Hack-O-Lantern

My review was written in October 1989 after watching the film on Legacy Entertainment video cassette.

The direct-to-video horror pic "Hack-O-Lantern" is a nicely done, clearly minor Halloween-themed shock film.

Tale of Satanism figures upon eccentric grandpa (Hy Pyke), a creepy fellow (there is frequent reference to his incestuous urges onward daughter Katina Ganer) who has grandson Tommy (Gregory Scott Cummins) under his control.

In a prolog, Grandpa kills his son-in-law when latter stumbles upon a satanic mass in progress on All Hallows' Eve. Some 13 year later, it's Halloween again and Grandpa is planning to initiate Tommy as a devil worshiper. Plot twist hinges on which offspring eventually will take control over the black sheep roel (it's fairly predictable).

Film respects the tenets of the supernatural genre while providing plenty of sexploitation footage for video fans. Cast is well-chosen, particularly the elder heroine Garner who manages to combine sexiness and plainness in a role that ages gracefully.f.

This is the best cheezy 80's horror film ever made. Jag mundrah is a directing prodigy, HY Pyke is a hollywood A-lister, and gregory scott cummins has a creepy, unusaully thick mid-section. tommy drindle has one line in this movie that is very oscar worthy, when he grabs veras boyfriend, Brian and says "NEXT TIME YOU'RE DEAD!!!" And you cant forget about Roger Drindle and his ridiculous comic relief that is not even funny.My favorite line from Grandpa is "Tommy was never yaws, he belongs to sumthin' greater than you could ever imagine." And what about D.C. lacroix, that stupid cliche' metal band with the hit single "Devil's Son." Also Tommys fat pig disgusting girlfriend, Norah Bennington, I loved it when she got the pitchfork in her fat, new-wave hairdo.Does anyone remember the party comedian that looks just like Howie Mandel, man I bet that scene jump-started his Hollywood career. I have a question for anyone, is there really a pop-punk-new-wave band called the Mercanaries?

The particular copy of this movie that I saw was under the moniker "Hack-O-Lantern". In terms of pure gore, the movie didn't exactly live up to the name. It was, however, charming in a typically 80's horror fashion, i.e., just about every chick in the movie gets naked. The plot is nothing new, but it is rendered fairly well. In one particular scene, the movieturns into a music video by the heavy metal band D.C. La Croix. If you like old-school metal like Wasp and Venom you will like the song they have in the movie.

Bottom line, the movie needs more gore and a higher body count.

Jag Mundhra's second stab at the slasher film (after 1987's snooze OPEN HOUSE) isn't an '80s Halloween-season classic like TRICK OR TREAT or NIGHT OF THE DEMONS, but schlocky horror fans will probably have a good time with it.

Hy Pyke (what a name!) is delightfully over-the-top as the grandfather (who is described as 'kindly' in the IMDb summary, but you're never given the impression he's anything but a scumbag) hell-bent on getting his eldest grandson to devote himself to his Satanic cult, a lame-o group that flash gang signs to each other and wear flannels under their devil robes. Meanwhile, someone in the cult is randomly killing people, and it's up to the other grandson, a boyishly handsome cop, to figure out what the hell is going on.

It's gorier than a lot of the slashers from this time period (though the body count is low), and just about every female cast member gets naked at some point (except, bafflingly, the most attractive one). Most of the leads have fun with their silly roles. It feels super padded, even at 90 minutes, what with random five-minute glam metal dream sequences and a head-scratching, unfunny stand-up comedy routine that grinds all the Satanic action to a halt.

Watchable for sure, whether or not it's worth watching could go either way. Don't spend too long tracking it down, but you could watch way worse.

There are a few positives to this film when the budget is taken into account. However budget doesn't have to effect writing and that is generally terrible, both in the dialogue and the twists that make things unnecessarily complicated.

Don't get me wrong, a good twist can make a movie, but these were clearly all done just for the sake of it and make little to no sense. When they come they go against a lot of pre-established character traits and defy human logical actions.

Overall there is more depth to this low budget horror than most, but the twists throw a lot of that good will out the window. On the plus side you could say at a reach that this movie may have inspired Hereditary, although that's pretty unlikely.