There is not enough spinach in the world to help this meteor-infected version of the famous sailor man. However, horror fans will surely delight in watching the brand-new trailer (below) for the upcoming film, Shiver Me Timbers, which features the beloved pipe-tooting character, Popeye, going on a bloody rampage. Check out the official synopsis below, thanks to the studio behind the upcoming scary flick, Alpake Entertainment:
“In Northern California during the summer of 1986, Olive Oyl, along with her cinema-obsessed friends and brother Castor, embark on a once-in-a-lifetime camping trip to witness the dazzling meteor shower accompanying the arrival of Halley’s comet. But what starts as a serene evening of stargazing quickly turns into a harrowing nightmare when a meteor from the comet transforms Popeye into a terrifying and unstoppable killing machine.”
The Scottish film production company (Alpake) boasts on its website of being known for its “movies with guts” and is the creative force behind the new Popeye-inspired genre flick, Shiver Me Timbers. In fact, this is the third time the public domain character has recently been transformed into a frightening reimagining of E. C. Segar’s 1929 comic strip creation. The others are 2025’s Popeye’s Revenge and Popeye the Slayer Man.
Popeye Is Hardly “I Yam What I Yam” in ‘Shiver Me Timbers’
Will Shiver Me Timbers eventually rank among the greatest horror films of all time? Only time will tell, but the project has already shot itself in the foot by leaving some of the more well-known characters related to Popeye out of the mix. Unless some of the other Shiver Me Timbers actors are secretly portraying Popeye personalities, fan favorites Swee’Pea, Wimpy, and Bluto/Brutus are noticeably absent from the cast roster, to say nothing of Whaler Joe, the buck-toothed Oscar, or Alice the Goon. However, filmmaker Paul Stephen Mann seems well-versed in the sailor man’s mythology.
Popeye’s famous love interest, Olive Oyl, obviously appears in the horror comedy, but it’s unlikely that actress Amy Mackie will be cozying up to any version of the spinach-eating sailor this time around. Olive’s brother Castor (Brendan Nelson) also appears in the film, along with Cylinda (Niamh Parrington). Lizzy (Leona Roberts) isn’t spelled the same as the actual cartoon character, but she is still likely a nod to Bluto’s wife, Lizzie, from the cartoon Popeye and Son (1987). Spike, who Denis Franz originally portrayed in the well-known Popeye (1980) movie, appears in the credits and is played by Seb Lord.
Meanwhile, Homeless George (Paul Dewdney) is surely a live-action representation of George W. Geezil. However, it doesn’t look like Popeye will be friends with any of his old acquaintances from the source material in the new horror film because of the character’s frightening metamorphosis. Mann uses a strange meteorite — it resembles a chunk of red Kryptonite — as his creative means of transforming Old Man Popeye (David Hallows) into the Monster Popeye (Anthony Greer) in Alpake Entertainment’s upcoming Shiver Me Timbers.
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The beloved children’s character gets a gnarly transformation in the upcoming horror comedy.
The official trailer comes on the heels of three teasers, and Mann’s film is clearly a tribute to not only Popeye but to the height of the slasher subgenre, which took place in the 1980s. Shiver Me Timbers is touted as being a movie filled with sex, blood, and drugs. In fact, Mann even pays homage to one of Ash Williams’ (Bruce Campbell) lines from The Evil Dead sequel, Army of Darkness (1992). The same dark-haired character in both the trailer and first teaser can clearly be heard saying to his lover, “Gimmie some sugar, baby.”
Shiver Me Timbers is slated to drop in April 2025. Until then, fans of the “strong to the finish because he eats his spinach” sailor man can check out arguably the best Popeye adaptation of all. The Robin Williams and Shelley Duval-led film from 1980 celebrates its 45th anniversary this December, and it is available to stream for free on Pluto TV at the time of this writing. It is also worth noting that Halley’s comet will not be visible from Earth again until the year 2061 (per NASA).
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