This is an updated version of a review that was originally published in Bleeding Skull! A 1990s Trash-Horror Odyssey.
I know a lot of nursery rhymes. Like that one about eating curds and whey. Or the one about jumping over a candlestick. Or that one about fetching pails of water. But somehow, I don’t know this one:
Pumpkin Man will steal your soul, Snap it up, and swallow it whole, Just as quick before you die, The Pumpkin Man will steal your eyes!
It’s ghastly! It’s macabre! It’s even darker than “Ring Around the Rosie,” which is about the Great Plague. It’s a shame that no one writes rhymes about the Great Plague these days; they don’t even write about the not-so-great plagues.
The year is 1914. A wizard has put a curse on the town and summoned a demon that is terrorizing the townsfolk. This servant of hell has a pumpkin for a head and the body of a scarecrow. It has long, gnarled claws. A man named Arthur Kelly manages to capture the demon and send it back to hell.
But guess what? Jack’s back!
The year is 1995. It’s Halloween. Descendants of Arthur Kelly live in a quiet suburb in Florida. A young boy named Sean has haunting nightmares of a shrouded wizard and a demon with a pumpkin head. I think you know where this is going, and where it’s going is glorious.
Pumpkin Head wanders around the neighborhood with his scythe. He looms. He wanders. He hacks people up. Now a witch arrives into town. She’s less of a witch and more of a lady wearing a purple shirt. Vivian befriends the Kelly family and explains that the fifth descendant of Arthur Kelly is the only one who can stop the demon. The fifth descendant is young Sean.
Jack-O is a campfire tale brought to life. Like the best scary stories of childhood, the film is less about violence and more about suggestion and mood. Sure, there are gushing wounds and a severed head, but the gore isn’t graphic or over-the-top. You don’t watch this for the splatter. You watch it for Pumpkin Head chasing down some beer-guzzling teens in an old graveyard. You watch it for Pumpkin Head cross-checking a cool dude on a motorcycle. You watch it because the film takes place on a night just like tonight. You may watch it for the cameos: John Carradine, Cameron Mitchell, Brinke Stevens. You may also watch it for Linnea Quigley and her requisite shower scene. But for the most part, you watch it for the rolling fog, crunching leaves underfoot, shifting shadows, and death by electrocution. And of course, you watch it for Pumpkin Head, who is definitely not actually the real Pumpkinhead from 1988, but you don’t care. It’s a scarecrow with a pumpkin on its head. Don’t overthink it.
Jack-O is a professional mid-fi production where the filmmakers show skill in photography, lighting, editing, and all the technical aspects of creating a movie. The camera moves, there are multiple angles, and the edits are thoughtful enough where you don’t notice them. Like Mr. Ice Cream Man, Jack-O feels like an after-school special at times, mostly because children drive the script. While the movie’s not completely G-rated, it does feel wholesome. There are discussions about stranger danger, kids who TP a house, and a neighborhood spook house where the $1.50 entrance fee goes to help the homeless.
The most shocking scene might be when a lady makes toast and then cuts it up into little strips to eat. If you are a grown-ass adult who eats toast like that, come over here so I can slap you.
