Jack-O (1995) User Reviews

Good dumb fun!

[capkronos · 4/10 · 29 January 2002]

I bought this out of curiosity. How did John Carradine (who died in 1988) and Cameron Mitchell (who died in 1994) make appearances in a film released in 1995? Thanks to the miracle of unused film can footage that's probably been sitting on a shelf somewhere for ten years, that's how! You can tell because the film stock used to shoot their scenes doesn't match the film used for shooting "Jack-O." The curse of Ed Wood lives on. The good thing for both Carradine and Mitchell is that this is exactly the kind of movie you'd expect to find on both of their filmographies. Same goes for Scream Queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Dawn Wildsmith.

The setting is Oakmoor Crossing on Halloween, and some kind of curse is released when dumb, beer-guzzling teens disrupt a grave. The result: a hulking killer with a scythe and a big plastic pumpkin on his head! He (it?) goes after the wholesome Kelly family for revenge (and kills others who get in his way). The father opens a Haunted Garage for the neighborhood kiddies. The son (Ryan Latshaw, son of the director) has one continuous, perplexed facial expression for all his scenes and one hilariously badly acted dramatic scene lying in a grave. At least he's a kid. The mother's eyes about pop out of her head while she strains to read her dialogue. There is also an annoying woman who shows up to explain things who seems to be trying to phonetically pronounce all of her dialogue.

So what about the name actors? You see Stevens, Wildsmith and Mitchell briefly on a TV screen (they're used to pad out the time). Linnea has a bigger role as a babysitter, and she does exactly what she can with it. Her enthusiastic performance helps a little bit. There's also one out-of-nowhere laugh when an ultra-conservative couple who watch a Rush Limbaugh clone on TV bite it. The woman slips on a rug and stabs a toaster with a knife. She's electrocuted and the end result looks like a flame-broiled Muppet.

All and all, pretty entertaining stuff! I wasn't bored!

Jack-O offers strange enjoyment

[Lukeydude-1 · 4/10 · 24 February 2005]

I bought Jack-O a number of months ago at a Blockbuster video sale, and at the time I wasn't expecting anything outstanding from it. Upon watching it, I realized I not only got less than I could have ever bargained for, but a whole lot more as well. It seems, strange, I know. And it is. But it's perfectly fitting when you consider that the utter weirdness that is "Jack-O"

The movie follows a young boy named Shawn Kelly. Somehow, thru ancestral ties, he is marked for death at the hands of a demented, scythe wielding Pumpkin man. This pumpkin man was killed by Shawn's Great-grandfather-uncle-cousin-etc, and now that the villain has been resurrected, Shawn's death is apparently crucial to his hell-bred mission of vengeance. Anyway, much "horror" ensues as Jack-O hacks his way thru various neighbors before battling Shawn to the finish.

I'm not so much here to discuss the plot as I am to determine who may find any worth in this movie. I can honestly tell you that Jack-O is one of the most poorly made movies in the history of time. The acting is deadpan (except when it should be), the script is apparently a 1st grade group project, and the production budget must not have exceeded $150. Some of the most laughable death scenes are carried out in this anti-thriller, and they're all the more humorous when you realize director Steve Latshaw actually seems serious in his movie-making.

And yet I heartily enjoyed the film. I can call it a terrible horror movie, yes. But I can also say I had a great time watching it with my friends, and have watched it several times since that fateful first viewing. Many people (including some of my friends) will find this movie intolerable and needlessly time-consuming, and that's understandable. If you're like me and enjoy ridiculously bad horror movies that take themselves seriously, you'll find Jack-O an instant classic, which is also understandable.

That's why it's so hard to rate this movie. If I were rating Jack-O's quality as a film, I wouldn't give it anything. In fact, the studio would owe me stars. Yet if I were rating it's on the basis of pure enjoyment, I'd give it an 8 or a 9. I'll give it a 4, so to be somewhere in the middle. I recommend everyone go out, rent this, and form their own conclusion.

Terrible Story Associated to Awful Acting

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 21 March 2008]

In Halloween, three friends seek an ancient cemetery in the suburb for fun and remove a cross from a tomb, where Jack-O was buried many years ago by the farmer Arthur Kelly. The evil creature is unleashed, kills the trio and seeks the descendants of the Kelly family for revenge.

The cheesy "Jack-O" is a combination of a terrible story with awful acting. I was curious with the name of John Carradine in the credits and I can not imagine how a relative authorizes the use of archive footage in such a bad movie, showing a total lack of respect with the name of this great actor. It is impressive how bad the acting is, shifting the film to a comedy instead of the proposed horror genre. This is the type of movie good to see with a group of friends, drinking beer, making comments and laughing a lot. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): " Halloween: A Maldição Está de Volta!" ("Halloween: The Curse is Back")

Note: On 26 Jul 2022, I saw this film again.

