After spending three films with The Strangers, director Renny Harlin is returning to the ocean for his next film — and Florida audiences can see it for free. Popcorn Frights Film Festival has partnered with Magenta Light Studios to hold a special screening of Harlin’s Deep Water, which hits theaters in May, and FANGORIA has all the details.
Popcorn Frights and the Gateway Theater in Fort Lauderdale have teamed up for a double feature of epic proportions on April 15, beginning with a free screening of Deep Water at 7PM, with Harlin attending in person. Starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley, the new film plunges the director back into the waters of the Pacific as he tells the story of a routine flight that descends into chaos after an emergency ocean landing delivers them right into the waiting jaws of the ocean’s deadliest predators.
But that’s not all — following the Florida premiere, the Gateway will then be host to a 9:30 screening of the film that first saw Harlin tackle deadly sea creatures: Deep Blue Sea. Predating Deep Water by over twenty-five years, this similarly-named cult classic stars Saffron Burrows and LL Cool J as members of a research team attempting to use shark brains to understand Alzheimer’s, only for two genetically-enhanced predators to take their revenge.
Deep Water marks a return to form for Harlin, who’s spent the last two years directing Lionsgate’s rebooted The Strangers trilogy, based on the 2008 home invasion thriller of the same name. It’s his first original horror film since 2023’s Refuge, and the unlucky thirteenth horror film in his oeuvre, the latest in a list that also includes A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Devil’s Pass.
Both of Popcorn Frights’ Renny Harlin screenings are free and open to the public as a part of the festival’s mission to ensure that seeing films in theaters remain accessible to all, though eager fans who’d like to attend must RSVP separately for both films on the festival’s website. Popcorn Frights encourages attendees to arrive early to claim their spot in the Gateway’s limited seating.
For those who can’t attend the screening, Deep Water arrives in theaters on May 1.
