Popeye the Slayer Man (2025)

"He is what he is"

Plot

A curious group of friends sneak into an abandoned spinach canning factory to investigate the legend of the "Sailor Man," who is said to haunt the factory and local docks. They quickly find out that he’s real and has been eating contaminated spinach for years, making him super strong and aggressive.

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Another of the wave of horror films based upon famous intellectual properties becoming public domain over the last few years, Popeye the Slayer Man is another quick cash-in on a legacy character for someone to make a quick buck. We’ve had Winnie the Pooh (two films to date), Steamboat Willie (think it was four on my last count), Peter Pan, Bambi and The Grinch (only unofficially though!) and now in 2025, there are no fewer than three Popeye films being released. Betty Boop is becoming public domain in 2026 (already a horror film about her in production as I write), Donald Duck in 2030 and then Superman in 2034 and Batman in 2035. If these public domain horror films are still a thing in the next ten years, then I shudder to think of what they’re going to do to these iconic characters. These films are, on the whole, terrible, and are designed purely to appeal to human curiosity. Just what does director Robert Michael Ryan have in store for Popeye? More of the same or something different?

It’s not high art but Popeye the Slayer Man is one of the better public domain horror films I’ve seen this year. It knows its limitations and knows what it wants to be, which is just a goofy slasher that has some silly fun with the Popeye brand. But honestly, there’s no need for Popeye to be the killer here. You could replace him with anyone or anything and it makes not a jot of difference to the narrative. The entire lure of this and the other public domain horror films is to see just how the makers have twisted the innocence of a childhood character into something perverse. As Don Corleone said in The Godfather, “look how they massacred my boy” and I’m pretty sure E. C. Segar would be turning over in his grave and saying the same thing about Popeye. Unlike Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh who are still relevant and beloved today, surely Popeye is yesterday’s man. I don’t see the character featured in anything anymore and he had his heyday years ago. Hell, even when I was a kid Popeye felt like something from a bygone era.

Opening with a simple prologue which introduces three sacrificial characters who are quickly butchered by the ‘Slayer Man’ in gory fashion, the film doesn’t waste any time in showcasing its feature attraction. Opting to go for the look he’s famous for from the cartoon strip, with his oversized jaw, ridiculous biceps, his sailor outfit and his pipe, this isn’t some amateurish reimagining like The Mouse Trap did for Steamboat Willie but a nightmarish interpretation that everyone familiar with Popeye will recognize in an instant. Giving him a plausible back story as to why he’s grown to that size and full of rage, the script that doesn’t dwell on much in the way of characterization outside of an obvious link to the past in the form of Olive Oyl. The prosthetic mask is pretty good and Jason Robert Stevens has the physical presence to full off a convincing killer but Popeye is just seen way too much, way too early. Keep him in the shadows a bit longer, build up the suspense and mystery as to what he’ll look like and then reveal your hand later on. An eerie early scene of an empty spinach can rolling out from the darkness or characters mentioning they can smell pipe smoke should be tension-builders but they’re little more than throwaway nods to lore.

Popeye the Slayer Man is gory and the best part is that it’s all done with old school make-up effects. Skulls are crushed between hands. Wrists are snapped out of arms. Scalps are ripped off. Arms are ripped out of sockets (and Popeye then uses the severed arm to bludgeon the victim to death anyway). There’s a decent number of characters on hand to be killed off in graphic ways, sometimes off-camera but mainly on it. Quite who they all were is beyond me as outside of some generic characterization, once the kills start you won’t care who is who. Popeye the Slayer Man goes for broke too early and once you’ve seen what the sailor can do, there’s nothing else in the film to keep you engaged.

There are too many stretches where the pacing drags and the film is overly dull. There’s generally no atmosphere whatsoever and it feels like everyone is going through the motions outside of the make-up effects team. A timid attempt to lean into a sequel at the end of the film smacks more of desperation and no one having idea how to actually end it properly than anything else but if they do follow it up, then as long as they keep this tone and approach then I see nothing wrong with it.

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Final Verdict

Dare I say it but Popeye the Slayer Man ‘is what it is’ – a goofy slasher which doesn’t take itself too seriously and uses its public domain property as best as it can in the timeframe it was made in. There was so much more potential to be had in tapping into the joke it is using but it’s the most competent public domain horror film I’ve seen so far. That’s not exactly a high bar as I write this in November 2025 but it’s something.  

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Popeye the Slayer Man Director(s): Robert Michael Ryan Writer(s): Cuyle Carvin (story), John Doolan (screenplay), Jeff Miller (story), Robert Michael Ryan (story), E.C. Segar Actor(s): Sean Michael Conway, Elena Juliano, Jason Robert Stephens, Mabel Thomas, Marie-Louise Boisnier, Jeff Thomas, Steven McCormack, Clayton Turner Duration: 88 mins