Director: Mark Herrier
Cast: Jill Schoelen, Tom Villard, Dee Wallace, Derek Rydall, Malcolm Danare, Ray Walston, Tony Roberts
Screenplay: Alan Ormsby
91 mins. Rated R for strong violence, and some language.

I remember fondly the days of wandering the local video store, seeing the VHS poster art, and wondering what existed on the video tape. One of the videos I desperately wanted to view but couldn’t (as it was always out) was Popcorn. At this point, I’m under the impression that the video was stolen but management never found out.

A group of college student filmmakers are set to hold an all-night horror movie marathon at a rundown movie theater in hopes of raising enough money for their various projects, but a serial killer begins offing viewers as the films play, and he may have supernatural connections to a cult leader filmmaker looking to complete his long-unfinished work.

Popcorn’s title and poster do little to explain the plot of this movie, so I pretty much went in blind, and I may be speaking from a level of emotional connection, but I loved this movie. I grew up admiring the works of William Castle (the famous gimmick king of horror who is heavily-homaged through the various movies playing at the marathon), watching the MonsterVision marathons, and heading out to the classic cinemas that would cater to these types of events, so this film hit all my buttons. I love that it avoids the trappings of slasher films until necessary, seemingly styling itself as an 80s teen comedy. Once lulled into that false sense of security, the film kicks in with silly gags and goofy kills. It became a celebration of the types of films it lampooned.

The cast is full of newcomers and veterans, who do a lot of the heavy lifting. Dee Wallace (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Cujo), Ray Walston (Popeye, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and Tony Roberts (The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three, Serpico) get essentially glorified cameos in the film, but they help to solidify the material, allowing Jill Schoelen (The Phantom of the Opera, The Stepfather) to lead. Schoelen misses some of the chemistry with her cast mates, which is understandable given she replaced another actress three weeks in (the same is true of Alan Ormsby, who was directing), but she’s capable enough. The real standout is Tom Villard (My Girl, Heartbreak Ridge), who plays the lovable and tender Toby. We should’ve gotten more work from Villard, but sadly he passed away due to AIDS-related illnesses just a few years later.

Mark Herrier had to step in as director after the movies-within-the-movie were shot, and he had a lot on his plate as a first-time director, but he handles the material’s tone quite well, never straying too far into camp or despair. He keeps the film light and fluffy, like its titular snack.

Popcorn may not have anything to do with the movie (apparently it was tied to something more meaningful in a previous draft), but it evokes the kind of movie you’ll be seeing. It’s popcorn entertainment, a film you can watch while you gather around with your friends, some greasy and salty snacks, and enjoy together. Bet on who dies first, and enjoy yourselves. At the time of this review, you can finally find Popcorn streaming on Shudder. You won’t regret it.

4/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

Director: Clive Barker
Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman, Doug Bradley
Screenplay: Clive Barker
94 mins. Rated R.

Hey hey, apparently everyone is watching Hellraiser today. I wonder what the deal is.

When Larry Cotton (Andrew Robinson, Dirty Harry, Child’s Play 3) and his wife Julia (Clare Higgins, Ready Player One, The Libertine) move into his childhood home, they unwittingly cause a chain reaction that leads to the resurrection of Larry’s dead brother Frank (Sean Chapman, A Mighty Heart, The Fourth Protocol). Frank died while trying to discover the reaches of pleasure and pain, and now he needs Julia’s help to return to his corporeal form, all the while avoiding the Cenobites, beings from an inter-dimensional hellscape looking for him.

Clive Barker (Nightbreed, Lord of Illusions) grew fed up with some of the films based on his work, so he elected to adapt a generally small work of his, The Hellbound Heart, with minimal sets and characters, to do justice to the material. He went to his local library, discovered that they had two book on directing, both currently checked out, and proceeded to show up to work wondering who was in charge. The fact that this movie turned out good at all is a miracle, but the fact that it turned out so nearly-perfect should give credit to Clive’s ability to trust in his team, in front of and behind the camera. Barker had a solid team of professionals to trust in and learn from, and I maintain that his ability to communicate his vision to those professionals and work alongside them is the reason this movie is the classic of the genre that it is to this day. It seems every time I view the film, I find more to love, and the nitpicks I have don’t even really bother me.

