Random Movie: Popcorn (1991)

While PBF may hold the record for most random and ridiculous number of movies seen in theaters, I saw Popcorn at the tender age of nine in my local cinema. It is surprising that for the hundreds of movies I've seen over the years that I recall absolutely nothing about, I still remembered the basic gist of this and even remembered who the killer was. Not bad for a movie that I saw only once almost twenty years ago. Although to be fair, if you've seen any horror movie at all, you'll guess who the killer is within the first fifteen minutes of the movie.

Here we have a group of college kids, film students of course, who decide to resurrect a defunct vintage movie theater and host a marathon of cheesy horror and sci-fi movies complete with gimmicks that tie into them. We have a giant mosquito flying through the theater during the mutated atomic monster flick, electrified seats during the poor man's Shocker movie, and a foul odor piped into the hall for the cleverly titled The Stench. All of these things have little to do with the plot except to create a jovial atmosphere for the patrons which leads up to their interaction in the finale. While getting the theater in shape (courtesy of the patented 80s montage), the crew discovers a little known film called Possessor which was screened as the director killed his family and burned down the crowded theater. As the event gets started our final girl Maggie, played by semi-scream queen Jill Schoelen, thinks the director is still alive and stalking her friends at the cinema.

Now, to back up to a previous point, the writer of this film Alan Ornsby who was also replaced early on as the director, was either too lazy to plant more red herrings (or any for that matter) about the identity of the killer or it was intentional as the killer is "revealed" with more than a third left in the movie. Thus, it's not really a whodunit but more about the killer's ultimate motivations which really are not that difficult to figure out. I wouldn't be giving much away to say it relates to our lead girl, the quirky guy who looks a little too old for college, the quasi-famous actress who appears in about ten minutes of the film, and the aforementioned final movie. When Toby (I'm sick of continuing to type "the killer" and you people aren't going to see this movie anyways so why bother) finally reveals his connection in a way overly-neurotic exposition, things get real batshit crazy as he tries to reenact the last screening of Possessor.

There are so many things wrong with this movie that I could not begin to give all of the gaffes the justice they deserve. I'll start by saying the acting was just horrendous. The nameless, topless female fodder from any 80s horror series enlists far more depth and realism than any of the actors in this. The only exception may be Ray Walston but he in less than three minutes of film so he doesn't count. I really can't see the draw of Schoelen who was in quite a few 80s horror "classics" but I'll chalk things up to just a bad situation for everyone involved. I actually was quite hopeful at the beginning of the movie as there was one good scene with some decent scares in the first few minutes with Dee Wallace-Stone in the abandoned old theater. But that scene came and went far too quick and we were back with the inept coeds at the movies which had no surprises whatsoever. Even the kills were bland as one occurred off-screen, one was just stupid (dude locked in a bathroom stall doesn't think to ... climb under the door), and two were in the same exact manner. The only offing which had promise (dude in the wheelchair gets fired) was overshadowed by really horrible effects.

To be fair, I wouldn't call this movie crap. A bit more laziness or ineptitude could have easily steered it in that direction but it ends as a very cliched horror film which felt more from the 80s than the early 90s. Perhaps everything was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek but I didn't get that feeling ... but it failed anyway.