#12 - Popcorn (1991)
(dir. Mark Herrier)
To raise money for their film department, a group of college students put on an all-night horrorthon in an old theater. They show three old sci-fi classics with William Castle-style gimmicks, like seats that give the audience electric shocks and a giant mutant mosquito that flies through the theater on a wire. While digging through some old props to help decorate, they find a single reel of a film titled "Possessor", which their professor informs them was created by a cult leader back in the '70s. It too had a gimmick - the finale of the film was performed live on stage, and it involved the director killing his family and burning down the theater with the audience trapped inside. Yikes.
This was a total blast! It's got a ton of fun practical effects and makeup, some cool colorful lighting, and a great (and often morbid) sense of humor. The fictional films they show at the event are maybe my favorite part - they are spot-on pastiches of low budget '50s sci-fi films and they're goofy as hell. You can tell director Mark Herrier loves that kind of thing and knows what makes them work, and it translates into a similar kind of fun energy throughout this whole movie.
It loses steam a bit in the last act, and a lot of the music isn't great, but overall this was really fun and I highly recommend it to fans of '80s/early '90s horror comedies. Kind of like Lamberto Bava's Demons but goofier.
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