Sommerleigh Pollonais, Horror Head Writer
My knee-jerk reaction to these movies is just to call them terrible and walk away, but I’ve decided if I’m going to review them, I’ll try to give them a bit more leeway than I would with most standard horror movies. Why? Well, first off, these are basically B-movies in the vein of the old Troma films. Made on a shoestring budget with unknown actors and usually set in one location, these aren’t the types of movies that anyone expects great things from as one can only hope for some gory kills and fun characters to pass the time.
Popeye: The Slayer Man is the latest horror to take advantage of a character entering the public domain. In other words, they won’t be sued for turning the sweet and strong, spinach-loving sailor into a brutal killer who kills anyone unlucky enough to invade his home turf. Home is an old shuttered canning factory near the docks and aspiring indie filmmaker Dexter (Sean Michael Conway) and his friends decide to go there to make a documentary about the legend of the Sailor Man. Along for the ride is newcomer to the group Olivia (Elena Juliano) who has secrets of her own and a bunch of other people who barely matter as their only purpose is to up the body count.
So, here’s the good news. For the bloody and gory bits, director Robert Michael Ryan insisted on the use of practical effects only, which made for some wickedly gruesome kills reminiscent of old slashers like Friday the 13th. A few of the actors aren’t half bad and thankfully the leads fall into that category making it easier to care about them. Popeye doesn’t look half bad either and they were smart enough to keep him in the shadows or muted lighting, so the prosthetics weren’t too obvious. Sadly, that’s about it for the positives.
While they have a “grounded” explanation for why Popeye looks the way he does, they never have him act like the character he is based on. A missed opportunity for sure, I was hoping for lots of quips and high energy coupled with his signature laugh. Instead, what I got was just another large, lumbering killer to add to the slasher pile. He does speak in parts, but it’s one line (I am what I am). There was so much else they could’ve done to make this a funny, high-energy slasher, instead of another bland and forgettable one leaving me to wonder, “Why use the intellectual property if you’re not going to have fun with it?!”
Sommer’s Score: 4.5 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge-Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes. Double Tap Baby! Read More