6 Smashing Pumpkin Horror Movies Ranked
For Gourd’s Sake, it’s a pumpkin palooza!
Pumpkins are among the top symbols of the fall season, and nothing is more closely associated with Halloween than jack-o-lanterns. Despite this, few Autumn horror movies feature these quirky orange fruits as integral parts of their plots. Pumpkin horror movies are a small niche.
Only one, Pumpkinhead, is well known (unless you count Sleepy Hollow as pumpkin horror, which I don’t). Besides Pumpkinhead, are there any horror movies about pumpkins that are worth watching? Let’s carve out some time and take a look!
Here are six smashing pumpkin horror movies ranked. Some are worth sinking your knife into, but others should be left to wither on the vine.
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6. all hallows’ eve 2 (2015)
A young woman opens her front door and discovers someone has left her a mysterious VHS cassette. She plays the tape, which contains segments with various horror storylines.
This is a sequel in name only to All Hallows’ Eve (2013), which is known for featuring the first appearance of Art the Clown from the Terrifier series. Unfortunately, part 2 doesn’t have Art. The villain is a bland maniac in a cheap jack-o-lantern mask.
There’s no sugarcoating it – All Hallows’ Eve 2 is terrible. The stories are half baked and the acting is atrocious. It’s also shockingly tame compared to the disturbing brutality and gore of the original. The first All Hallows’ Eve is no masterpiece, but it is vastly superior to this movie in every way.
Part 2’s extremely cheap effects are unintentionally funny. They eliminate what little chance this movie had of providing any chills. This is definitely one of the pumpkin horror movies to avoid this spooky season.
Where to Watch:
5. jack-o (1995)
A group of teenagers accidentally resurrect Jack-O, a demon with a pumpkin head. The monster slashes his way through a small rural town in search of revenge for his creator’s demise generations earlier.
This movie should have been fun, but it’s a mess. The acting is awful and the production values are nonexistent. Jack-O is too cheap-looking to be scary and he has no personality.
The kills are anticlimactic and repetitive. Jack-O uses a scythe to slash everybody. There’s a bizarre sequence where a woman accidentally electrocutes herself with a toaster, but that’s the extent of this movie’s originality.
This is a cheap ripoff of Pumpkinhead. Jack-O is similar to other low budget ’90s slasher movies like Jack Frost and Uncle Sam, but it’s even worse than its counterparts.
At least it has Linnea Quigley in it. She’s always fun, even in the worst movies. That’s why I’m ranking this higher than All Hallows’ Eve 2.
Where to Watch:
4. black pumpkin (2018)
Two young boys named Elliot (Dogen Eyeler) and Pork Chop (Grayson Kilpatrick) accidentally resurrect the evil spirit of a kid who disappeared on Halloween back in 1988. Meanwhile, Elliot’s pretty older sister Laurie (Ellie Patrikios) is planning a rowdy Halloween party with her friends.
Her evening is disrupted by the murderous Bloody Bobby, a tiny demon similar to Sam in Trick ‘r Treat. Bobby, who wears a jack-o-lantern mask, is all tricks and no treats. He likes to leave black pumpkins on the porches of his victims.
I’m reaching deep into the pumpkin patch for this one. This is the most obscure movie on this list. It’s part of a little-known series created by Ryan McGonagle.
Black Pumpkin is surprisingly gourd (sorry, I just can’t resist the puns). Unlike the previous two pumpkin horror movies we’ve covered, it has the sense to not to take itself too seriously.
The humor in this satirical slasher is very hit and miss, but the characters are fun. The high school students are played by actors who are blatantly too old for their roles. Patrikios is beautiful, but she looks like someone approaching their tenth anniversary reunion, not a current student. The actress who plays her mom appears to be about as old as her.
The age discrepancy is so blatant that it must be a humorous reference to the late twenties/early thirties actors who often played teenagers in ’80s slasher movies. This movie features lots of allusions to famous horror films, including the original Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream.
Black Pumpkin has good humor, decent acting, and a fun soundtrack. It pairs well with the next movie in this list.
Where to Watch:
3. carved (2024)
It’s Halloween 1993 in a rural Maine village. The townsfolk are getting ready for their annual celebration.
Teenage orphaned playwright Kira (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is pissed off because her boyfriend Cody (Corey Fogelmanis) is leaving for New York City. She is the sole caretaker of her kid brother Trevor (Wyatt Lindner), who is obsessed with her friend Maddie (Sasha Mason).
As if she didn’t already have enough to deal with, a giant sentient killer pumpkin is on the prowl. It apparently wants to avenge all the pumpkins that have met sordid fates at the hands of humans on Halloween.
Somebody’s getting carved up tonight, and it ain’t the pumpkin! Surprisingly, this is the only pumpkin horror movie in this list that features an actual pumpkin as the antagonist.
Carved is a knowingly dumb but entertaining movie made with enthusiasm, good humor, and a surprising amount of heart. It’s tonally similar to Black Pumpkin. In fact, watching these two as a double feature would be a fun Halloween season idea.
I’ve already written a full review of Carved, so I’m going to keep this short and move on to the next movie in the list.
Where to Watch:
2. cobweb (2023)
Peter (Woody Norman), a shy and lonely eight-year-old, lives an isolated existence with his creepy and abusive parents, who are played by Antony Starr and Lizzy Caplan. He begins to hear the mysterious voice of a young girl. She talks to him through his bedroom wall. His new friend gives him advice about how to deal with bullies at school and other topics.
As their rapport grows, the girl reveals a shocking secret about Peter’s parents. Can Peter trust this mysterious unseen child? Who the hell is she, anyway? Miss Devine (Cleopatra Coleman), a substitute teacher, takes an interest in Peter and tries to help him.
This movie is an allegory for the generational trauma caused by child abuse. That’s how I interpret it, anyway.
Cobweb is an anomaly in this list. It doesn’t feature an evil pumpkin, or a killer in a jack-o-lantern mask, but it does have a pumpkin patch that hides buried secrets.
In fact, director Samuel Boldin seems downright obsessed with everybody’s favorite fall fruit. This movie is teeming with pumpkin imagery. It probably has more pumpkins per minute than any film I’ve seen!
Cobweb has better acting and greater thematic depth than fellow pumpkin horror movies Carved and Black Pumpkin. That said, if I was ranking these movies solely in terms of pure entertainment value, I would have placed those two above it. Cobweb is creepy and intriguing, but it isn’t much fun.
Where to Watch:
1. Pumpkinhead (1988)
I thought about excluding Pumpkinhead because I’ve already covered it in my folk horror films and franchises ripe for resurrection lists. But I realized that not including it on a list of pumpkin horror movies would be unthinkable – the equivalent of not including Jaws in a shark movie list.
Shopkeeper Ed Harley (Lance Hendricksen) desires revenge against a group of teens who accidentally killed his young son. He requests help from a witch, who summons a giant murderous demon named Pumpkinhead. The monster slaughters the teens, but a now remorseful Harley tries to put a stop to the creature’s rampage.
Pumpkinhead features excellent creature design, a spooky atmosphere, and great work by the always dependable Lance Henriksen. It’s a pumpkin horror movie classic that every horror fan should watch at least once.
Where to Watch:
what does the future hold for pumpkin horror movies?
Well, the immediate future includes the new Tubi movie R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead. This film isn’t related to the Pumpkinhead series. It’s not part of the Goosebumps franchise, either, but appears to be targeting the same audience demographic.
If you have Tubi, and every horror fan should (it’s free, with ads), you can watch this movie when it premieres on October 17th.
Here’s the trailer:
