Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Popcorn

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Popcorn



    Released by: Synapse Films
    Released on: October 3rd, 2017.
    Director: Mark Herrier
    Cast: Jill Schoelen, Dee Wallace, Malcolm Danare, Ray Walston, Derek Rydall, Tom Villard, Tony Roberts
    Year: 1991
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    The premise for director Mark Herrier's 1991 film Popcorn is pretty fun - a group of film students and their teacher Mr. Davis (Tony Roberts) decide, before an old theater is to be torn down, that they'll stage and “All-Night "Horrorthon!" That in and of itself is all well and good but one of the students, Maggie (Jill Schoelen) has been having nightmares that seem to be connected to a short film that the group recently found. This film, The Possessor, was made by an insane filmmaker named Lanyard Gates and it was to end with him killing his family on stage. Those in the audience, including Maggie's mother (Dee Wallace), stopped him but in the ensuing madness a fire broke out. Gates' body was never found.

    At any rate, the festival at first goes off without a hitch. The theater is packed with costumed audience members plenty enthusiastic to see the three films that are slated to unspool - Mosquito, The Electrified Man and The Stench. With the help of horror movie expert Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston) each one will be accompanied by its original William Castle-esque gimmick that was used during its original theatrical run. As the night moves on, Maggie hits it off with Toby (Tom Villard) only for things to get complicated with Mark (Derek Rydall)… and then the first murder occurs.

    Neither the goriest nor the scariest slasher you're ever likely to see, this one pays homage to B-movies of the past while simultaneously carving out its own quirky little spot in the genre. Definitely made with a sense of humor, Popcorn is nicely paced and just weird enough to work. The effects that are used throughout the movie are pretty solid and we get a few decent kill scenes. The movie borrows a bit from the Dr. Phibes films (and maybe Sam Raimi's Darkman made a year prior?) but never feels like its ripping things off. The three 'movies within the movie' are quite well done - Mosquito feels influenced by The Giant Claw, The Electrified man by a certain Lon Chaney picture and The Stench by old Toho horror pictures. These are amusing in and of themselves and somehow manage to complement the main plot rather than distract from it.

    Performances are pretty solid. Jill Schoelen, who deserves her own spot in horror movie history not just for this film but for her work in The Stepfather, The Phantom Of The Opera and the mighty The Curse II, is really good as the female lead. She's cute, she's likeable and she plays the part with the right amount of enthusiasm. Ray Walston is fun to watch in his role but it's a small part, while Tony Roberts is also quite good as the teacher. Derek Rydall does just fine as the 'hunkier' of the two male leads in the film but it's the late Tom Villard (who passed away from AIDS related pneumonia at the all too young age of forty) that steals the show. Anyone who watched TV in the eighties and early nineties will recognize him from appearances on shows like The A-Team and The Golden Girls but he also had a role alongside Demi Moore in Parasite, shows up in Ken Russell's Whore and also appeared in Shakes The Clown. He's fantastic as Toby, really nailing the part and making it his own.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Synapse presents Popcorn on Blu-ray with an 'All-New 2K Scan of an Archival 35mm Interpositive' framed at 1.78.1 in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and it looks excellent. Although the film is reasonably grainy, there's very little actual print damage here. Colors are very nicely reproduced throughout and the black and white 'movies within the movie' show nice contrast. Black levels are solid and there are no issues with obvious compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction to discuss. Skin tones look nice and natural, there's good depth and texture and detail is vastly improved over the old DVD release (now long out of print) that came out via Elite Entertainment.

    Audio options are provided in an 'All-New Blu-ray 7.1 Surround Sound Mix Supervised by Synapse Films' and in the original 2.0 Stereo option. Purists will appreciate the stereo option here, it sounds nice and clean with good depth and range. The 7.1 track opens up the effects and especially the score in interesting ways, making some of the more active scenes a bit more engaging. Both tracks are very clear, nicely balanced and free of any hiss or distortion. Subtitles are provided for the feature in English only.

    Extras start off with an audio commentary featuring director Mark Herrier, cast members Jill Schoelen and Malcolm Danare and special makeup effects artist Mat Falls. It's a pretty busy talk that covers a lot of ground. Moderated by Kristy Jett, there's some interesting info in here about having to reshoot certain sections, who did what behind and in front of the camera (specifically the involvement of director Alan Ormsby and leading lady Amy O'Neill who would later leave the project), the influences that worked their way into the movie and quite a bit more.

    From there, jump head first into Midnight Madness: The Making Of Popcorn which is an all new fifty-five minute long featurette made up of interviews with Herrier, Schoelen, Danare and Falls as well as, cast members Derek Rydall, Dee Wallace, Ivette Soler, Elliott Hurst, composer Paul Zaza and distributor executive Jonathan Wolf. This is, in a word, comprehensive. Put together by Red Shirt Pictures it covers some of the same ground as the commentary but by having more people involved it is more than just a retread of that talk. Lots of discussion here of what it was like on set, the effects featured in the picture, the locations, the shooting schedule and plenty of other topics related to the film's history.

    Also on hand is a six minute featurette called Electric Memories which is an interview with actor Bruce Glover who plays the lead in The Electrified Man film that plays in the theater. He talks about what he liked about the part and about his thoughts on the film. It's eerie sometimes how strong the resemblance is between he and his son.

    Rounding out the extras are a theatrical trailer, a TV trailer, some TV spots, a still gallery, menus and chapter selection. The disc also comes packaged with some reversible cover art featuring a piece by Chris MacGibbon on one side and some original poster art on the reverse.

    The Final Word:

    Buy a bag, go home in a box! Popcorn is a lot of fun, a quirky, different kind of slasher that is as much a love letter to vintage horror films as it is a gory stalk and slash picture. Synapse has done a great job bringing it to Blu-ray in fantastic shape and with some great extra features as well.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!





























      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X