Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Michael_Elliott Popcorn (1991)** (out of 4) Some film students need to raise some money for their program so they decide to show three horror movies at an old movie palace. They plan to re-create a William Castle like atmosphere and all is going as planned until a maniac shows up and starts killing off the students.I remember watching POPCORN the day that it was released and thinking it was an incredibly bad movie. I pretty much stayed away from it until now and my second viewing of it had me enjoying the picture a tad bit more but at the same time there's no question that this is one of the most uneven horror movies that I've ever seen. A part of it wants to be a throwback to the old days when the likes of Castle was putting on these type of strange promotions. Another part of the film wants to be a slasher picture and in the end the two just don't mix.What I enjoyed about the film is the fact that it pays a loving tribute to the type of movies that were being released in the 1950s. The three films shown within the movie deal with a flying mosquito, a killer who was electrified but lived and a strange one dealing with bad smells. If you're familiar with the likes of William Castle then you know the gimmicks that they'd do to promote their movies and that's basically re-created here and this aspect of the film is fun.The problem is that that part of the movie eats up probably seventy percent of the running time. The subplot dealing with the Possessor movie, its creator and his revenge idea was just very poorly done and in my opinion it was a disaster. None of this is entertaining and it really takes away from the rest of the film. I understand that the producers were trying to do two things at once but sadly it just didn't work and we're left with an incredibly uneven picture that falls apart.The cast is fun for the most part and we do get to see familiar faces like Dee Wallace Stone, Ray Walston and Tony Roberts. That adds to the entertainment factor but one wishes that the entire screenplay had been reworked at the start of the production. Of course, this film suffered various production issues, which explains a lot.

Danny Blankenship "Popcorn" from 1991 has to be one of the better feel good horror flicks that's a blend of old style horror meeting the present day and being a film within a film of the 80's slasher style. It's also a twist and tease of drama, suspense, fun comedy, and murder in a bloody slasher type of a way. Set in California at a college some film students decide to run an night horror marathon at an old run down cinema house. The students will do crazy special effects while the crowd watches the old vintage 50's and 60's films. Thru it during the night a crazy sadistic killer is on the loose causing an 80's slasher type stalker feel, from behind the curtain and thru the audience. As this creep has a connection to an old film called "The Possessor" plus this monster knows one of the film students from his past. Also horror queen legend Dee Wallace Stone has a part that's memorable as a damsel in distress who's kidnapped and has her mouth taped with white duct tape! Overall "Popcorn" provides thrills and chills to any horror film buff as it's a little independent horror gem to belong in any fan's chest!

Red-Barracuda A group of film students organise an all-night horror marathon at an old movie theatre to raise funds. Trouble is, there is a maniac in the house who starts a killing spree this night.Popcorn came in at the tail-end of the first slasher wave. The genre had been treading water for years, meaning that new entries at this time had to try and find new original angles to base their slasher antics around in order to keep people interested. Popcorn takes a more comical approach, without going out-and-out for laughs entirely at the expense of its horror. It does admittedly have some fairly original ideas, namely the way the films-within-the film are integrated into the story. Those movies are a series of 50's/60's B-flicks with ludicrous gimmicks of the exact same type that William Castle was famous for producing. 'Mosquito' has a giant model insect that flies over the auditorium, 'The Amazing Electrified Man' has audience members receiving shocks from electrified seats and 'The Stench' has a selection of odours. Except, of course, these gimmicks are in fact used by the maniac to kill people in the theatre! In theory, this all sounds quite good but unfortunately I found Popcorn as a whole somewhat lacking and uninvolving. Despite its reasonable set-up it essentially goes through the motions and you are left not remembering an awful lot about it by the end. Although it was admittedly somewhat unexpected to see regular Woody Allen actor Tony Roberts appear in a role as a popular teacher. It's quite a contrast going from starring in the all-time classic Annie Hall to being impaled by a giant puppet mosquito in Popcorn!

Leofwine_draca Although it takes a while to get going, POPCORN proves to be a warm and affectionate little slasher movie made along the same lines as Joe Dante's Matinée – i.e. a celebration of the world of the B-movie in its cinematic form. Indeed, the ghost of William Castle seems to be watching over this movies, both in the presence of the cheesy films shown by the fictional cinema and in the bizarre antics of the film students, determined to give their audience an interactive experience!It's all about the gimmicks and the celebration of the weird, so much so that the actual slasher plot comes second. It's a slight shame, because the story isn't bad, even if it is remarkably familiar: there's an evil killer from the past returning to affect the heroine in the present, and his calling card is that he uses prosthetic masks to disguise himself as anyone and anything. The subsequent kills aren't particularly gory, but they are well staged with an element of Grand Guignol that becomes especially apparent during the over-the-top climax.POPCORN was made in Jamaica doubling for small-town America, which gives it even more of an offbeat vibe – and the reggae soundtrack is great. The acting is nothing to write home about (THE HOWLING's Dee Wallace-Stone is the only actress of note in a minor part), but when the story and screenplay are so obviously written by genuine fans of old-time horror shows – well, this becomes a film impossible to dislike.