Through VMI Releasing and Vantage Media, Popeye the Slayer Man was released theatrically and on VOD on March 21, 2025. In the vein of 2023’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey or 2025’s Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, it turns our beloved childhood animated characters into murderous, vengeful flesh-and-blood (emphasis on the blood here) characters.
Co-written and directed by Robert Michael Ryan (Dark Corners Horror Anthology series), Popeye the Slayer Man stars Jason Robert Stephens (Bloodstream 2000, Girl Meets Boy 2013) as Popeye the Sailor Man (credited as ‘The Sailor Man’), Sean Michael Conway (Dead Until Death 2021, I Think I’m Sick 2023) as Dexter, Elena Juliano (Bands 2019, My Friend’s Play 2020) as Olivia, Mabel Thomas (Curse of the Re-Animator 2022, Demonic Toys: Jack-Attack 2023) as Katie, Angela Relucio (Six series, Ozark series) as Margot Harrigans among others in a story about 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.
One aspect that sets Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and Popeye the Slayer Man apart from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is that the characters are human instead of bear-human. Of course, there is a perverse interest in seeing our childhood characters warped. Otherwise, these movies have no redeeming qualities since the gore overshadows any social commentary the film is trying to convey.
Whereas Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey dealt with abandonment and Pooh and crew having to fend for themselves, and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare dealt with living a twisted childhood, the dark side of innocence, and the blurring lines between reality and fantasy with Tinker Bell being the tragic character, Popeye the Slayer Man falls into many tropes dealing with the urban legend with a revenge angle thrown in for good measure. It is not bad… just blah.
Almost every Horror character has an urban legend-esque backstory, and revenge is what horrors were practically built on the back of. And again, there is so much gore it overshadows the serious issues at hand. On the upside, the gore was made practically instead of being prominent computer graphics, and there are some cool throwbacks for those in the Popeye know.
With that said, the acting tries to play it straight, but you can tell the actors know who the real star is… and it ain’t Popeye. He is just the delivery service. The kills and gore are the stars here. The cast goes through the paces until their inevitable death scene. After all, many of us have been to that movie where we were waiting to see how characters get snuffed out.
Given that, the realization of Popeye is just badass. He is the grizzled, dirty version of his clean, goofy, animated counterpart. Together, Heather Grace Sharpe, the key makeup artist; RJ Young, the unique makeup effects artist; Raiden Gorby, the special effects prosthetics designer; and Ryan Kelly, the visual effects artist, have created a character who looks the part but is terrorized.
Popeye the Slayer Man does not even have a rating on Rotten Tomatoes. However, general audiences have found it predictable or bloody fun to watch. With that in mind, the film is a breezy 88-minute watch if the violence and gore do not wear on you despite how badass Popeye looks. All matters considered, Cryptic Rock gives Popeye the Slayer Man 3 out of 5 stars.
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