{"id":50182,"date":"2025-10-18T15:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T19:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=50182"},"modified":"2025-10-18T00:23:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T04:23:25","slug":"r-l-stines-pumpkinhead-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/18\/r-l-stines-pumpkinhead-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead [2025] [Halloween Horror Month 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A boy stumbles upon a folk horror secret in his new town in R. L. Stine\u2019s Pumpkinhead, written and directed by Jem Garrard, and premiering on Tubi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To cut the gourd off at the stem: there is zero relation to Stan Winston\u2019s beloved 1988 film Pumpkinhead, starring Lance Henrikson, or its three sequels. This is not a remake; it just uses the same name. Also to note, Stine neither wrote nor directed this film. Jem Garrard, who has made a series of solid horror films for Tubi,\u00a0 is credited with both.\u00a0 It is based on a story in the 1990 Nightmare Hour anthology, and was previously adapted in a 2011 TV episode of The Haunting Hour.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A new family, recovering from a tragedy, moves to a small, peaceful farming community. One where everyone is toooooooo friendly and smiles. One that soon reveals a secret (dum dum dum!). After a ritual-filled harvest festival, Sam\u2019s big brother vanishes, with only neighbor Bekka remembering. The search for answers leads to the awakening of a monster to stop them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tubi original is a solid enough family, gateway horror film from a beloved gateway, and just above, horror author. Pumpkinhead might not wow any jaded horror fan, but it\u2019s good enough to be palatable to present to parental horror fans\u2019 littles. We all have those formative experiences with made-for-TV-horror-movies, whether it be the nastier 70s\/80s network fare like Dark Night of the Scarecrow and Don\u2019t Be Afraid of the Dark, or lighter Disney Channel fare like Halloweentown or Mr. Boogety (not a dig, fun stuff!). Perhaps in the middle, like TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark (my own in), or Stine\u2019s Goosebumps adaptation (which received one surprisingly good and one meh theatrical release over the last decade and some).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>That\u2019s how I approached Pumpkinhead: a well-meaning, well-trod family horror feature with enough oomph and edge to sit for fans of all ages. Yes, it\u2019s trope-y as hell. But, be honest, that\u2019s Stine\u2019s bread and butter. Whether it be the countless Goosebumps, Fear Street, and other horror novels he\u2019s written (how he works so fast, I don\u2019t know. There are whispers there may be ghostwriters along the way, but that\u2019s neither here nor there), he lives in exploring the tropes. Stine revels in the overall genre understanding of youngins who might not be as steeped in it. Acceptable, fun, and sometimes surprising uses of what a young reader might take as the genre, especially in using same-age protagonists to be audience insert and experience the genre from a safe level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For what it is, it works. It doesn\u2019t try to be more than it is. And it\u2019s self-aware of itself (especially in Matty Finochio\u2019s exposition hermit in the woods type, along with some fun references along the way). The plot is compelling. The characters are simple but fun. There\u2019s a folk horror through line for Pumpkinhead that I highly appreciated. Based around a town\u2019s devotion to the harvest festival, praying to what might seem like the standard god, but hints at more (keeping safe), it\u2019s clear with motions of sacrifice and ritual, there is more than a little Wicker Man. No, the new kid isn\u2019t burned alive in a giant pumpkin person, but wouldn\u2019t that be wild? The scare sequences are tamped down, but I can see effectiveness for the littles. The monster design is a little basic, but I get less detail to be more welcoming for all audiences; very much \u201cman in suit.\u201d But the physical performance by Troy James is top-notch!\u00a0 Kudos to Garrad for finding that right level across the board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This being a kids\u2019 movie, the leads are children. Bean Read plays the emotionally recovering, sullen but with a spark, Sam. His partner-in-crime, Adeline Lo, is solid. Both slide into a fun, gee-whiz live-action Disney TV movie without overplaying. Both are trying for sure. The adults all know the assignment. The previously mentioned Matty Fionchio (coming off of Shudder\u2019s excellent Night of the Reaper) doesn’t play too winky for a character who knows how plots work. Kevin McNulty as villainous Mr. Palmer avoids sliding over the top, teasing just a little.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tubi\u2019s Jem Garrard\u2019s R. L. Stine\u2019s Pumpkinhead (multiple possessives on purpose, heh) is a fun gateway horror, perfect for families in the horror season. Garrard balances the horror levels for their audience, but still keeps entertaining enough for the horror parents watching with their monster kids.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A boy stumbles upon a folk horror secret in his new town in R. L. Stine\u2019s Pumpkinhead, written and directed by Jem Garrard, and premiering on Tubi.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[477],"class_list":["post-50182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50186,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50182\/revisions\/50186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}