Is Popeye the Slayer Man the Weirdest Public Domain Horror Film Yet?

Popeye the Slayer Man Review: A Bizarre New Public Domain Slasher

Look, the second you heard someone made a horror slasher called Popeye the Slayer Man, you knew things were about to get weird. We’re talking “why does this exist?” levels of weird. And somehow, in the rising tide of public domain horror films that 2025 is drowning in—Bambi: The Reckoning, Mickey’s Mouse Trap, and The Mouse of Horrors, just to name a few—this spinach-fueled killer still stands out as one of the strangest.

So yeah, Popeye the Slayer Man is real. It's here. And yes, we watched it. Here's what we thought.

🎬 The Setup: Spinach and Slaughter

The premise is pure slasher simplicity: a group of disposable teens ventures into an abandoned factory, only to find themselves stalked by a hulking cartoon-turned-killer sailor who’s traded his cans of spinach for a taste of blood.

The Sailor Man—as he’s billed in the film—is brought to life with a genuinely unsettling design. From the squinting eye to the pipe to that off-white sailor cap, it's all just familiar enough to be creepy. Especially when he starts ripping people in half.

🎨 The Vibes: Silly, Spooky, and Slightly Dead Inside

Weirdly, Popeye the Slayer Man almost works as a horror movie. The filmmakers make decent use of shadows and silhouettes, especially in the first half. The opening kill actually had us thinking this could be a hidden gem.

And for a while, it almost holds together. There’s some fun gore, a couple of genuinely eerie sequences, and enough self-awareness to keep it from becoming completely unbearable.

But make no mistake: this is a low-budget film through and through. Dialogue is clunky. Character motivations range from “uh, why?” to “wait, what just happened?” And the pacing is… kind of a mess. The movie takes too long to get to the carnage, and when it does, it goes hard—but maybe a little too late.

🧟‍♂️ The Kill Factor

What you're really here for is the kills, and thankfully, The Sailor Man delivers.

From classic slasher staples to creatively cartoonish executions (there’s one involving a massive anchor that had the crowd we watched it with howling), this movie doesn’t hold back. The kills are meaty, over-the-top, and clearly where most of the budget went.

You can tell the filmmakers had a list of “must-see” death scenes and built the movie around them. And honestly? That’s fine. We’ve seen big-budget flicks do worse with way more.

😬 The Problems

Now, let’s talk about the spinach-colored elephant in the room: the script.

It’s rough. Like, early-first-draft rough. Characters speak like they’re in a ‘90s PSA, and emotional beats land like a can of soggy spinach. When we’re not watching The Sailor Man impale someone, we’re stuck with long stretches of clumsy dialogue between leads we barely care about.

Also, the pacing kills the momentum. The movie should’ve started slashing earlier and kept the energy up. Instead, there’s a whole second act that drags like an anchor.

🎭 Performance & Direction

The performances are exactly what you’d expect from a public domain indie slasher. Serviceable but forgettable. No one’s turning in Oscar-worthy work here, but a few actors do lean into the campy chaos well enough to be entertaining.

The direction is... competent. The filmmakers clearly have an eye for horror setups, but they’re still figuring out how to make scenes flow without awkward silences or over-explaining every plot detail.

🎩 The Sailor Man's Design: Surprisingly Terrifying

Let’s give credit where it’s due: The Sailor Man looks amazing. Equal parts cartoonish and nightmarish, his design somehow blends goofy nostalgia with straight-up creep factor. Seeing that silhouette in a moonlit hallway or the pipe’s smoke curling through the shadows? That’s horror gold.

He’s got presence. He’s got style. And he definitely has an axe.

🧃 Final Verdict: Worth a Watch (With Friends)

Is Popeye the Slayer Man a good movie? Not really.

Is it fun? Sometimes! Especially with the right group, the right vibe, and maybe the right beverage.

This is exactly the kind of horror flick you queue up for a ridiculous movie night with friends. You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, and yeah, you’ll probably shout “WHAT?!” more than once. But you’ll also have a good time if you go in with the right expectations.

It’s not trying to be Hereditary. It’s trying to make Popeye scary. And weirdly? It kinda succeeds.

Popeye the Slayer Man isn’t the best public domain horror film out there—but it’s far from the worst. It sits comfortably in the messy middle, with just enough twisted creativity to earn a “worth a watch” from us.

If nothing else, you’ll remember it. And in the sea of forgettable indie slashers, that’s worth something.

Stay weird, stay scared, and stay tuned for more splatter and chaos at Land of Geek Magazine!

#PublicDomainHorror #PopeyeTheSlayerMan #IndieSlasher2025 #SpinachSlasher #BizarreHorror