Verdict
Summary
The Pumpkin Man is an effort that takes its swing but can’t hit the bell on top. It’s at about half strength, and for a very indie Halloween horror film, that’s basically the death knell for audiences. It’s slow, it’s too much of a sluggish chore to sustain your interest, and yet it’s something, but it’s just not enough. Seek your Halloween treats elsewhere.
Plot:
A demonic pumpkin man is brought back from the realm of the dead to stalk and slash on Halloween night.
Review:
The quaint town of Cromwell has a local legend that everyone seems to know and acknowledge with a yearly festival that takes place right around Halloween: The Pumpkin Man festival. Apparently, long ago a witch subdued a demon and her foe was a gangly, murderous spirit made flesh with the head of a droopy pumpkin. Her book of spells was lost, and in the present day a teen girl named Catherine (Barbara Desa) and her friend Jenny (Stephanie Kirves) somehow find the book (too quickly and too easily) that has the Pumpkin Man’s real name, and since it’s Halloween they say the name and as the title card at the start of the movie says: “Demons are like dogs – they come when they’re called.” Well, The Pumpkin Man shows up and starts killing.
If this were a movie that had been made by wiser filmmakers, they would’ve made it a movie for teenagers and families. There’s a reason why movies like Monster House and Hocus Pocus are in regular rotation every year. Yes, there are great scary R-rated Halloween movies (too many to name), but where The Pumpkin Man goes wrong is that it’s not fun. It’s not scary enough to be a perennial favorite for adults, and it’s got too many teenagers in it to really appeal to hardened fans of horror movies. It too often feels like it wants to be a Goosebumps instead of Pumpkinhead, and so it’s confused and lost in its own unfocused intentions. It’s too serious and gruesome, but at the same time it’s not gruesome enough and too goofy to be one type of horror film or the other.
From filmmaker Ryan Sheets, The Pumpkin Man is an effort that takes its swing but can’t hit the bell on top. It’s at about half strength, and for a very indie Halloween horror film, that’s basically the death knell for audiences. It’s slow, it’s too much of a sluggish chore to sustain your interest, and yet it’s something, but it’s just not enough. Seek your Halloween treats elsewhere.
Scream Team Releasing recently put out a DVD and a Blu-ray of The Pumpkin Man, and it comes with a making-of feature, a commentary, trailers, and more.
