POPEYE: The Slayer Man

POPEYE: The Slayer Man (2025)
Directed by: Robert Michael Ryan
Written by: E.C. Segar, John Doolan
Starring: Elena Juliano, Jason Robert Stephens, Sean Michael Conway

“Oh, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man. I’m strong to the finich
Cause I eats me spinach…and I kill loads of people for fun…..!“

Not content with turning the loveable Winnie The Pooh into an AXE swinging murderer, we now get everyone’s favourite sailor Popeye, reborn as a Victor Crawley rip off, a character not seen in live action since the 1980’s Robin Williams attempt and I’ll leave it up to you to decide which version gives out the most of the horror vibes.

Here though to be fair, the idea is not totally ridiculous on the eyes and there – wait for it! – some positives to be had when watching. First of all, the design of Popeye himself is absolutely glorious, a proper replica of the cartoon in which its quite crazy to think that there is more than one generation out there who will be asking “Popeye who?”, so why make a film based on this beloved icon of the golden age of cartoons.

Well, the answer to that is simple! We are currently living in era where a genre of horror called “public domain” is ripe, where low budgets films of characters, freely available for those budding filmmakers to use to get a famous name into their scripts and to get those watching, fans like myself who saw the wonderful play of the title “the slayer man” – come on, admit it and agree that’s quite good – and hoped that I’d be watching a new kind of Hatchet. Its not by the way….but its still a serviceable slasher for those who like silliness.

In what is one of now three Popeye themed horror films out there, with the jury very much out on if I feel the need to watch the other two, this carries some of the lore which at least had me nodding in appreciation. Set in an abandoned spinach factory- see what they did there as well?-where its rumoured a ghost haunts the corridors and kills those who dare enter. Now up for sale, we get the first glimpse of this ruthless version as he easily slaughters right from the off, with bones crunching, blood spurting, all of course done on the cheapest budget, but hey, its what you should expect.

You can’t have a low budget slash without some young blood being offered up and here we have Dexter (Sean Michael Conway) and his gang of friends, enter the building on the premise that they want to shoot a documentary about this urban legend, because, well so many others in hundreds of other horror films have thought it was a good idea. Its not and soon they are up against this massive forearms with a huge chin, jacked up on spinach psychopath who utters his famous” “I yam what I yam,” as he goes about his kills.

Jason Robert Stephens is clearly having fun as the sailor man, the kills are standard, but may delight the gore-hounds and strangely its all harmless fun that I perhaps enjoyed more than I should have, with even the third act twist, not really being a twist as many of you would guess it, long before the reveal, not spoiling the charm and care that has gone into this movie.

With Bambi, Cinderella, Pinocchio and countless more all set to be offered this horror treatment over the coming months and with NETFLIX all set to bring out a new version of CUJO, lets hope TOM and JERRY doesn’t end up on a free domain as a rabies themed horror centred around those two would be enough for even myself to reach out for some contaminated Spinach and swallow….