2025 Popcorn Frights Film Festival Coverage
What the Tide Dragged In review
Our coverage of 2025’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival kicks off with a beautiful movie about love, loss and unexplainable sea-related phenomena.
Festival movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
What the Tide Dragged In
Directed by Patricio Valladares
Written by Patricio Valladares
Starring Maria Jesus Marcone and Luna Martinez
What the Tide Dragged In Review
The first watch at a film festival can really set the tone for your experience. The first movie I saw when I traveled to a festival was a masterpiece called River. Seeing a movie of that caliber made the drive back and forth that week feel a little shorter. In fact, it played a major role in my love of covering not just that festival but every subsequent one I’ve done. Hopefully the same holds true for this year’s Popcorn Frights Film Festival…because it certainly started out on the right foot. What the Tide Dragged In (or Lo Que Trajo La Marea in its native title) is, in many ways, emblematic of what I love about film festivals in the first place.
While it sounds strange to say this just days after seeing one of the best movies of the year (Weapons) open big in theaters everywhere…independent horror is my favorite kind of film. I’m not talking about the big indies we’ve seen blow up in recent years. While they’ve delivered a ton of quality movies onto our screens and been one of the biggest catalysts for the horror boom in cinemas…they’re in a different category now. I’m talking about the truly independent horror movie. The ones that are made for practically nothing. The ones for whom even getting to an international festival platform can be deemed a big success. A24 and NEON may be independent film companies…but they can attract the best talent in the world and their films release in theaters before they line up for their award recognition. Not a complaint…I love what those studios continue to produce.
I’m talking about the do-it-yourself passion projects that are too weird or offbeat or experimental to catch at your local theater. Unless they catch on with a distributor…which can happen. But that’s the dream scenario. The reality is that independent genre film festivals are the place to be to see chainsaw musicals, time traveling samurai, wannabe-clown rampages or people wandering around empty malls…twice. The kinds of movies you won’t find without actively looking for them. What the Tide Dragged In may not be as off-kilter as some of those examples…but it is full of the feeling that discovering a unique voice telling a story on their own terms gives you. That’s the best feeling. Even when it comes from watching a Juggalo road trip movie.
What the Tide Dragged In is a simple story that takes a dark turn. Clara (Maria Jesus Marcone) and Martina (Luna Martinez) are adult sisters mourning the recent passing of their mother. They get together to spread her ashes on a beach, grieve and reconnect as family does. There’s sadness hanging over the film that feels like it comes from a genuine place. It helps that Marcone and Martinez play such grounded and realistic characters. Their tears feel real…their emotions ring true. It’s an emotional time full of emotional conversations.
What the Tide Dragged In is gorgeously shot in a way that evokes watching old home movies. Colors are a bit faded…the screen is cropped to look like slides your grandparents may have shown you when you visited them as a child. There’s a nostalgia factor in the proceedings that deepens our connection with Clara and Martina. We’ve all lost people. We know how they’re feeling. We’ve been where they are before.
Though not…specifically, where they are. The middle of What the Tide Dragged In takes place on a beach of significance to the sisters. That’s why it was chosen to be the final resting place of their mother’s ashes. After saying their goodbyes and performing that ritual…they decide to go for a quick swim. Martina is swept up in the current and Clara fears that she’s just lost her sister as well. Luckily, Martina manages to get out of the event unscathed. Or, at least, it would appear she did.
There are only a couple of warnings that What the Tide Dragged In is going to go in a new direction after so lovingly crafting a moving family drama. One occurs before the opening title. The other is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it image while taking a photograph. For the most part, What the Tide Dragged In plays things incredibly straight. It isn’t until an hour into the film’s 75-minute run time that it starts to tingle the spine. It reaches its conclusion swiftly from there…delivering a memorable climax and unforgettable final image. A great horror ending to a story that rarely tipped its hand that anything horrific was going to happen at all. An effective way to tell a tale that begins with tears and end with something else entirely. The kind of story you won’t find in the theater next to Fantastic Four this weekend…but should be experienced, nonetheless.
Scare Value
What the Tide Dragged In is a wonderfully, and lovingly, crafted film. It looks great. The performances of its two leads feel real. There’s a great sense of loss hanging over the first half of the film. Then it becomes something else entirely. The spine may not begin to tingle until act three of the story…but What the Tide Dragged In sets the table for a fantastic and memorable finale. A quiet movie whose greatest asset is its commitment to feeling like a fully realized version of something that it ultimately is not.
