Bezenby It's amazing how a horror film can still entertain without gore, scares, boobs or scares. This here is a fine pseudo parody with plenty of eighties cheese dolloped on top (montages, musical numbers etc).Sarah has been having strange dreams. Not surprising really, as her mum is Dee Wallace Stone. For reasons I've forgotten, Sarah and her class set up a movie marathon at a local theatre, showing old gimmicky horror films. They also find an old reel of footage from some nutcase that went loopy years ago, whom Sarah thinks has come back to the movie theatre. Things then happen. Yes.So let's get to what's good about this film, apart from the montage of them re-furbishing the theatre. It's wall to wall fun for starters. Not only do we have our regular plot, there's also three films they show in the theatres that come with their own gimmicks (and also done in a very deliberately cheesy way). The audience themselves are all done up in various horror film ways also, some of it quite inventive.Not much in the way of seriousness either from the actual plot either, with most of the kills played for laughs. Nice way to start off you own movie marathon I think.

d_m_s A film club hosts a horror festival at their local cinema. The main character turns out to be the daughter of a film-maker and murderer and she is stalked by someone who she thinks is said killer returned to finish what he started. I liked the low-budget film look and there were some amusing moments and I really liked the films within the film. However, the characters mostly blended into one and although the setting is kind of unique, the story has been done so many times before that this film became dull and uninteresting during the last half hour when we find out who the killer is and then the day is saved by the 'hero' in a rather anti-climatic and predictable manner. While Popcorn has its moments they are few and far between.

goteamweaver Spoilers ahead!Popcorn, a movie that was released in 1991, was one of those movies that I spent a lot of effort trying to watch when it came out. I distinctly remember trying to see it in the theater, but it being out of the theater before I could. I also remember renting it once or twice, and for some reason or another, never getting to watch it. Well, I finally got to watch it, and I am glad for that.When a group of film students decide to have an all night horror movie marathon at a local theater, luck falls their way. They get to not only show three classic (albeit fake) horror movies, and they manage to get their hands on the original gimmicks that went with the flicks. The first movie is "Mosquito", a movie about the attack of a giant mosquito. For this movie, they have a giant mosquito prop that they shoot through the theater over the heads of the film-goers (and eventually, straight through their teachers chest!). Then there is "The Attack of the Amazing Electrified Man", in which a man is executed in the electric chair, but doesn't die. All the seats in the theater are wired to deliver a mild shock to the movie goers (and a not-so-mild shock to one of the students!). Then there is "The Stench", which we don't really get to see enough of the movie to know what it is about, however, the students have a big smoke machine that they can add scents to (and one of the students is gassed to death in the bathroom!).While the students are going through the props that are so graciously loaned to them by Dr. Mnesyne (played by the great Ray Walston), they discover a reel of film that when watched, seems to be an odd art house style movie. Maggie (Jill Schoelen), however, recognizes the face in the film as someone she has seen in her dreams. Their teacher Mr. Davis (Tony Roberts) tells them that the creator of the film was a cult leader, and at one time had gone mad, and during the showing of the film, killed his entire family on stage, then burned down the theater, killing several members of his cult as well. Soon, people are going missing left and right, and it seems that the cult leader may be back from the dead!I am really happy I caught this movie finally after so many years. From all the things I have read about it, it seems that it suffered from a lot of problems during the film making process, some of which were replacing directors and main actresses, financial problems, and releasing problems. I found this movie to be a big change from a lot of the movies that were coming out in the late 80s/early 90s, as the killer is a little more original with the kills, and in general, the film is just fun to watch. The characters are likable, and even the reveal at the end of the movie was kind of a surprise for me. Sure, there are plot holes all through this movie, but it has a certain charm to it, that to me, really translates on the screen to a real enjoyable movie, and one that I am pretty sure I will be revisiting again.

Red-Barracuda A group of film students organise an all-night horror marathon at an old movie theatre to raise funds. Trouble is, there is a maniac in the house who starts a killing spree this night.Popcorn came in at the tail-end of the first slasher wave. The genre had been treading water for years, meaning that new entries at this time had to try and find new original angles to base their slasher antics around in order to keep people interested. Popcorn takes a more comical approach, without going out-and-out for laughs entirely at the expense of its horror. It does admittedly have some fairly original ideas, namely the way the films-within-the film are integrated into the story. Those movies are a series of 50's/60's B-flicks with ludicrous gimmicks of the exact same type that William Castle was famous for producing. 'Mosquito' has a giant model insect that flies over the auditorium, 'The Amazing Electrified Man' has audience members receiving shocks from electrified seats and 'The Stench' has a selection of odours. Except, of course, these gimmicks are in fact used by the maniac to kill people in the theatre! In theory, this all sounds quite good but unfortunately I found Popcorn as a whole somewhat lacking and uninvolving. Despite its reasonable set-up it essentially goes through the motions and you are left not remembering an awful lot about it by the end. Although it was admittedly somewhat unexpected to see regular Woody Allen actor Tony Roberts appear in a role as a popular teacher. It's quite a contrast going from starring in the all-time classic Annie Hall to being impaled by a giant puppet mosquito in Popcorn!