1991's Popcorn is nothing special if you consider its plot on a bare-bones level. A tragedy in the past sparks a killer in the present, who then proceeds to pick off their victims one by one. Popcorn is more than that because of its clever setting and its own horror-movie worship. We are first introduced to the film student who lives with her mother, Dee Wallace, who starred in The Hills Have Eyes. We meet a bunch of movie nerds. To raise money for their college's film department, they decided to host a horror marathon at a long-shuttered nearby theater, featuring a trio of movies that were originally released with promotional stunts. The master chef of showmanship is Dr. Mnesyne, who runs about a million other things. On the big night, a killer in the crowd killed members of the group and then assumed their identities to cover up their crimes. The production of Popcorn went the distance and filmed some of the movies-within-the-movie that form the backdrop for most of its action. If the cornball pictures were real, Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have been fair game for the main film to cede the entire screen to them. There is a monster tale with rigged seats and a creature feature with a giant bug rigged to fly across the theater at a key moment.
The attention to detail is admirable. Possessor is a fourth movie-within-the-movie that also plays a crucial role, as college kids find a copy of it while cleaning out the theater. The director of this film cult lost his mind after audiences laughed at his self-serious avant-garde cinematic explorations. His solution to stop the hate? He added the gruesome final scene of murdering his family and setting the theater on fire to save the last scene, which he performed live. He died with them. Why does the recurring dream look similar to Possessor?
The mystery portion of Popcorn is easy to figure out. If you have any confusion as to the killer's motivation, they will give you a big scene at the end where they explain everything. The general air of goofballery is fun. The characters are all one-note, the only person who gets anything resembling an arcs is the boyfriend of the main character, played by the star of Phantom of the Mall.
You can't help but love the rowdy audience that settles in for the horror marathon wearing all manner of Halloween-costume finery. They eat up all the movies with hooting excitement, they enthusiastically take a dance break when the theater loses power, and they stay through the end to watch the killer get their just desserts. Popcorn is an earnest love letter to midnight movie madness.
Popcorn arrives on Shudder today.
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