a review of 魔幻爆米花

Finally got time to sit down and watch this one last night. Apparently the production was kind of a tortured affair, with the director and lead getting replaced a few weeks in, so the movie feels tonally lumpier than it might have, but I still had a good time with it. Apparently original director Alan Ormsby was responsible for all the movie-within-a-movie sequences, which IMO is the best thing about it and feel absolutely true to the genres they're aping. All the present-day material was handled by replacement director Mark Herrier, who apparently was one of the guys from the Porky's movies. (Bob Clark is credited as a producer, which explains that.) Herrier's portions of the movie are definitely the jankiest in terms of splitting the difference between mystery/slasher and dorky teen comedy, but I kinda like his approach to the characters and making sure that every member of the ensemble gets some kind of business to differentiate them from the rest. I also appreciate that he doesn't kill off the two most likeable characters, Joannie and Cheryl (Ivette Soler and Kelly Jo Minter) It is kind of interesting that this movie predates both Joe Dante's MATINEE (a celebration of William Castle's brand of immersive B-movie showmanship) as well as SCREAM in its meta-horror aspects. It's not quite on the level of either of those, but definitely pointed in the same directions, and should be more widely seen/talked about than it is.