"Without memory, there can be no retribution" : POPCORN (1991) and How the Past Informs the Horror Genre

"Without Memory, There Can Be No Retribution" :
Popcorn (1991) and How the Past Informs the Horror Genre 

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor and podcast czar

Popcorn (1991) is a love letter to the horror genre on both textual and metatextual levels. The plot involves an all night horror-thon, the setting is a classic movie house scheduled for demolition, and the killer utilizes movie magic to do his nasty work. But there’s a deeper appreciation for horror’s history on display as well.

Aspiring filmmaker Maggie (Jill Schoelen) and her pals put on the horror-thon to raise money for their high school film department. With the help of film historian Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston), they're screening three (fake) classic cult b-movies that all have their own gimmicks. The giant mutant bug attack film Mosquito is being presented in project-o-vision (which means a huge remote controlled mosquito on wires will fly out above the audience at key moments), something called The Stench presented in aroma-rama (where packets of powder are dissolved in water and the resulting scented fog is filtered into the theater), and The Amazing Electrified Man about a death row inmate who survives the electric chair, presented in shock-o-scope (where the theater seats are electrified in order to give shocks to the audience).

This being the Slashers issue of MovieJawn, there are obviously some murders afoot! A short film called Possessor is found mixed in with the film spools and gimmick materials, and screened shortly thereafter. The short is surreal, and bears resemblance to some spooky dreams Maggie has been having, and once the horror-thon kicks off, she begins to think that the man from Possessor is haunting the theater, killing her friends off one by one! The man operating the RC mosquito gets impaled on its huge proboscis; the guy operating the shock-o-scope board is tied to his seat and terminally zapped; one of the kids is locked in a bathroom stall and gassed with toxic aroma-rama pellets (why he doesn't just flush I'll never know) and the audience is in danger of meeting the same fate.

Popcorn taps into a reverence for the past that runs through a lot of the horror genre, while also paying homage to William Castle, one of the greatest carnies to ever work in film. Without going into too much detail, some of the gimmicks in this directly correlate to some of Castle's ideas to drum up audience interest. Look up Castle's films The House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Macabre, Mr. Sardonicus, Homicidal, and probably others - and their associated promotional tricks, if you're unfamiliar. They're very fun. You'll thank me.

Beyond that, horror has a rich history of paying homage to what's come before. Things like meta-casting genre mainstays, naming characters after actors or directors from earlier eras, to giving small shout-outs within the films. For instance, there's a torn poster for Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes (1977) in the basement of the cabin in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead (1981). Craven responded by having the character Glen (Johnny Depp) watching The Evil Dead on TV before being killed in an appropriately Evil Dead-y, messy fashion by Freddy Kruger in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Raimi then had a replica of Freddy's glove hanging above the doorway of the cabin in Evil Dead II (1987).

Sometimes these nods are shout outs, broadcasting a love and respect for an inspirational work. Sometimes they're call outs, telling audiences "If you thought that was scary, wait until you see this". Sometimes they hint at some shared horror DNA that audiences might not be instinctually aware of. In John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) for instance, the kids are watching The Thing From Another World (1951) on TV at one point, underlying the it-could-be-anyone paranoia of his film's masked killer.

By adopting parodies of William Castle -style gimmicks onto pastiches of '50s and '60s cheapie b-movies, the filmmakers are more than just tipping their hat to film history. Mosquito, The Amazing Electrified Man, and The Stench aren't purely wallpaper for the events of the film. The promotional gags and equipment are what is used to rack up the majority of the film's bodycount. Popcorn is saying in no uncertain terms, that these ideas, these genres, these concepts, though having fallen out of fashion, are still valid. Still vibrant. Still killers.

I've been a big fan of Popcorn since I first saw it (only a few years ago!) because, on top of being a fun and lively flick, I enthusiastically agree. Too many filmmakers seem to drop references in their work more as a sign of their own bona fides, designed to say more about how cool or knowledgable the filmmaker is than to say anything about the works they're nested into. But horror history is jam packed with great ideas worth interrogating, and concepts worth dragging into the light in front of new eyes. As Toby (Tom Villard) says in Popcorn: “Without memory, there can be no retribution”, which I interpret as horror’s version of “Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it”. Someone has to show the audiences everything they’ve been missing.