Popcorn (1991)

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nTitle: Popcorn (1991)

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nDirector: Mark Herrier/Alan Ormsby

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nCast: Tom Villard, Dee Wallace Stone, Jill Schoelen, KellynJo Minter, Ray Walston, Tony Roberts

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nPopcorn is one of those films that celebrates the act ofngoing to the movies with your friends; the joy of watching some cheesy, halfnassed and unintentionally funny b-movie at your local theater as the pop cornnflies through the air and the crowd cheers at the screen as it watches a filmnthrough their red and blue tinted 3-D glasses. Oh the fun of watching a movienwith a rowdy audience! Popcorn also pays its respects to that time in cinemasnwhen certain film producers marketed their films through the use of gimmicks. Onenparticular producer from the 50’s was famous for promoting his films this way,nhis name was William Castle. For example, for his first self produced filmnentitled Macabre (1958), Castle would give you a thousand dollar life insurancenthat a family member of yours could cash in case you died of fright whilenwatching the film. He also stationed nurses and hearses outside of the movientheater just in case! These gimmicks proved to be successful and Macabre wentnon to be his first self produced hit. Other films with equally interestingngimmicks followed, for example for The Tingler (1959) starring Vincent Price hadnone of the most interesting of all these gimmicks. In the film, there’s ancreature that attaches to your spinal cord and comes to life whenever you shownfear and dies only when you scream in terror!  So Castle rigged theater sits to vibrate duringnthe most terrifying moments in the film, as Vincent Price’s character  hollers from the screen “Scream! Scream fornyour lives!” Needless to say, everyone in the theater was screaming at a givennpoint in the film. God what I would give to be one of those lucky people whongot to see these movies this way! But alas, all we have today are films thatnpay homage to that bygone era. For example, the film I’ll be reviewing todaynentitled Popcorn.

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nIn Popcorn we meet a group of film school students who discovernthat their university has just cut the budget for their film class, so in andesperate move to find funding for their film class, their professor organizesnan all night horror film festival to show three classics horror films that usedngimmicks to promote themselves. One of the films is called ‘Mosquito’ and onnthat one, at some point in the film a giant mosquito will hover on top of thencrowd. Then there’s ‘The Attack of the Amazing Electrified Man’ in which atnsome point in the film, theater seats are rigged to give audience members anharmless jolt of electricity! The final film of the night is called ‘The Stench’nand on that one, odors are released into the crowd that would go in accordancento what is happening in the film. The students hope that the gimmicks will drawnin the crowds. So, one day, while preparing the theater for the festival, thengroup of students stumble upon an old film canister, unbeknownst to them thenfilm held within is called ‘The Possessor’ a film that was made by a cultnleader (and filmmaker) called Lanyard Gates. The Possessor is filled withngrotesque imagery that somehow resembles the nightmares of one of the filmnstudents! How could this be? How can she be dreaming about a film that she’snnever seen? The mystery unravels as the all night horror film festival marchesnon!

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nSo that’s the basic premise for Popcorn, and while it hasnbeen used before, I must admit it’s a pretty nifty premise for a horror film. I’venalways loved that idea about a cursed film; last time I saw that premise playednout was in John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns (2005) which was also about a cursednfilm called “The Absolute End of the World” a film supposedly so horrible, sonfrightening, that simply watching it triggers madness, chaos and death. We alsongot a similar story in The Ring (2002). On Popcorn the film is called ‘ThenPossessor’, and it was made by a filmmaker who doesn’t take criticism very well.nAs a slasher Popcorn functions well, though lovers of gore will be displeasednwith the fact that many of the deaths on this film are bloodless, though that doesn’tnmean they are any less effective. With the villain in this film, the filmmakersnwere aiming to create another great horror icon, akin to Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorheesnor Michael Myers. The character was played by Tom Villard, an actor whonnormally played nerdy characters in such films as One Crazy Summer (1986), it’s very interesting how on Popcorn he is playing against type. This was to be the onlynfilm in which Villard got a first billing role; unfortunately, the film neverntook off; it was not a box office hit. Still, I see this film as one of thenlast bastions of the 80’s horror scene, because even though it was released inn1991, the film retains that silliness, that goofiness that I love so much fromnfilms of the 80’s. This was a horror film of the 90’s, but with an 80’snsensibility to it. For example, there’s this scene in which suddenly, rightnsmack in the middle of the horror festival, the projector stops functioning! Ofncourse the crowd goes nuts! So what do the organizers of the film festival donto quiet down the crowd while they fix their technical troubles? They bring outna Reggae band! So suddenly the horror festival is a reggae concert? Ha! Hownnuts is that? Then again maybe that scene has something to do with the fact thatnthe whole film was shot in Jamaica? 

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nThe way I see it, Popcorn is kind of like the horror versionnof Joe Dante’s Matinee (1993), another film that pays homage to the era ofnfilms promoted with gimmicks. Both of these films pay homage to William Castle and his specialnbrand of film marketing. Cool thing about Popcorn is that while it is a lovenletter to those old 50’s and 60’s horror films, at the same time it mixesnthings up and becomes an 80’s slasher, so basically, it’s like a mish mash ofntwo different eras in horror film history, and speaking of mish mashing, to me Popcornnfelt like someone took all those old William Castle films, Sam Raimi’s Darkmann(1990), Bad Dreams (1987) and The Phantom of the Opera (1943) put ‘em all in anblender and hit puree! My only gripe with watching this movie is that the imagenquality on the dvd was piss poor. This was a bad transfer all together, thensound was terrible, the image was grainy and dark…a proper release is in order.nI managed to enjoy the film anyways, because I know the film isn’t supposed tonlook this way, all I kept thinking was how much more I could be enjoying thisnflick if the transfer had been properly handled. I hear the folks at ElitenEntertainment might be releasing this film on a special edition Blue Ray soon,nlet’s hope it looks better than the dvd I saw.

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nPopcorn was half way directed by Alan Ormsby, the writernbehind such classics as Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1973) and Cat People (1982). Ormsby was responsible for the film within a film segments ofnPopcorn, that’s right, he’s the guy behind the films they are showing at thenhorror festival, which by the way are a trio of entertaining segments, anhighlight of the picture. The rest of the film was directed by Mark Herrier, annactor who appeared on films like Porky’s (1982), Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983)nand Porky’s Revenge (1985). Popcorn was Herrier’s sole directing gig, I honestly can’tnimagine why he got this gig though, besides to short films he made, he had no previous experience in directing feature films. I guess this was his one and only chance tondirect a feature film, unfortunately, it failed at the box office. So anyhow, that’snthe deal with Popcorn my friends. While not an entirely original concept and not an amazing film by any standards, Popcorn remainsnan enjoyable watch, a forgotten curiosity of 90’s horror before 90’s horrorntried being “hip and cool” with films like Scream (1996) and I Know What You didnLast Summer (1997). If you’re a horror fan, you’ll get a kick at all the littlennods to old horror films, like for example, in the film, posters of classicsnlike The Tingler (1959) and The Incredible Melting Man (1977) are prominentlynin display in the theater lobby! At the same time, Popcorn displays an 80’snhorror slasher vibe to it that I really dug. So there you have it my friends,nif you can, search this one out for a night of silly, horror fun! Atrociously bad dialog included! Glad tonannounce that this popcorn wasn’t stale at all, just remember that in the worldnof Popcorn, you buy a bag, but go home in a box!  

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nRating: 2 1/2 out of 5 

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