Popeye horror film coming from ITN Studios

It’s trendy these days to take a character from popular children’s stories and given them a horror twist. Lately we’ve been hearing about horror movies based on the likes of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinocchio, Three Blind Mice, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears – and when one set of filmmakers decides to make a horror film featuring a beloved kids’ story character, there are sometimes multiple other sets of filmmakers working on horror films that center on the same character, as evident from the fact that there are actually several Mickey Mouse horror films making their way out into the world. Another example is Popeye. Earlier this month, it was announced that Alpeke Entertainment is working on a slasher horror comedy called Shiver Me Timbers, which puts a horror twist on Popeye the Sailor. Since then, our friends at Bloody Disgusting got their hands on a batch of images from another Popeye horror production, a movie simply called Popeye.

William Stead, who previously directed the World War II horror film Children of the Night, is at the helm of Popeye, which is described as being a “raunchy and gory slasher.” Here’s the synopsis: The legend of Popeye haunts a group of counselors as they intend to open a summer camp. There’s no word on why Popeye would be a summer camp slasher.

Rene August is producing the film, which is coming our way from ITN Studios. Although ITN is the company behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and the rest of the “Poohniverse” that’s being built around those films, Bloody Disgusting was informed that this movie is not part of that cinematic universe.

Popeye himself is being played in the film by Steven Murphy. You can see a picture of him in character at the top of this article, and more images can be found at the Bloody Disgusting link.

What do you think of this trend of turning children’s story characters into horror movie villains? Are you interested in these Popeye horror movies? Let us know by leaving a comment below.