Really bad.... but also really funny

[TimeChaser · 1/10 · 20 April 2003]

Man, this movies sucked. It appeared to have like seven different plots going on at once and they all made little to no sense. The special effects, costumes, and all that stuff were beyond awful. The acting was particullary bad. Everything seemed so forced, especially the lines from the woman with the huge eyes and the little kid (his "Noooooo" as he gets burried is so unenthusiastic it's laughable). A good portion of this movie is rather funny anyway. The one woman's death where she shoves a knife into a toaster, gets electrocuted, and magically turns into the crapiest skeleton dummy in the world had my friends and I laughing for a good ten minutes.

Bottom line: If you're into watching really horrible movies, seek this one out. If not, run for your life.

Low budget? NO budget!

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 26 September 2002]

"Jack-O" was scripted by my good friend Brad Linaweaver, so I'm prejudiced in its favour. Low-budget film-maker Fred Olen Ray had a few minutes of footage of John Carradine sitting in a forest at night, and a bit more footage of Cameron Mitchell staring into a camera and telling a spooky story. Ray challenged Linaweaver to write a feature-length script using these snippets of footage. Carradine and Mitchell appear VERY briefly in "Jack-O", and not together.

"Jack-O" is a bog-standard spookfest. Jack-O-Lantern is a homicidal maniac who died in arcane circumstances but who still comes back for one night every year: guess which night. Yes, Hallowe'en. The crucial (dual) role in this film is a small boy in modern times who's related to Jack-O's first victim (also a small boy) from more than a century earlier on. When I saw that the child actor cast in these roles (Ryan Latshaw) is the son of the film's director (Steve Latshaw), I expected a vanity production. But young Ryan is actually a decent actor: in this film at least, his performance is better than his dad's directing.

I always expect zero production values in a film like this, so I was pleasantly astounded by the realistic 19th-century prologue. Brad told me that this was filmed in an historic village in Florida. Unfortunately, the first few minutes of the film look much, much better than anything afterwards.

There are several very attractive actresses in this film, notably scream queen Linnea Quigley as the heroine, and Catherine Walsh as a "bad girl" who MIGHT have supernatural abilities. Untalented Helen Keeling is attractive, but she speaks her dialogue with one of the most bizarre accents I've ever heard.

There are some REALLY grotty special effects: notably the lightning (why didn't they use a stock shot?) and the scene in which one character gets electrocuted. I've seen more realistic electrocutions in Tex Avery cartoons. The post-dubbing of the soundtrack is worse than it really needs to be for this low budget.

"Jack-O" isn't very good, but it isn't nearly bad enough to be one of those Ed Wood-ish camp classics. I strongly recommend it as a study aid for those who want to learn "Bowfinger"-style film-making techniques. And some of the actresses are very watchable. Otherwise, "Jack-O" is a Joke-O. For thrills and chills, look elsewhere.

Absolutely hilarious! I LOVED it!

[Charlotte_Kaye · 5/10 · 9 July 2006]

There's something to be said for good movies. There's also something to be said for bad movies. But what about a bad movie that's sincere, very likable, very nostalgic in capturing the fall/Halloween season and full of energy and audience good will? Well that's exactly what is found in Jack-O, a movie with so many painfully bad, laughable elements that somehow mix with the fun elements and turn it into a very entertaining B level horror movie! The good stuff here is the breezy tone of the film and the story itself is enjoyable and fun. I liked some of the small touches like the Halloween garage spook show and the weird conservative neighbors who are killed. Also good to see is Linnea Quigley in a role that is probably too small but it's still Linnea and she brings an element of fun to the film, even if her role was almost useless. The cameos from John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell are from some unknown archive source, but still I liked seeing both of them here. The bad stuff. The plastic Jack-O pumpkin mask is really lame. And the acting is the cheesiest! Then again, that only adds to the fun. The little kid (son of the director) might be the worst child actor I've ever seen but it's hilarious to watch! The adults aren't much better. There's one woman in a flashback scene who you must see in all her monotone glory to believe. The woman who plays the psychic is also quite awful. You will be rolling on the floor in laughter! There is a bit of gore and one topless scene from Rachel Carter who plays the Quigley character's sister in the film. The gratuitous shower scene I see people talking about must have been cut from my tape because you only see Linnea from the shoulders up. There's no other way to rate a film like this than with a 5!

B-movie? More like Z-grade.....

