‘Popeye the Slayer Man’ Red Band Trailer is Gory Slasher Reimaginging of Cartoon Sailor

First there was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Then came news of Screamboat, another horror comedy based on a beloved cartoon character that recently entered the public domain, in this case the version of Mickey Mouse seen in Steamboat Willie. Now, get ready for the latest effort, Popeye the Slayer Man, a grisly take on the spinach-chewing, big-forearmed sailor who rose to popularity in the 1930s with a series of cartoons by Max Fleischer.

The film’s official synopsis reads: “A curious group of friends sneak into an abandoned spinach canning factory to film a documentary on the legend of the “Sailor Man,” who is said to haunt the factory and local docks.” Naturally, the group of friends meets the legendary Popeye, here re-imagined as a rage-filled slasher killer, and are offed by the Slayer Man in overly violent fashion. Fans of gore will definitely be pleased by the film’s newly released Red Band trailer.

Deadline reported a day before the trailer’s release that Popeye the Slayer Man will come out sometime in 2025. It stars Sean Michael Conway, Elena Juliano, Mabel Thomas, Marie-Louise Boisnier, Jeff Thomas, and Steven McCormack, along with “scream queens” Angela Relucio (Code Black, The Cabining) and Sarah Nicklin (Nun of That, The Black Mass).

Producer Jeff Miller stated that the gore effects, supervised by R.J. Young, were “old school” and achieved practically rather than via CGI. Young’s gnarly work is on full display in the trailer, as it’s chock-full of hand-breaking, scalping, head-crushing and stomping, neck-breaking, and lots of spraying blood. A silly good time is sure to be had by all.

Public Domain Childhood Horrors Abound

Popeye the Slayer Man isn’t the only Popeye-themed horror-comedy on the market right now. There’s also Shiver Me Timbers, which sees the Sailor Man transformed into an unstoppable killing machine during a meteor shower. These two horrors join a host of other gory films based on children’s stories heading to cinemas and streaming services. The aforementioned Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey got a sequel in 2024, and there’s talk of a third entry.

Blood and Honey and its sequels are just the beginning of the so-called “Poohniverse,” conceived by filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield and his production company Jagged Edge. Audiences can look forward to Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, Bambi: The Reckoning, Pinocchio: Unstrung, Awakening Sleeping Beauty, Snow White Returns, and Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, which promises to be “The Avengers of low-budget horror comedies” based on public domain children’s characters.

Outside the Poohniverse, there are even more titles on the horizon, including: Fairest of Them All, which involves the Mad Hatter kidnapping princesses and forcing them to fight, Hunger Games style; Mouseboat Massacre, another twist on Steamboat Willie; and Hook, not to be confused with Steven Spielberg’s 1991 retelling of the Peter Pan story.