Change Your Image
wifelikepigeon
Reviews
Voorhees Night of the Beast (2021)
Micro Indie Gold
Seriously, the best thing that may have happened to the Friday the 13th franchise, was the lawsuit. The fans have really stepped up to the plate, to deliver some fun franchise entries, and Night of the Beast is no exception.
The movie looks fantastic for micro budget, it actually looks pretty damm good for a movie in general. The kills are fun and gory, Jason Stokes kills it as the man behind the mask... and its got frickin Bigfoot. Its free on YouTube, so give it a watch.
The Spooky Pumpkin (2020)
hard to review, but definitely worth a watch.
Spoilers ahead.
What does one say about a movie like the spooky pumpkin? For starters, I was able to watch the whole thing. The biggest reason for this, is that the movie does have that particular charm that, certain low budget affairs have, in that you can tell that it was made by people who were having fun doing what they were doing. Thats the first step to making something watchable, especially when you're dealing with a film shot with a non budget, and though I'm sure The Spooky Pumpkin definitely cost some money to make, (you need to buy gas to drive cars) I'd fare that the budget for this movie was comparable to a moderately priced night out on the town.
The plot of the movie, is standard horror fare, with a couple of nods to other horror films thrown in for good measure. Four friends go off for a weekend excursion, in one of their parents cabins, one finds a book about the Spooky Pumpkin, the book gets read aloud, and... something happens? I'm still not 100% sure if our main protagonist was unstable, or possessed by an actual spooky pumpkin. The film runs it's course of a brisk runtime just south of an hour including credits. It doesn't overstay its welcome, though its greatest flaw is that it could have been just a few minutes longer to flesh out the plot just a squeak more. Granted you're not watching a movie like The Spooky Pumpkin for its plot.... youre watching it for Timothy, who is entirely unnecessary to the story, but so hilarious that it'd be a crime to remove him from it.
You won't find anything new in the spooky pumpkin, other than some very odd yet surprisingly funny choices in comedy (handshake scene, pumpkin in the shower prank, and the whole character of Timothy are gold) these feel like they come way out of left field in a movie that is having a difficult time in finding its tone. Sorta just flailing around in the air and somehow managing to still stick the landing. This is the best way I can describe the spooky pumpkin. The movie shouldn't work. The plot is predictable, the characters are two dimensional (except for the mystery, wrapped in a riddle that is Timothy) and the ending can be figured out about 15 mins into the film, but dammit if I didn't have a blast watching it.
The movie harkens back to the time of "Splatter University", "Dead Dudes in the House", or Rabid Grannies". It feels like a Troma film, without the explicit gore. Some would argue that Troma movies don't work without their explecitive nature, but Spooky Pumpkin proves them wrong. The things I mentioned regarding the plot and characters aren't a hindrance on a film like Spooky pumpkin, they're things that help excel it into that special nuance of horror where drinking games and MST3K episodes are created. I can fully admit that the Spooky Pumpkin is a bad movie, but its a great kind of bad. The kind of bad that in my opinion is, a greater accomplishment than making a competent horror movie. This movie is a rare beast in the horror genre, its a genuinely fun bad film, made by people who appear to just want to have a fun time together. I hold this movie in higher regards than all the Sharknados, or the Anacondas vs. Lake Placids out there. Those movies have no soul. This is a cheese fest with heart and soul put into it.
This movie is impossible to rate, because as a movie it has too many limitations put against it to be anything but a sub par affair, but by God it goes above just simple critiques, in that it has, in my opinion, achieved the nuance of such high class trash as "Hillbilly Rednecks", and "Beware, Children at Play". Anyone who watches this movie needs to be with friends. You need to laugh with it, have fun with it, turn it into a drinking game. You guys need to be proud of what you made, few people out there create this special type of camp. Its not something you can learn, it's just something you have. The Spooky Pumpkin has it.
Sincerely: Some guy on the internet.