This Saturday night at Fort Lauderdale’s Savor Cinema, Popcorn Frights Film Festival celebrates writer, director, and special effects makeup artist extraordinaire, Robert Kurtzman.
The festivities kick off at 6pm with the two-minute 1991 short film, From Dusk till Dawn, which Kurtzman wrote and directed. The short served as a proof of concept for one of the night’s main events, a 30th anniversary presentation of the 1996 feature film version of From Dusk till Dawn. The Robert Rodriguez directed, Quentin Tarantino scripted, vampire classic helped make George Clooney and Salma Hayek movie stars. The flick was a box office smash in part because it’s the rare movie that starts off in one genre before transforming into something completely different. Kurtzman had a major role in the feature version of From Dusk till Dawn receiving story, co-producer, and makeup effects supervisor credits.
After the screening Kurtzman will be on stage for a live Q&A where he will take questions from the audience. Not only can he regale the crowd with tales from his From Dusk till Dawn experiences, but there’s also plenty of memories he can share as a veteran effects artist on so many classics from Evil Dead II to The Predator to even Dances with Wolves.
After the Q&A at 8 pm, there will be a separate screening of Wishmaster which Kurtzman directed back in 1997. The horror film leans heavily on practical effects as it chronicles the consequences of unleashing an evil genie. The 90-minute movie was produced by Wes Craven and stars horror favorites including the original Freddy Krueger in Robert Englund and the original Candyman in Tony Todd.
Those in South Florida can grab tickets for either screening or the entirety of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival at popcornfrights.com.
