Le Masque d'Halloween

I always like an Halloween themed movie. I am always on the lookout for them. Despite being 18 years old, i had never heard of this one until a few years ago wich i stumble across it randomly on some "website" if you know what i mean. I had it in my Halloween season backlog for a few years and finally decided to have a go.

Lets start by the good. The movie happen all on Halloween and does feature several carved pumpkins. Costumes are rather lame but at least peoples are costumed. The actresses are for the most part fairly attractives. Yup... think it sum it up.

Sure this movie is very low budget but there is no excuse for the mess that it is. First of all there is so much time spent with characters dialogues that could had gone to stalking or killing. The movies has a ton of characters and just forget about some of them. As in litterally they don't even die or participate in the "horror parts".

Speaking of characters, this movie has some of the worst ones i seen in a long time. Loud, obnoxious, annoying to an insane degree, especially the 2 in the white robes, you wish they would be written off as early as possible.

Amy Weber plays one of the few decent character. I remember her from WWE Diva Search and i know she done a few movies but i am not familiar with them. Minka Kelly altough never getting an A status achieved some popularity over the years and was the other character i cared for. The rest were absolutely horribles.

They try to establish some kind of romance between the main male character and Minka's (Tammy if i recall correctly) but it feel so off, as in why would she care about this weirdo? You never feel a reason why she would be attracted to him.

The movie goes the mystery masked man route and have us playing the guessing game, but the payoff was not satisfactory at all.

The kills themselves were for the most part started on-screen but finished off-screen, probably for budget restrain. There is a few post-mortem gore but its not enough to justify enduring the rest.

Overall this is a VERY mediocre movie. I juggled between a 3 and a 4, but ultimately this is not "slightly below average". Its worst. Im sure i will rate other movies a 4 that i will have enjoy way better.

Its possible to make a good horror movie on a tight budget (first Terrifier comes to mind). And if i would judge only the kills and horror i wouldn't be so harsh. But there is no excuse for these terrible obnoxious characters and for not showcasing more kills/horror/stalking instead of lame dialogues and juvenile terrible "jokes". And the general plot is nothing special or original.

So yeah 3 out of 10... can't go higher.

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.

This was not a bad movie. Some of it was predictable but so what. I liked the idea and for Halloween it's a good offer. Teen slashers are always produced with the same thought. Good looking young actors, girls in skimpy outfits, screaming, and blood and guts. This one doesn't let you down. However, there were some victims I could hardly wait for their demise, they were that annoying. Won't go into the story as that has been reviewed enough. I did like the old man who was stalking and making himself menacing. I also liked Michael Zara. Sort of reminded me of the guy who plays superman on TV. He had a hard part to play and did a fairly good job. Plus he's a good looker on top. The sister annoyed me. Also the girl friend who screams very well. And that's about it. I give it a 2 for the old man and Zara.

In the Halloween in West Minister, the teenager Lynn Starks (Amy Weber) is attacked by a man wearing a pumpkin face mask in the basement of her house. Her younger brother Jonathan Starks (Michael Zara) is carving a pumpkin in his room and hears her sister crying for help. He uses the knife to protect his sister, stabbing the assaulter. When they take the mask off his face, they realize that the man is Lynn's boyfriend Alec (David J. Wright) playing a prank on Lynn.

One year later, the siblings are living in Carver, and they are invited to a Halloween party in the field. Lynn introduces her friend Tammy (Minka Kelly) to her brother, who is haunted by Alec, and Jonathan stays with Tammy. However, her former boyfriend Lance (David Austin) bullies Jonathan along the night. Meanwhile several youngsters are attacked by the Pumpkin Face that carves their faces.

"The Pumpkin Karver" is a film with terrible story, characters, direction and acting. The plot is unoriginal and full of clichés; there are several slashers very similar to "The Pumpkin Karver", but the conclusion is awful. The characters are stupid and non-charismatic and the two guys dressed in white are annoying and unbearable. The direction and the acting are bad, and Michael Zara is very weak in the lead role. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Pumpkin Karver, a Nova Face do Terror" ("Pumpkin Karver, the New Face of Terror")

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.