Directed by William Stead
How are there three separate Popeye horror movies series? I have not seen Popeye 1 or 2 in this series, but much like Bambi: The Reckoning, I picked this one just for the title. Any movie that has ‘requiem’ in its name is making some big promises; promises that this is going to be a deep story with strong emotional stakes that will make you think, and I’m sure Popeye: 3 Requiem will have no shortage of emotional depth or storytelling finesse. Before I even watched the movie though. what confused me was the poster, which appears to have retired wrestler Bill Goldberg playing Popeye, who notably does not appear as Popeye in this movie. Maybe Brett Hart was the one in charge of who the villain of the movie looked like. Points to you if you understood that reference. Anyway, let’s get to the movie!
Our story begins with Popeye captured at a summer camp by a paramilitary group while the bloody survivors of his massacre look on. That’s a sentence you type out and then gaze into the distance and wonder how your life reached this point. Anyway, after the group manages to subdue Popeye, they bring him and the 2 survivors back to a secret research facility where they experiment on the man monster, creating something even more dangerous in the process, forcing our survivors to…survive…even longer.
Credit where it’s due, I don’t think this storyline is all bad. Plots about secret government agencies performing experiments on their own citizens, especially those afflicted with birth defects or other congenital conditions as is the case here, are classic sci-fi horror and a good way to explore painful questions about government responsibility and the dangers of unchecked scientific research. Or it would be, if any of that was worked into the storyline after being introduced, rather than it being used as a plot device to explain how Popeye is so strong and becomes even stronger. It is a shame that the movie didn’t lean into the idea of Popeye as a Frankenstein’s monster type creature a little harder, it would have been so easy to humanize him a bit more while showing how the scientist who created him is every bit as monstrous.
With that bit of faint praise aside, hoo boy, Popeye 3: Requiem has some issues. Depending on how much Public Domain horror you’ve seen, which I hope isn’t much, there’s a certain, shall I say, thrifty nature about it. These movies usually look cheap, which Popeye 3: Requiem does as well, but there is at least an attempt to shoot in some varied locations, even if those locations are generally quite underdeveloped. The science labs never look like labs, the military bunkers look like random concrete hallways, it’s all pretty drab, so when we inevitably got out into the woods, I was kind of thankful.
I’ve been a little down on this movie but I need to make something clear, I actually didn’t hate Popeye 3: Requiem. Its pacing is quick and its always throwing weird new characters at you, some of which I found extremely endearing. There was one camper later in the movie who was “from Kentucky” and her southern accent was so comical I thought it was an in-universe joke. I double checked to be sure and yes, the actress is from London. But that’s part of the charm, everyone is chewing the scenery and trying to say these bizarre lines earnestly, every character constantly says and does stupid things that make no sense in context, and that’s the stuff I’m here for. Keep the nonsense coming.
While this isn’t the best so-bad-its-good movie, the sheer audacity of having Popeye as a slasher villain turn into a weapons experiment who glows green is so intrinsically entertaining that I can’t be mad at it. I actually would recommend this as a funnybad movie, and I’m considering watching the next one in this series just to see what direction this insanity will take.