Carved - La zucca assassina

Seeing something like this makes your expectations hit zero. I just wanted a dumb fun horror flick for the evening and I kind of got that actually. There is a lot to be desired in terms of it being a good movie and I actually think it goes down 2 bad rabbits holes for itself but this is a kill count movie, it´s all about killing and that's it. Also seeing this is based on a short, it would probably work better if it stayed that way.

A chemical spill hits a pumpkin field and a killer pumpkin awakes seeing how we treat pumpkins around Halloween.

One of the big mistakes this movie makes it making me hate the main characters later and actually gain too much sympathy for the monster. I understand the desire to want to create a more complex creature but I turn into team pumpkin late into the movie with our main characters turning sadist in the worst way possible. I am supposed to be on the humans side, why are you making me hate them? I don´t know if it was intentional or not which is also a problem. Either the creator is more heartless than me or I was supposed to hate the humans all along.

I liked the overall idea and concept. It´s fun and having g a killer pumpkin feels different and it´s motivation makes sense to me. Overall a fun designed well-made creature from a movie like this!

The effects however are a bit off. Clearly the greenscreen and effects team didn´t have that much to work with and the sparingly looks at the monster makes sense and makes you reminisce of older monster movies where you would built up the reveal of the killer. Here it´s more of a limitation issue and it shows.

The movie can feel a bit Kiddish. A bit low brow, overexplaining elements, having romance for no reason having over acting characters. It´s clearly a Stranger Things(2026-now) vibe to it for better and worst. This is a horror comedy according to the cover so I guess the more loss tone fits. The comedy isn´t that good though.

This movie has too many characters for what it is. Everyone seem to have quirk and be important but the movie has no time to set them up enough for us to care that much. It even dares to try to have great emotional beats and plotlines with surface levelled characters and that is the second great flaw the movie has.

Is this a good movie? Not really but it was fun enough and the overall concept and idea I was a fan of. I think it deserved to be remade a bit better since I liked the concept that much, but the lack of character in a movie that wants it and the cowards way of calling your movie horror comedy because some things didn´t land that well makes the movie fall into the worse category.

Carved is an ultra cheesy attempt to exploit our love for any type of holiday related horror.

But it's kind of mid.

It has it's moments.

And a certain charm.

With filmmaker Justin Harding at least taking a stab at making a cool monster, using traditional effects (though CGI is used at parts).

It's got some good laughs.

And a few instances of sweet gore.

But you can tell it's been tailored toward teenagers, with it's childish humour.

The crux of the plot revolves around a chemical spill in a small town, that has saturated the local farmland, and caused pumpkins to mutate into sentient, spider-like beasts.

Though, they aren't exactly malevolent creatures, per se.

Just loving parents that will resort to murder when they feel their family and friends are threatened.

They say two wrongs don't make a right.

But here, it seems one massacre makes up for another.

In the end, it's entertaining enough to keep you engaged.

Just not in a way that is particularly memorable.

4 out of 10.

A group of people find themselves trapped at the Cedar Park historical reenactment village on Halloween after a mutant pumpkin springs to life and goes on a bloody rampage.

Had I noticed that D. J. Qualls was in Carved, I might have passed on it, but I'm glad I didn't: after a rather bumpy start, the film eventually kicks into gear when the killer squash goes on the hunt, making people pay for taking a knife to its fellow pumpkins - and the rest of the film is a delightfully daft and surprisingly gory treat. Hell, there's even a reasonable amount of tension as the handful of survivors put into action an ingenious plan involving walkie talkies.

The acting is passable for this kind of nonsense (even Qualls), writer director Justin Harding injects just the right amount of humour, and the special effects - a mix of CGI and practical - are fairly impressive, the pumpkin scuttling along on its tendrils, which it also uses to impale and dismember its victims.

I rate Carved 6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Dont recommend. Skip this, do michael myers stuff, this is not a silly haha but kind of a off brand horror halloween night and meaningless killing. I wasnt attached to anyone, they gave us 15 mins of etting to know people then them being chased for the rest with everyone being weak, a druggy corn seller guy with a weak brain. A main character cool girl with her little brother. Kind of gross tentacles from the pumpkin in moments.. This would be fine as a backround movie, and maybe that is why it still has a slightly slow pace feeling. Interesting villain not sure how you would get a strong tentacle monster, other than how they attempted.

I love all types of horror movies, scary movies, monster movies, thrillers, etc. I even love and appreciate low budget and campy attempts. I appreciate them bc you can tell the work, thought and love they put into it.. None of that for this. It was a mess. Bad writing. Horrible premise and story line.. and a big thing here: if you can't find a decent kid actor to play the big role in the film, than cut the damn role!! I'm really sorry, but I hope he stays in school. I can't believe that no one on crew or set mentioned that they should make a change. And he shouldn't feel too bad bc the rest of the cast was weak. Especially the one who played the older sister and the boyfriend. Just a real #%*! Cake.

I would have given 0-1 but there were some great slasher kills in this flick. Not all kills were great, or even good. But there is a stretch in the act that has some good kill.

Do yourself a favor and find something else. I watched it so you don't have to.