Carved

Look, this is a great throwback to camp. I think people were expecting some deep, thought provoking dialogue, based on the reviews. What this is, is a homage to some the the best worst horror movies. Think, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The Blob, CHUD! I went into this figuring it would be a "B Movie", and it did NOT disappoint. Everyone thinks they're a critica. This movie isn't for everyone, especially if you take yourself way too serious and lack imagination or wonder. If you want some good, old fashioned B cinema, this will satisfy your cravings. If not, try something like Evil Dead.

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.

I'll preface this by saying floral apocalypse fiction is my favourite science fiction, and comedy horror is a favourite genre of mine.

I adored this movie, there were obvious themes of anthropogenic environmental devastation, which was definitely blooming by the early 90s. We were left wondering who the real villain was after all, a killer pumpkin, or a species whose every holiday revolves around killing plants or animals (Halloween: pumpkins, Christmas: pine trees, Thanksgiving: turkeys). We are a species who cannot subsist without killing, and this movie was a fun and delightfully gruesome commentary on that.

Characters were developed as thoroughly as a 1.5hr movie had time for. A few fresh takes on the interactions between main characters.

Really enjoyable comedy horror 😊

Is this great? No.

Is it worth the low rating it has? Also, no!

The humor is ok, nothing great. There are a few times a chuckled a little, but nothing noteworthy. The special effects are ok for what this movie is. Cmon it was made for hulu, it isn't going to be an A24 movie. It is a decently fun popcorn creature feature with slasher elements.

The cast is decent, it was nice seeing DJ Qualls again, and he puts in a solid performance. I didn't much care for the main girl, but it is what it is. It has some fun kills and at the end of the day it is a movie about a killer pumpkin. What were you expecting?!

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.