Popeye: The Slayer Man

So I went into this movie knowing it was obviously going to be bad. But how bad you ask? Well, pretty darned bad. The first thirty to forty five minutes are somewhat laughable and slightly on a so bad it's good scale, but then it just drags on. The cast is awful, the acting is horrendous. I will say that I thought that the Popeye mask and get up was somewhat interesting to look at as they keep him in the light most of the film. Lots of close ups, which I'm not sure how I feel about. It's interesting, but bad. The charm was lost halfway through and like so many "so bad it's good" movies it doesn't live up to the standards. The plot was interesting also, I'll give it that. But it truly goes nowhere. This film was made for what reason exactly? Who are the people this is made for? I'm left really pondering these questions. Can't recommed.

I don't understand all the negative reviews. When watching this movie, I was reminded of many 80's horror B-movies, many of which would never win any awards but had a charm all their own-"Superstition" (1985), "The Slayer" (1982), "Slaughter High" (1986), etc. What do all these movies have in common? Low budget (check), Elaborate death scenes (check), Young people making all the wrong choices (check), A rather elementary plot (check). It is a common formula, but the sum of which serves as the hallmark of many B-movies in the Horror genre since Hollywood's inception. Moreover, the writer and director paid homage to the original cartoon through many creative tropes. What more could you ask for? My advice: enjoy the movie for what it is-a modern day "Dr. Giggles" (1992) and don't expect a classic like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984). If you do that, you won't be disappointed.

The good news is that I enjoyed Popeye The Slayer Man more than the godawful Popeye's Revenge. It's still not a great film, but there's a reasonable amount of gore, and Popeye himself (played by Jason Robert Stephens) looks fairly imposing, even if the sailor's face is little more than an expressionless silicon mask (that causes Stephens' few lines of dialogue to be muffled).

The plot is simple: a group of friends go to a disused canning factory to make a documentary about the legend of 'the sailor man' who is said to haunt the building. Popeye proves to be very real, and starts killing people. There is plot twist that won't come as much of a surprise, but this is essentially a slasher flick, and as such it delivers what one would expect: lots of running around the gloomy factory and plenty of death scenes, which include head crushing, bone snapping, decapitation by anchor, impalements and arm-ripping. The splatter is decent enough for a low budget flick, and the acting is reasonable.

If you're after an undemanding time-waster, there's far worse out there than this one (the aforementioned Popeye's Revenge). Will this be the best of the Popeye horror movies? We'll have to wait for Shiver Me Timbers (2025) to be released before we can answer that.

Right, well I can't claim that I was harboring any expectations to this 2025 movie titled "Popeye the Slayer Man" from director Robert Michael Ryan. Yet, I still opted to watch it, on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.

The storyline in the movie was sort of bland and sluggish. There wasn't really a whole lot of anything interesting happening, and whenever something did happen, it just wasn't sufficient to make up for the long wait in between such scenes. It was a bit amazing that writers Cuyle Carvin, John Doolan, Jeff Miller and Robert Michael Ryan collectively could manage to come up with something so vague and mundane.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. But I will say that the acting performances were fair, despite the fact that the script was bland.

Visually then the movie was okay. There were some bloody and gory effects to spruce things up.

Semi-watchable, sure, if you enjoy cheesy and pointless low budget slasher movies, but hardly a noteworthy or mentionable movie. Nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of director Robert Michael Ryan's 2025 movie "Popeye the Slayer Man" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

Look, it is what it is, but somehow this Popeye was harder to understand than anything Robin Williams ever said.

It hurts.

I appreciate the lack of CGI but Popeye looks like the last version of Joan Rivers.

It feels part Troma but mostly Friday the 13th.

The experience could have used a few more quips from the big guy, but then again, the Elephant Man was easier to understand.

After 80 years, this viewer hoped to get a bit more then what the film offered.

This thing is at least watchable when compared to "Popeye's Revenge."

4 out of 10 spinach cans.

PS Put something in your pipe and smoke it all before you watch either of these movies.