Director: Ryan McGonagle
Starring: Ellie Patrikios, Grayson Thorne Kilpatrick, Dogan Eyeler
Year: 2018
For a low-budget horror film that looked like it was filmed by the kids from Stranger Things, Black Pumpkin isn’t half bad. It’s got some scares, some bizarre occurrences, it’s a little fun, and then it ends and you’re like OK, I watched that, the world moves on. But, for anything else, for a real film or real horror genre or real frights, it’s a pretty ridiculous montage of silliness that ends and you’re like OK, glad that’s over.
Elliott and Pork Chop are two best friends who love making movies, and are enamored by the spooky stories told about their town. Elliott’s sister is just trying to get laid and live a normal teenage life, made more difficult by her vapid friends and a pair of hooligan brothers who make her brother’s life a living hell. Speaking of, a tortured spirit arises from beneath to torture them all, especially as Halloween approaches, and its powers come to full realization.
This is an amateur, low-budget, forgettable genre flick, with only a few admirable qualities among what is mostly a less than stellar time. The actors are bad, the story is bad, the quality is bad; really, I don’t know why I’m trying to defend it, it’s an all-around very-bad movie. It gets you a few times though; it’s a little fun, a little spooky, a little funny, a little button-pushing , a little entertaining. But all those littles only add up to so much; mostly it’s a movie that you could have made and probably shouldn’t have.
My rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