[Nixshows · 1/10 · 18 April 2005]

I've always loved horror flicks. From some of the usual well-known like "The Exorcist" to some of the more underrated like "Black Christmas" or "Just Before Dawn". But who are people kidding,even calling this trash a b-movie. It's straight up bottom-of-the-barrel Z-grade. The acting is the worst ever on film. Really,I've seen better on an episode of the "Young and the Restless"...SPOILER...Lookout for when the woman comes to tell them about the legend of Jack-o. She pauses sometimes for a matter of seconds as if someone is flashing her cue cards and she's struggling to read her lines. A RIOT!

Oh,and besides the bad acting,absolutely no gore or F/X. And Jack-o looked like a plastic lit pumpkin. Watch Linnea Quigley in "Night of the Demons",or "Silent Night,Deadly Night",far superior flicks.

Way to go, blow your budget on the title screen.

[thelittletoe · 1/10 · 29 May 2000]

Wow! What a movie if you want to blow your budget on the title and have it look real bad ask the guys that made this movie on how to do that. They could have spent the money on a good rewrite or something else. Or they could have spent it on beer when they made this movie at least it would have come out better.

a movie about Wacko Jacko would have been scarier; this is lame

[FieCrier · 2/10 · 23 April 2005]

Ugh. Pretty awful.

Linnea Quigley gets top billing, but her character doesn't have a big part. Who is her character supposed to be anyway, the little boy's aunt? Another user commented on her getting nude in a shower scene. While there was a shower scene in the movie, it was a head and shoulders shot. Perhaps there are some alternate versions of this movie.

Quigley does have a bigger part than John Carradine, Cameron Mitchell, and Brinke Stevens, though. Carradine shows up briefly in a monkish robe reciting vague dialog. No other characters are in the scene with him, though he's sort of composited in, or else there are over-the-shoulder shots unquestionably belonging to someone else. There's also a really bad photo of him in a cameo locket (it looks like a bad photocopy), and a decent picture of him in a family bible. He conjured up Jack-O originally, or something like that.

Cameron Mitchell briefly shows up on a TV as a TV horror host. Brinke Stevens is in the movie he's showing "The Coven," in which she runs around a cemetery in a robe. Evidently there's more of the Brinke footage as a bonus feature on the Retromedia DVD double feature Mark of the Witch/The Brides Wore Blood.

Jack-O: what's it about? Darn if I know. A little boy is told a story about a pumpkin-headed demon killer, and he and some other kids are scared by a woman they think is a witch for some reason. She follows him home and offers to help his family with their haunted garage for Halloween (put your hand through a hole and feel eyeballs that are actually grapes, etc.). The pumpkin-headed killer shows up several times to hold onto branches while he watches people, or hold his scythe in front of the camera and pose with it for a while. Sometimes he manages to do more than just stand around holding things, and actually kills people.

There are also some flashbacks to a western or prairie family, with the little boy playing the little boy in that family too: ancestors of his, I think. I think they figure into Jack-O's backstory, but I'm not sure how.

The little boy is ostensibly the main character, but we don't really learn anything about him except that he wears glasses, has nightmares, and will fight bullies even if he'll get beat up in the process. More time should have been spent establishing his character. I couldn't have cared less if he died.

Not recommended, not even for Halloween.

Sad Epitaph for Once Aspiring Writer

[shadgrin · 1/10 · 11 February 2005]

I had known Brad Linaweaver at Florida State U in the early 70's when he was an inspiring, inventive writer who I thought was headed for greater glory.

And that is why I rented this video. Well, well, well, the time has not been kind to Mr Linaweaver. I suppose the pressures of making a living makes higher aspirations expendable. Another flower whose bloom has come and gone un-noticed in the summer breeze. Amen. There is nothing more to say. And nothing more to add. A sad epitaph to a once blossoming career as stated above. But it is the price one pays for chasing shadows without a firm foundation or goals for oneself in life. Because this movie has no goal, no purpose, and I kept telling myself, what happened to Brad's creativity, his once shining genius? Gone, gone, years of neglect has deteriorated his once shining mind.

Horrible, but you have to see it.

[TheTallMan666 · 1/10 · 29 July 2005]

This thing, it shouldn't be called a film, is almost worse than "Manos", but you just have to see it it's hilarious. If you see it at video store rent it, if you see the 10th anniversary edition, yes there is a special edition, for under $10 buy it, if your friend has it borrow it, you just have to see this. The acting is so bad, and the gore is is so fake. After viewing this you'll be asking yourself why did they make this insult of the art of film? That's assuming your face doesn't melt off like the Nazis's in "Raiders" . If you manage to see this, be sure to vote this movie as 1 (awful) so it can make the bottom 100, it really deserves a spot there. I'm surprised it's not number 1, right now.

