the form of this column: Reel & Make Believe.
I have nothing against the Fright Night remake, in fact I kind of love it because of David Tennant, but the OG is one of my favorite vampire movies. I couldn’t believe my luck and I had no idea that older movies still got shown in theaters outside of Fathom Events. Celebration Theater is super old with only 1 viewing room, but it’s very spacious with lots of seating and the parking lot is attended by a sweet old man reading a paperback. It’s kind of shaped like an old-school surgical amphitheater and the space in front of the screen is the perfect size for PF hosts (Marc & Igor) to give their pre-show spiel. In this particular case, there was enough room for the actors in a local production of Fright Night *the play to enact a scene for us.
It was heaven on earth for a horror fan like me to discover a place that made me feel so at home. I got several different forms of entertainment in one evening, a free The Black Phone t-shirt and I even had enough courage to strike up convo with some sweet Gen-Zs who had never seen the movie before. Obviously I have not looked back since, but it’s also become a safe haven for me. I knew my boyfriend was the one for me when he (not necessarily a horror boi) let me take him to the PF showing of Dario Argento’s Demons.
BUT I’m not just here to talk about Popcorn Frights. I’m on a mission to watch every horror movie and/or high buzz movie that drops this year, and all the yikesy recommendations I get from the internet. Because let’s bffr, I’m a highly opinionated double Virgo and I talk a lot — there just aren’t enough weeks in the year for the podcast to hold me down. Maybe you’ll be entertained, but I have a distressingly short attention span, so at minimum you’ll have some solid reasons on why (or why not) a film is worth attentioning.
Kthanksbye!
Stef Nuñez (she/they) is the Editor-In-Chief of Sage Cigarettes Magazine as well as unhinged co-host of A Ghost in the Magazine & The Annegirls Podcast. M-F 9-5 she works in the South Florida high fashion scene, but at night and on the weekends she is a feral horror mami who frequents film and music festivals. OH, and she’s a poet.
