“I am what I am.”
The second Popeye-themed film of 2025, released in March of that year about five weeks after Popeye’s Revenge, Popeye The Slayer Man does what its predecessor and successor fail to do: place Popeye in a believable scenario where he actually fits into the story. In this horror version of the character, Popeye supposedly “haunts” a shuttered spinach cannery and a group of college students decide to visit the place to film a documentary and discover if the ghost of the sailor man actually exists. In actuality, Popeye is no ghost. He’s a sailor that has lost his family due to a cover-up by the shady owner of the cannery and has mutated into a beastly strong man due to consuming tainted spinach. His mission is to protect the place where he lost his family from being torn down by the owner. Anybody that gets in his way faces a violent end.
The film is actually pretty good. It’s the best of the three Popeye horror films for sure, and I’d love to see it get a sequel. The film features a fairly good cast that includes Sean Michael Conway, Elena Juliano, Richard Lounello, Mabel Thomas, and Angela Relucio. Popeye is portrayed by Jason Robert Stephens under a heaping helping of prosthetics. It also has some pretty amazing practical effects and a nice collection of kills. My favorite scenes involve Relucio’s character, Harrigan, facing off against Popeye and the film’s opening sequence featuring Sarah Nicklin, Joel Frometa, and Christian Elan Ortiz.
I also love the fact that this film features more winks, callbacks, and nods to a number of classic Popeye characters and sayings. Keep an eye out for a quick reference to Wimpy, his love of hamburgers, and his use of IOUs. Olive Oyl is also mentioned in the film as is Sweet Pea. I also believe, but am not entirely sure, that one other character is directly inspired by Bluto.
Popeye is given quite a bit of depth in this film, especially when it comes to slasher films. There’s a subplot that involves domestic abuse that grabbed my attention, and it plays out in the background of the film. Popeye’s character development is influenced by this subplot, and I believe that it brings a little more legitimacy to the character in the film. It’s a welcome plot device in a film that could have been nothing more than a standard slasher film.
While Popeye The Sailor Man isn’t perfect, but it has enough nuance to it that raises it above the other Popeye horror films and other films that have been released in recent years that give us horror versions of characters that have entered the public domain. It’s a fairly smart movie with excellent effects, nice acting, and some cool Easter eggs for fans of the classic comic strip.
Give Popeye The Slayer Man a look. I think that you might be surprised at how good it actually is. Oh, and be sure to check out some of the interviews with Sarah Nicklin. She did a promotional photo shoot with Popeye/Jason Robert Stephens that features a nautical theme. The photos were taken by Ama Lea, and I’ve included one of the photos below. The interviews with Nicklin are pretty awesome and the photos are amazing. Thanks for checking out my review, and get ready for my next post featuring the third film featuring Popeye as a horror character, Shiver Me Timbers.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 