POPCORN
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1992 Ken Johnson
93 min., R, Horror, 1990 Distributor: RCA/Columbia Director: Mark Herrier Cast: Jill Schoelen, Tom Villard, Dee Wallace Stone, Derek Rydell, Malcolm Danare, Elliott Hurst, Ivette Soler, Freddie Marie Simpson, Kelly Jo Minter, Karen Witter, Ray Walston, Tony Roberts
The University of California is cutting the funding for their film department. The students taking film courses are upset, of course. Not to let this get in their way, the students decide to raise the money on their own. They decide to run a horror show that consists of three old horror films. They use an old theater that is going to be torn down in three weeks. While they are setting up they are visited by Walston, who shows up with a suitcase of props. He tells the students that the films they are showing are total turkeys, but they can liven them up with in-theater effects. The students like the idea and Walston helps them.
At the same time Schoelen, who is a film student, starts having a recurring bad dream about a man who goes after this little girl with a knife. Schoelen writes down what happens in the dreams so she can make a film about it. Her mother, Stone, hears about the dreams and starts receiving strange phone calls. Stone then wants the two to move but Schoelen refuses for three reasons. One is the horror show, another is that she says that she can't run from her dreams, and the last is that she has a feeling that something is going to happen at the horror show related to the dreams and she wants to be there.
POPCORN was out in the theaters in early 1991 and is now out on video. POPCORN is a very entertaining horror film that doesn't contain much gore. I give POPCORN a four on a zero to five scale. POPCORN is well worth watching, especially if you are a fan of horror or a fan of Jill Schoelen, like I am. POPCORN is rated R for explicit language, adult situations, and violence.
In this day very gory horror films, like LEATHERFACE: TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, and FRIDAY THE 13TH - PART n, are very popular with the teenage audience. POPCORN is a deviation from that kind of film. I'm not saying that gory films are not enjoyable, I enjoy them very much. It is just that sometimes you need a relief from all the gore. POPCORN is this relief.
Most of the cast for this film is unknowns, like most many films. The few knowns are Jill Schoelen (THE STEPFATHER, RICH GIRL), Dee Wallace Stone (CRITTERS, SECRET ADMIRER), Kelly Jo Minter (HOUSE PARTY, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS), Karen Witter (BURIED ALIVE, MIDNIGHT), and Ray Walston (PRIVATE SCHOOL ...FOR GIRLS, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, PAINT YOUR WAGON). But the entire cast puts in a big group effort. While being chilling, POPCORN is also funny but not in a way that takes away from the film.
Ken J.
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