This week, my happy horror honeys, I pull from my macabre movie collection a fun little flick from the early 90’s. 1991 to be exact. Directed by Mark Herrier and Alan Ormsby, Popcorn is about a young film student named Maggie (played by Jill Schoelen), who is haunted by dreams of a tragic movie house massacre, that resurface as her class puts on a horror movie marathon. Inspired by the campy classics that coupled gimmicks like theater seat shocks and smell-o-vision, they go all out to put on a good show, but the chills and thrills become all too real as her friends start getting bumped off one by one. Maggie must figure out how her past and present are connected, before she becomes part of the B-grade body count.
Predating Wes Craven’s Scream by 5 years, Popcorn bears a striking resemblance to the bigger budget blockbuster that has become an icon in the horror industry, with it’s rules of survival. Watching the flick, it seems obvious to me, that it at the very least was an inspiration for Craven’s film. Popcorn is a delightfully dated, campy good time for those like myself that celebrate horror’s history of practical effects and tongue in cheek humor. Though I’m not usually a huge fan of the teenage slasher genre, often because they lack any real plot (call me crazy, but if there’s hacking & slashing going on, I feel like there ought to be a reason), I have a soft spot for this Fiendish Flick. Too many people have never heard of this classic, which is chock full of 90’s nostalgia, and deserving of some recognition. What it lacks in big name stars and special effects, it makes up for in old school charm.
Well that’s it for this edition, tune in next week for more merry mayhem! -Ruby
