Psychotronic Cinemavision: Popeye the Slayer Man

Dexter (Sean Michael Conway) plans on making a documentary film on the urban legend known as “The Sailor Man”, an apparition that is known to haunt the Anchor Bay Spinach canning plant and the surrounding docks since the plant was shut down 20 years before. It is about to be sold and torn down to make way for waterfront condominiums giving Dexter one night to get what he needs for his documentary, also he must sneak into the plant having been denied entrance by the owner.  His crew includes the mysterious Olivia (Elena Juliano), whose past is a mystery and is somehow connected to the plant; Katie (Mabel Thomas), a bartender in an abusive relationship; Lisa (Marie-Louise Boisnier), Dexter’s best friend since childhood; Seth (Jeff Thomas), Lisa’s love interest.  In addition to Dexter’s crew, Katie’s abusive boyfriend, Joey (Steven McCormack) along with his two henchmen, Jesse (Clayton Turner) and Terry (Paul Konye) crash the filming when he couldn’t get ahold of Katie earlier in the evening.    As the night goes on, the very much alive Popeye (Jason Robert Stephens), the Sailor Man, appears and wreaks violent havoc amongst the group.  Along the way, a mystery consisting of a massive cover-up to Popeye’s origin and why the plant originally closed is revealed and its link to Olivia.  As the body count adds up (not all of them are Popeye’s fault), Dexter and Olivia must attempt to escape so they can tell the world the truth.

Popeye the Slayer Man is a 2025 American B-horror film based on the comic and cartoon character created by E. C. Segar. The character of Popeye entered into public domain in 2025, and this film is one of two movies retelling the story as a horror film (Popeye’s Revenge being the other one), capitalizing on the Character now being available. The film was released in theaters and on video on demand March 21, 2025, and has been getting surprisingly favorable reviews, for a B-horror film.  Jimmyo of JoBlo.com gave the film a 6 out of 10 saying, “The script by John Doolan, with story credit going to Cuyle Carvin and Jeff Miller, has a few funny moments, but it ultimately felt a bit predictable. However, it has affectionately goofy moments of Popeye lore. And that’s when Popeye is the most fun.” Similarly, Norman Gidney of HorrorBuzz also gave the film a 6 out of 10 writing, “It’s hokey, it’s goofy, but darn-it, he is what he is.”.

There seems to be a trend of taking childhood stories and twisting them into slasher films.  This is nothing new, but it seems to be happening in abundance over the last couple of years.  This is most likely due to many cartoon characters of the early 20^th century now entering into public domain.  Winnie the Pooh and Steamboat Willie (Original version of Mickey Mouse) are two examples.  Most of these films are convoluted, badly acted, storiless drivel that banks on a gore factor rather than telling an actually interesting story.  I was pleasantly surprised by Popeye the Slayer Man.  The performances are all pretty good, the writing is clever with some nice “Popeye” easter eggs for fans to chuckle at.  There is a purposefully hokey over the top aspect to the film that brings an element of fun.  And overall, the performances were pretty good for this level of film.  That being said, there were some minor issues. Popeye’s deformed face is a bit too much over exaggerating the facial qualities of the cartoon.  This unfortunately made it look like he was wearing a mask.  The makeup effect on his forearms was quite good but the facial prosthetics unfortunately detracted from the overall quality.  Popeye’s voice was also a missed opportunity, where the character does say his infamous, “I yam what I yam”, it is done in a low and strained tone as if the character could barely talk.  We also never hear that classic laugh that became synonymous with the cartoon character.  The original music composed for the film was quite good, but I think this was another missed opportunity to use the Popeye theme from the cartoon giving it its own creepy turn.  There is a lot of over-the-top gore, which I don’t usually like, but this was so brutal and “out there” that it was more comical, which I was grateful for. I will say that director Robert Michael Ryan could have used a bit more variation in his killing style.  Popeye uses the same method on three different victims and part of the fun of a slasher film is the unique ways that people die.  Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and is by far the best of the recent “children’s story to horror film” movies I have seen.