Excellent casting led to success in performance. Robinson and Higgins are both perfectly suited to Larry & Julia. There’s a sense that both of them have kept secrets from each other, and that they are seemingly fine with this arrangement, but the cracks in their marriage are showing, and it’s what drives Julia into the bloody arms of Frank.

Then, you have Ashley Laurence (Warlock III: The End of Innocence, Mikey), who seems to just fall into the narrative, representing the audience for a time. As she peels back the layers, we find our focus shifting from Larry to Kirsty, the daughter (in the book written as a friend of the couple). This shift works so well even as Kirsty’s scenes have a tendency to be the mythology and exposition scenes, giving us most of the character building for the dreaded Cenobites.

Doug Bradley is one of the nicest men I’ve met in the business, and yet he can deliver potentially silly dialogue with all the intensity of a stage performer because, well, he was. In addition to being a friend of Barker’s who had worked with him before, Bradley was able to work with the writer/director to find the perfect balance of over-the-top genre evil and a realistic layered character. Barker had described Pinhead (or the Lead Cenobite) as being a security guard for the prison that is Hell, while the escaped Frank is a convict who broke out, using the puzzle box (key) to get in and out. That simple direction seemed to give Bradley everything he needed to play between the lines to achieve Barker’s vision. It also didn’t hurt that the Cenobites known as Chatterer and Butterball were not able to perform their lines while caked in makeup and prosthetics, so those bits of dialogue were carried over to the Female and Pinhead, which may be another reason that Bradley’s character became so associated with the franchise (it was Barker’s plan to make Julia the BIG BAD villain of the franchise if more films were made). Fun Fact: Doug Bradley almost took the role of one of the moving men, seeing his first feature film role should be without a bunch of makeup.

The music, by Christopher Young, never seems to get brought up, yet his score and themes for the film offer up a warning: DREAD WAITS WITHIN, and yet, he brings a note of tragedy to the music as well, a care that many of our beloved characters will be ripped to shreds by film’s end.

Like I said, I have nitpicks, things like the hand-drawn animation or the lack of information surrounding the homeless man/demonic skeleton creature, but these are just things I wanted more of, and all good films make you want more.

Clive Barker’ directorial debut is a damn masterpiece, a film that gets even better with age and continues to find a fanbase, and perhaps the only reason it isn’t as well regarded as it should be could just be that some of the sequels soured the brand. Whatever the reason, the first Hellraiser movie is a near-perfect piece of filmmaking that should teach us all to trust in our peers when they’ve earned, and cramming right before the test might just work; it did for Director Clive Barker.

4.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

Director: Wallace Fox
Cast: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal
Screenplay: Gerald Schnitzer
61 mins. Approved.

It’s always fun to experience some of our horror icons outside of their generally-recognized roles. Most people only know Bela Lugosi as Dracula (or perhaps Plan 9 From Outer Space), but he was rather prolific among other horror realms. Today, we’ll look at one of them.

Professor Brenner (Lugosi) is a well-respected voice in the psychology department, but he also moonlights, under the name Karl Wagner, at a soup kitchen in the Bowery. While in the kitchen, he lures and recruits criminal into a crime organization under his leadership. When one of his henchman fails him, he kills them and hands over their bodies to his doctor, who performs experiments on them. One of Brenner’s students, Richard Dennison (John Archer, White Heat, Destination Moon), begins to connect Brenner to the sinister Karl Wagner, and once he gets in too deep, it will be difficult for him to uncover the truth and survive.

There’s a tendency (as with Torture Ship) of having a film with a 60-minute run time and just jam it full of plot and exposition. There’s so much going on in the film, and so much of it is so unnecessary to the film. Brenner’s dual life and lie are rather captivating, but we don’t get time to dive into that because we’re jumping over to the misogyny-filled Richard, a man telling his kinda girlfriend how their life will be whether she likes it or not, and then we’re back to this mysterious doctor and his mysterious experiments (a subplot that seems to exist over to satisfy the standards board rules at the time, but it simply doesn’t add much of value) and now we’re back to Brenner for a bit, but just a bit.

