Starring - Ellie Patrikios (Gam Cam Grrl, Body of Sin), Matt Rife (Average Joe, After Masks), and Grayson Thorne Kilpatrick (American Horror Story, Dave)
Release Date - 2018
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Trick or treat! You're dead meat"
Format - DVD (Personal Collection)
Rating (out of 5):
Halloween is this weekend so I'm focusing the remaining few days of my spare time on Halloween centered films that I've accumulated over the year or so. A few weeks ago I started receiving press releases for the 2018 horror film Black Pumpkin. The film was recently hitting store shelves so I ventured out to Wal-Mart where I found a copy for a decent price. I snagged a copy and was looking forward to checking it out in the days leading to Halloween. Kind of wish I didn't after finally seeing it.
The film follows two kids who did a video on a local legend. Their video and subsequent exploits in the area awaken an evil force known as Bloody Bobby that starts killing without prejudice forcing them to act quick to save their family and friends before Bobby gets to them.
I went into this one only seeing the trailer for it and I was actually pretty excited to see it. It looked like an unexpected Halloween treat but that was clearly a trick. The movie was a paint by the numbers Halloween tale that struggled with it's own identity. Someone clearly wanted to be Trick 'r Treat. The acting in this one is very inconsistent. The child actors were the highlight of the film. These young talents were surprisingly well rounded and genuine in front of the camera while the older cast, the ones portraying high school age students, were extremely awkward to watch. Their dialogue was forced and they were painfully cliched. The story for this one is Wa-Mart horror at it's finest. It's mediocre are best and the story doesn't attempt to deliver anything new or different. We get a small statured killer that is oddly similar to Sam from Trick r' Treat named Bloody Bobby which is the name of another Halloween themed movie and it's killer. We follows two kids who accidentally summon a killer on Halloween which is the basis for so many other horror films. The movie pulls in so many different recycled aspects that it completely loses sight of the movie it set out to make. Honestly, if the film would have at least picked one horror trope and stuck with it I could have enjoyed it as a cheap late night watch but seeing all these generic characters and predictable story pile together made it a miserable watch. Finally, the film does have some blood and practical effects but the kills are not as fun as they could have been. It looks like the film's budget went into the cast when some of it should have been left for the effects so horror fans would get what they were looking forward to. Overall, Black Pumpkin is one of those horror films that you will find at the bottom of the $3 movie bin by summer. It's painfully dull and generic with nothing new or original. This is one I would skip and recommend you do the same.
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