THE PUMPKIN KARVER

During the Halloween night, young Jonathan Starks accidentally kills his sister Lynn's boyfriend, who had sneaked into the house wearing a mask depicting the classic Halloween pumpkin for a prank. A year later, Jonathan and his sister are invited to a Halloween party in the countryside, but during the night, a killer wearing the same pumpkin mask from a year ago starts killing one by one all the party attendees. If, over thirty years later, films are still being produced in the vein of "Halloween – The Night of the Living Dead," this confirms the importance and strength of Carpenter's film, a true turning point in defining a genre (horror) and a subgenre (the slasher). Of course, this doesn't mean that the "derivatives" – often residuals – of "Halloween" are any good; in fact, often and willingly, especially many years after the original, late clones turn out to be very little and mostly fill the ranks of questionable direct-to-video releases that flood the market. One of the extreme cases is "The Pumpkin Karver," which, already from the prologue, proves to be a real plague for the brave viewer about to watch it. Written and directed by actor Robert Mann ("Trapped"), "The Pumpkin Karver" presents itself as a boring, irritating, predictable slasher of fourth order, incapable of creating the slightest tension, almost allergic to a credible narrative development and absolutely hostile to staging characters of any interest. The plots of slashers are always the same, okay, and with the exception of bizarre experiments like "The Man Behind the Mask," they are mostly stories centered on reckless youths massacred by a masked killer. Therefore, one should not expect novelties or inventions, just as it is obvious to find oneself facing characters who follow very precise stereotypes to end up progressively under the blade of the killer. But in "The Pumpkin Karver," they tend to overdo it, with a story that poorly imitates "Halloween – The Night of the Living Dead" in the introduction to then turn into trash of the type "Adam & Evil" or "The Graveyard" along the way. The characters then reach unimaginable levels of irritating idiocy. Brother and sister absent: he seems almost autistic but is not, she is the typical bimbo (among other things, she is named Amy Weber and in addition to being an actress in B-movies, she is a wrestling diva) without a shred of personality. But the maximum is reached by the supporting characters and in particular the two fools in robes, who do nothing but scream and say stupid things from start to finish... exiting the scene, alas, really too late. What is really serious for this type of film is the complete lack of tension, an element on which the director does not bet at all. The murders, which are moreover poorly executed and without imagination, have no choreographic construction and the body count occurs by inertia and in an anonymous manner. The guy is there walking, the killer appears and the guy dies: there is no suspense and not even the classic "bus." The killer is also rather questionable, with a forgettable mask that looks like those found in supermarkets during Carnival or Halloween periods and that will surely not fuel the imagination of any horror fan. Forget also the sexy scenes, which often adorn these films to rekindle the viewer's attention, despite the female cast being quite extensive and populated by beautiful presences. Note that the solution of the "mystery" is particularly predictable and the identity of the killer is identifiable with great ease, with an open ending that foreshadows a sequel that we hope will never come. In short, "The Pumpkin Karver" is really the worst of the worst, the dirtiest bottom of the barrel, the slasher you would never want to see, so sloppy, superficial, and poorly made. If you care about yourself, don't bother looking for it.