That being said, Lugosi’s performance makes the film infinitely more watchable as he chews up scenery as two practically different characters. He’s having fun, and that translates to us having more fun with him. While Dracula seemed to pigeonhole Lugosi into horror and suspense for the rest of his career, at least he’s embracing it by going all in.

The narrative is constantly altering and changing with twists and turns that are all surprising, whether or not they lead anywhere of value, and that may be why the film has stayed in the memory of some horror fans, but really exploring every possible avenue. If that sounds appealing, Bowery may be for you.

Bowery at Midnight is super-silly and far from good, but you may enjoy the consistent surprises in store, but don’t hold much stock in them, as the narrative is just as likely to forget or ignore. Come for the bonkers storytelling, stay for the Bela Lugosi of it all. All others need not apply.

2/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

Director: William Eubank
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel, Jessica Henwick, John Gallagher Jr., Mamoudou Athie, T.J. Miller
Screenplay: Brian Duffield, Adam Cozad
95 mins. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action and terror, and brief strong language.

Underwater is a movie that just couldn’t get the timing right to be successful. Shot in 2017, when T.J. Miller (Cloverfield, TV’s Silicon Valley) was less problematic, the film’s footage sat on a shelf while the team at 20th Century Fox tried to work through their potential upcoming sale to Disney. Once owned by Disney, the decision had to be made about whether the film should be finished and release, whether or not the investment would be worth the box office take, and if the finished film would be workable through any release window. This choice happened to a lot of 20th Century Fox films during that time, and Underwater was thankfully finished, but then it was unceremoniously dropped in January before completely disappearing due to the impact of COVID-19 on the box office and theatrical exhibition. Through all that, we must ask whether the film is worth searching out.

When a mysterious earthquake destroys much of a large and dangerous deep sea rig, the team of researchers and drillers that remain onboard have to make a trek across damaged vessel and open ocean floor in order to find the last remaining safe escape, but they are not alone in the water, and the odds are stacked against them.

When I saw Underwater early in 2020 (it was the first new release I saw that year), I was perhaps unfairly harsh to the film. Rewatching it tonight made me realize everything that works in the movie. For one, Kristen Stewart (Snow White and the Huntsman, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) can carry a genre picture. There are issues with her performance (and we’ll get to them), but she carries large swaths of this movie quite naturally.

I also enjoyed much of the core cast. Vincent Cassel (Black Swan, La Haine) positively shines as Captain Lucien, the broken leader of survivors who offloads a tremendous amount of heart. Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters, On the Rocks) also does a lot with a little as Research Assistant Emily, and I also quite liked Mamoudou Athie (The Circle, Black Box) works nicely as Rodrigo, the newby to drilling life who locks up in dangerous situations.

On the flipside, I felt that T.J. Miller bogged down a lot of his screen time with terribly-underwhelming comedic relief that fell flat regularly, and John Gallagher Jr. (Short Term 12, Hush) is given almost nothing to do, to the point where I had forgotten he was even in the film.

Where Kristen Stewart faults in the film is that I just didn’t see her fitting the character. She was either miscast or given dialogue that didn’t fit her as a performer, and some of the script didn’t work through her. That’s maybe the largest issue. Whether through choppy editing or bad writing, Underwater is bubbling with logic gaps and confusing character choices. There are moments, most notably near the end of the film, where characters completely flip on their arcs and go in the opposite direction, and no one is serviced well with the conclusion. Hastily put together narration from Stewart and newspaper clippings to fill in plotholes pop up here and there and never work the way they’re supposed to.

It’s too bad, because if this film could’ve fixed the writing, a lot of lesser elements at play here would be almost instantly improved, and given the places where the narrative ends up, I would’ve loved to see them really execute the ending because Act III is so bonkers and interesting that a better script could’ve really floated this film into another level of deep sea horror.

Underwater is a messy movie, one that floats and flounders in equal measure. There’s a lot to like here, and it’s a great display for director William Eubank (The Signal, Love) as a bigger budget up-and-coming director. The film has flaws, but they showcase a talent rising through the ranks. Had Underwater better handled their casting and screenwriting, I feel this concept would’ve been able to enter that upper echelon on modern horror classics. As it stands, the film is messy but worth checking out for yourself nonetheless.

2.5
-Kyle A. Goethe