WFG RATING: B-

ITN Studios presents an August Bound production. Directed and edited by William Stead. Produced by Rene August. Written by Harry Boxley; based on characters created by E.C. Segar. Cinematography by Vince Knight.

Stars Emily Mogliner, Connor Powles, Danielle Ronald, Bruno Cryan, Atlanta Moreno, Karolina Ugrenyuk, Fyn Phoenixx, Kyle Jordan, Eva Ray, Danielle Scott, with Kelly Rian Sanson, and Steven Murphy. 

After getting into public domain this year, the Sailor Man goes into ‘slayer’ mode in this film from the writer and producer of Piglet. 

A legend is revealed that years ago, a deformed baby named Joseph was given the nickname Popeye. As a teenager, Popeye was relentlessly bullied until he was protected by a young girl. When the bullies hit the girl, Popeye went into a rage and killed the bullies. This prompted the townsfolk to burn down Popeye’s home, killing his parents and sending him into the lake where he was never found again…until the fog hits where it is believed he comes out to kill.

Tara, a young woman, brings a group of her friends to the decrepit old house that once belonged to Popeye to give it a full renovation and possibly start a summer camp in the area. When Tara’s mother learns of a series of murders over the years in the area, she discovers the legend is true. Meanwhile, Popeye does in fact come back and begins to unleash his havoc amongst the group of friends. Will Tara’s mother be able to rescue her in time before it’s too late?

It was bound to happen. Upon learning that Popeye the Sailor Man would be hitting public domain, it would eventually get the horror treatment. However, this is the first of three horror films to revolve around the Sailor Man going ‘slayer’ mode (the other two are Shiver Me Timbers and Popeye the Slayer Man). Written by Harry Boxley and produced by Rene August, this horror take on the famous character takes a meshing of A Nightmare on Elm Street meets Friday the 13th. It is as if they are trying to turn Popeye into a cross of Freddy and Jason! 

Steven Murphy takes on the role of Popeye, who comes up only when the fog from the lake appears and using an anchor as his weapon of choice (if not his brute strength), decimates three victims within the first 15 minutes before we even get an old school exploitation title card. With the exception of lead character Tara, played by Emily Mogliner, the cast of potential victims are pretty much one-dimensional but at one point, I had to laugh because there are two characters in particular that look like boy banders Harry Styles and Robbie Williams. It was like you were not only waiting for these characters to get killed, but how they would get killed

There are some pretty amazing kills in this film. One kill looks to be reminiscent of The Mountain’s decimation of a character in Game of Thrones while another has the feel of a Mortal Kombat video game. In Popeye fashion, there is a scene where one victim is distracted by a can of spinach (it’s not Popeye without spinach) and once Popeye does his bidding, he sees the can and just smirks before walking away. There’s even an appearance from someone else in the classic universe, but this is the only gripe as they did something different with the character that gives more of a cringe mode rather than what one would expect. 

Popeye’s Revenge is not a bad public domain horror film. The kills are pretty intense. Steven Murphy makes the most of his screen time as the Sailor turned Slayer. However, with the twist of one character and most of the victims being one-dimensional, it just seems decent. It is better than The Mouse Trap though…that’s for sure.

The film is currently streaming on Tubi.