Black Pumpkin

Well, first of all I must say that I found the movie's cover to be interesting and somewhat offbeat and funny, and that was initially what lured me in to watch this 2018 movie from writer and director Ryan McGonagle.

Granted, I had never even heard about this 2018 movie prior to sitting down to watch it late in 2020, so I wasn't really sure what I was in for, nor what I should expect from the movie. So in that aspect, director Ryan McGonagle had every opportunity to impress and entertainment.

But that he failed to do.

"Black Pumpkin" was driven by a rather slow and rather pointless storyline; one that had mundane characters and offered nothing enjoyable to me. And I must admit that I didn't even finish the movie, as there was just simply nothing entertaining enough here to keep me interested in watching.

The characters in "Black Pumpkin" were flaccid and one-dimensional, and the actors and actresses were clearly struggling with a lack of proper script and dialogue, which ultimately reflected poorly on the movie as a whole.

While "Black Pumpkin" is not among the worst of horror movies that I have seen, it is surely not a noteworthy movie, nor is it a movie that I would recommend you spend your time, money or effort on. For a horror movie, "Black Pumpkin" just failed to deliver and impress.

My rating of "Black Pumpkin" shows a generous three out of ten once the innards of the pumpkin have been carved out and peeled away.

And that's about the best thing about the movie. That little tidbit of advice. Not really a good story. Not any good dialogue but that last line. Was pretty boring and uninteresting. Easily a pass. 3/10.

Well, I tried but I know from past experiences with the filming and the cheesy background music this was most likely a dud. And it was, at least what I made myself sit through. Okay, I know I didn't see it to the end but for what? I can tell a badly made flick from a good one. This one wasn't even worth the effort to watch part of it IMO. Some may like it or find it entertaining. I did not. Honestly, wth is this supposed to be? Some 80's type style? Either way....no thanks.

Take it for what it is: a low-budget Halloween-style horror movie. With an unevent script, too many loose ends, story lines that lead nowhere, and dialogue that much of the time does little to help the actors.

But you know what? I give it a lot of points for making the best of its budget, for the obvious love of the genre and the 80s' horror,. And for Pork Chop who is definitely an 80s throwback and does some pretty good acting as well.

It won't win any Oscars, but I enjoyed watching it for what it is, not for what it isn't. And for that, it is above average.

I don't know if I was looking too hard for references to 80s horror, but I found quite a few. I just hope they were intentional and not me reading too much into it.

This film begins with a man watching television at night when he hears a knock on the door. Upon opening it he finds a black jack-o-lantern on his porch and nobody else around. Since its Halloween he simply discards it as a prank. Minutes later he is stabbed in the head with an ice pick. Not only that, but when his daughter returns from work that night she is also killed by a shotgun rigged to go off when she opens the door. Ten years later another family has moved in with a pre-teen by the name of "Elliott Peterson" (Dogen Eyeler) and his best friend "Pork Chop" (Grayson Thorne Kilpatrick) doing some research for a school project about a supposedly haunted area near their town known as Diablo's Den. They are then warned by a man named "Alex Griffin" (Curt Clendenin) about a mysterious creature known as "Bloody Bobby" (Jo Osmond) who comes from out of nowhere and murders everyone he targets. Unfortunately, the warning comes too late as Bloody Bobby already has his sights set on certain victims. Now rather than reveal any more I kept wondering who specifically this film had as its intended audience. On the one hand it seemed geared toward a younger crowd but if so then some of the more violent scenes went a little too far. On the other hand, if it was geared toward an adult audience some of the scenes of a sexual nature were quite tame and rather uninteresting. That being said, I liked the manner in which the director (Ryan McGonagle) used suspense to sharpen the horror aspect from time to time. I also liked the addition of Ellie Patrikios (as "Laurie Peterson") who enhanced every scene she was in with her sexy demeanor. On the flip side, however, this film was plagued by slow parts and the lack of a consistent theme hampered the overall effect to a great degree. Perhaps if it had been less inconsistent I would have rated it higher.