Subject: REVIEW: POPCORN

From: [email-masked] (Brian L. Johnson)
Date: 31 Jan 92 16:40:56 GMT

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                                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.