Popcorn is a 1991 American slasher film directed by Mark Herrier and written by Alan Ormsby.

[3] It stars Jill Schoelen, Tom Villard, Tony Roberts, Dee Wallace, and Derek Rydall.

The plot follows a group of college students holding a film festival, where they are then stalked and murdered by a deranged killer inside a movie theater.

Film student and aspiring screenwriter Maggie Butler has recurring dreams of Sarah, a girl caught in a fire and chased by a man trying to kill her.

Maggie's classmate Toby D'Amato has an idea to perform a horror movie marathon to raise funds for their film department.

Despite time-constraints, Toby enlists the help of Dr. Mnesyne, owner of a film memorabilia shop, who lends over some possessions.

[4] They find a short cult film called Possessor from his inventory, which partly resembles Maggie's dreams.

Lanyard Gates, the director, killed his family while shooting the final scene, also setting the theater on fire.

Maggie flees, realizing she is Sarah Gates, Lanyard is her father, and Suzanne is her aunt who saved her long ago.

The power comes back on and Maggie finds herself in the killer's lair, strapped to a chair used to make victims facial masks.

Blaming Maggie and Suzanne responsible, he plans to exact revenge on them by re-enacting the final scene of Possessor onstage, only with the intended ending.

Meanwhile, Cheryl and Joanie tend to Mark's injuries as they are met with an upset Joy, who is promptly thrown out after chastising the group.

After urinating on him, the doppelganger attacks Leon, locking him in a stall, then dropping a substance that creates a thick smoke.

The walls are plastered with articles of the Possessor incident, including pictures of his facial reconstruction and Maggie with scissors in her eyes.

Horrified, Mark rushes back to the theater, climbing through a window (due to the locked front door).

The final scene of Possessor is on-stage: Maggie, drugged, is locked in a metal dress, unable to move.

[7] Muir writes that the films-within-a-film in Popcorn serve as an homage to the low-budget horror films of the 1950s and to the gimmicks of William Castle.

Nuclear weapons testing has caused desert mosquitoes to grow into giant monsters, in a plot resembling Them!

The film includes stock characters and situations, such as a dedicated lady scientist and the military insisting on using a nuclear weapon to annihilate the monster.

As if in response, the letters of the movie theater's marquee fall on the ground and in their place appears a new sign: Possessor.

"[14] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it an "ingenious and spoofy little shocker" and "A Nifty Tribute to Its Genre".

[15] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of "B", writing, "Though it isn't even trying to scare you, this is a very nifty black-comic horror movie, one of the rare entries in the genre with some genuine wit and affection.

"[18] Chris Hicks of the Deseret News wrote, "On the whole, Popcorn is so amateurish in its development, with pseudo-hip dialogue that drops movie references every few lines, it winds up being neither scary nor funny.