Le Masque d'Halloween

This film was very hard to rate. For a low budget horror flick, it wasn't bad, but it could have been so much better.

First, it spent entirely too much time with the actors just acing stupid. Lots of hot girls running around, but the guys were just plain dumb. It wasted a lot of time that could have been spent on horror. After all, it is a Halloween slasher film.

The old man was one of the best parts of the film. Now, he was really creepy. Lance (David Austin) and his buds were just like Draco Malfoy and his crew. You just wanted them to get their due.

The pissing on the head bit was certainly original - and funny.

Less silliness and more slashing.

I saw this movie in the theater on it's opening night (a preview). I've got to say, it has a very creative plot twist right out of the gate which I think sets it aside from most of the low budget, predictable horror flicks. There are a lot of fun, weird kill scenes (my favorite killing is the guy who gets it at the pumpkin patch). Okay, so we're not seeing any big movie stars running around in this movie, but you can't gage a horror movie on it's star power. It's a low budget hack and slasher but it's right up there with all the other low budget hack and slashers. I believe this movie has the potential to become one of those popular, underground horror flicks. A nice rental...

This movie begins with a teenager by the name of "Jonathan Starks" (Michael Zara) sitting at the dining room table on Halloween night carving a pumpkin. Also at home with him is his older sister "Lynn Starks" (Amy Weber) who is waiting for her boyfriend "Alec" (David J. Wright). Upon getting there he essentially acts like a jerk and is told by Lynn to come back later. Sometime later, a man wearing a pumpkin mask, sneaks into the house and attacks Lynn with a knife. Jonathan hears her screams and kills the intruder with the knife he was using to make a jack-o-lantern. However, it's only after stabbing him multiple times that both Lynn and Jonathan realize that the intruder was Alec playing a prank. The scene then shifts to one year later with Jonathan having undergone counseling and now moving with his sister to another town to start a new life. Upon arriving they are greeted by several people including one older man named "Ben Wicket" (Terrence Evans) who appears to have some emotional issues of his own. Likewise, another young man by the name of "Lance" (David Austin) also quickly develops a disliking to Jonathan due to his former girlfriend, "Tammy" (Minka Kelly) showing a romantic interest in him-and trouble soon starts not long afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film started off pretty well and showed some good potential. Unfortunately, the director (Robert Mann) seemed to lose control after the first 30 minutes or so and the plot went seriously off the rails after that. Along with that, I didn't especially care for the acting on the part of Michael Zara who seemed totally inadequate for the task at hand. On the other hand, I thought both Amy Webber and Minka Kelly performed reasonably well as did Charity Shea (as "Rachel") to a lesser degree. Even so, it wasn't enough to overcome the flaws just mentioned and I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

Nothing too over the top here, "The Pumpkin Karver" simply tries to deliver a lot more then it actually can. Robert Mann directs this strait to video ooompus that attempts to out smart it's target audience, but flattens out like a Halloween pumpkin on November 2nd. The cinematography is above average yet the acting is below crap, less the always sensational Terrence Evans as the creepy old guy. The plot is stupid and has far too many holes to be taken seriously, add the token slasher movie characters and what you are left with is a mushy mess of pumpkin guts with no real soul... Although many of the gore scenes are decent, several others are too amateurish to be taken any other way but laughable. The females are quite beautiful but unfortunately cannot act, or at least cannot deliver this ridiculous dialog with any real effect. I've certainly seen much worse but there are multitudes of better no- budget indie slasher flicks out there. Good for a free rental pick when you've seen all the other bottom shelf slasher films at least twice.

The Pumpkin Carver is yet another one of the recent attempts to apply the tried and true slasher formula. And as so many do, this movie fails to deliver. The plot is plain stupid as are most of the stock characters. You have the fragile hero (whiney is more like it), the drugged out party dudes (annoying as hell), and the token asshole jock type. These are the party-people, and yes, they are destined to get killed.

The movie would have us believe that some evil pumpkin carver is killing kids at a Halloween party.....in a pumpkin patch! Actually, the movie can't find a plausible reason why this thing is killing kids. The premise is very confused and ultimately hurts the movie. The ending is plain awful....I still don't know what really happened.

The kills were low budget all the way, which is unfortunate given the polished look of the film in general. Really not an ounce of clever to be found here. And as one reviewer has pointed out, no nudity despite saying otherwise on the box.

One bright spot was Minka Kelly, a pouty lipped poor man's Jessica Alba. She was stunning and I anticipate seeing a lot more of her. Overall, I say avoid the Pumpkin Carver.