Popcorn Is a Campy Horror Movie Made for Campy Horror Movie Lovers

If you contemplate its plot on a bare-bones degree, there’s nothing exceptional about 1991’s Popcorn. It’s a slasher movie that 100% adheres to the traditional construction: a tragedy up to now sparks a vengeful killer within the current, who then proceeds to choose off their victims one after the other. But because of its intelligent setting and its personal horror-movie worship, Popcorn is a lot greater than that.

We’re first launched to Maggie (minor scream queen Jill Schoelen, who additionally starred in The Stepfather and When a Stranger Calls Back), a movie pupil who lives along with her mom (horror legend Dee Wallace, star of The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, Cujo, Critters, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) and is satisfied that her eerily vivid goals will assist her write a tremendous script. Then we meet Maggie’s classmates—a cornucopia of film geeks. To elevate cash for his or her faculty’s movie division, they resolve to host a horror marathon at a long-shuttered close by theater, that includes a trio of corny flicks that had been initially launched with promotional gimmicks (main hat-tip to William Castle) they’ll recreate.

Stepping in to assist with this activity is “the master chef of showmanship,” Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston, star of My Favorite Martian, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and about 1,000,000 different issues), who runs a memorabilia store and is ready to provide the children with all of the rubber monsters and wacky costumes and props they’ll want. But on the massive evening, a killer lurks among the many crowd, creatively murdering members of the group after which assuming their identities utilizing alarmingly lifelike masks to cowl up their crimes.

The niftiest facet of Popcorn—directed by Mark Herrier and written by Alan Ormsby—is that the manufacturing really went the space and filmed vital parts of the movies-within-the-movie that type the backdrop for many of its motion. At occasions, the principle movie cedes all the display screen to those cornball photos, all of which might’ve been honest recreation for Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffage in the event that they had been really actual. There’s creature-feature Mosquito, introduced in 3D with the added bonus of an enormous bug that’s rigged to fly throughout the theater at a key second; monster story The Attack of the Amazing Electrified Man, for which sure seats are rigged to “shock” viewers members; and The Stench, stylistically modeled after a Godzilla film (the dubbing!) but additionally that includes the John Waters-esque use of “Odorama” to envelop the viewers in no matter disgusting smells are depicted on-screen.

The consideration to element is admirable. And there’s a fourth movie-within-the-movie that additionally performs a vital position: Possessor, which the school children discover a copy of whereas they’re cleansing out the theater. Fifteen years prior, its director—“head guru of this movie cult again within the ‘60s”—lost his mind after audiences laughed at his self-serious avant-garde cinematic explorations. His solution to silence the haters? Film his entire script for Possessor save the last scene, which he performed live onstage instead, adding the gruesome final “gimmick” of murdering his family then setting the theater on fire, killing several audience members in the process. He died along with them… or did he? And another thing: why does Maggie’s recurring dream look precisely like Possessor?

The thriller portion of Popcorn is totally not tough to determine. Like most slashers of the period, you’ll not have any bother discerning who the killer is, and even you probably have any confusion as to their motivation (you received’t), they get an enormous scene on the finish the place they clarify the whole lot. The enjoyable right here is the final air of goofballery that envelops all the film. The characters are all one-note—the one one that will get something resembling an arc is Maggie’s boyfriend, performed by Derek Rydall (star of one other slasher from the identical period I additionally extremely, extremely suggest: Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge)—however they’re likable all the identical, with Tom Villard (Grease 2) and Kelly Jo Minter (A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child) amongst them.

And what’s extra, you’ll be able to’t assist however love the rowdy viewers that settles in for the horror marathon carrying all method of Halloween-costume finery. They eat up all the films and the gimmicks with hooting pleasure, they enthusiastically take a dance break when the theater loses energy, they usually even keep by the tip to witness the killer get their simply desserts. Popcorn’s not at all a masterpiece—not even amongst its slasher kin—however it’s completely an earnest love letter to midnight film insanity.

Popcorn arrives on Shudder right now, May 9.

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