A deliciously cheesy serving of low-budget horror trash

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 26 September 2007]

Man, I can't believe the largely harsh and negative comments for this movie. Okay, it sure ain't no sophisticated work of cinematic art. But it is a good deal of entertainingly tacky fun. For starters, the titular pumpkin-headed supernatural killer dude has to be one of the single most laughably silly and unscary things to ever stumble in front of a camera; he looks like something you would see in a fourth-rate carnival spookhouse. Secondly, the moderate gore is ridiculously fake and unconvincing, with the definite highlight occurring when this annoying uptight ultra-conservative woman gets electrocuted by a toaster. Then there's the always welcome presence of the ever-lovely Linnea Quigley, who's memorably introduced taking a nice, long, utterly gratuitous shower that goes on for two minutes. Amazingly, we also have appearances by deceased schlock picture legends John Carradine as an evil warlock and Cameron Mitchell as a horror TV show host. Moreover, scream queens Brinke Stevens and Dawn Wildsmith have fleeting cameos. Lead child actor Ryan Latshaw projects all the charm and acting ability of a moldy old tree stump. Pretty brunette Rachel Carter pops her top and bares her cute little breasts. The cruddy special effects are decidedly less than special. The score is suitably overwrought. Yet this film overall has a certain endearingly hokey appeal to it which in turn makes this honey a real delectably cheesy hoot to watch.

Unintentional Gold

[Volstag · 7/10 · 13 September 2004]

My buddies and I spent the majority of a Saturday afternoon watching a selection of "bad" movies. Among the flicks we watched, the strongest contender (for quality bad-movie fare) was easily Jack-O. It's ludicrous that movies such as "Gigli", "Glitter" and "You Got Served" are listed in IMDBs bottom 100. While they're certainly bad movies, they don't belong in the bottom 100. They're robbing "Jack-O", and "Keeper of Time", etc, of the Bad Movie Greatness they so richly deserve.

So what makes Jack-O so great (in bad movie terms)? For starters, Steve Latshaw, the director, decided to cast his son, Ryan Latshaw, in the role of Sean Kelly. Unfortunately for Steve, Ryan Latshaw was dangerously close to being out-acted by a block of wood. The kid, seriously, has no ability to emote whatsoever. The end result: unintentional comic gold. The kid could be listening to a joke, or just moments away from getting his head smashed asunder, and his expression is one of stony "emotionlessness".

The other aspect of the movie that we found awesome was the sheer number of "double dreaming" sequences. What is a double-dream? Well, it's when a character wakes up from a nightmare, and then something equally nightmarish happens, and then the character wakes up again. Basically: they wake up after dreaming about waking up from a nightmare. Clever device, no? I believe the character of Sean Kelly experienced no less than 3 double-dreaming sequences.

Let's see... what else? Oh yeah! This movie has a veritable cast of thousands. It's truly stunning to see how many speaking roles are introduced throughout the course of the movie. Best of all: almost none of the characters have anything to do with the story. They're either killed by Jack-O, or they serve no purpose whatsoever.

Jack-O himself was pretty sweet. Like most other B-movie monsters, Jack-O has the amazing ability to, seemingly, teleport over great distances. He's invariably hanging-out, somewhere in the background, whenever you're dealing with a major character. What's puzzling, however, is that when he's actually chasing someone he moves at a shambling/stumbling speed, and yet he's able to keep up with people who are sprinting.

That's all for now. Closing remarks: if you're looking for a unintentionally hilarious bad movie, you can't go wrong by renting this beast.

Bad Movie Score: 7/10 Good Movie Score: 3.5/10

Somehow I knew Fred Olen Ray had something to do with this.

[demonchylde · 1/10 · 22 July 2001]

When you watch low budget horror movies as much as I do, you get to where you can tell who was involved in creating the movie, as each film-maker adds his own flavor to the cheese. Such is the case with Jack-O. When I watched this truly awful movie, I was left with the undeniable feeling that Fred Olen Ray was involved, maybe not as director but in some fashion, and as I researched, I found that I was correct. Only Fred and a handfull of others could write something this pathetic, and this movie just reeked of Fred Olen Ray. Unless you like Fred Olen Ray (and God only knows why anyone would)avoid this movie. If you're going to rent an Olen Ray pic, rent Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, it's the only bright shining star in Olen Ray's dark cheesey universe of terrible movies.

Recipe for B-movie satisfied

[Neal-17 · 29 October 2000]

A bad horror flick requires certain components. A nice shot of a pair of breasts, with no relevance to the plot. A beheading, preferably one where the head rolls to someone who is in love with the recently deceased. An innocent loser who doesn't actually die in the movie, but you wish they would. At least one famous actor in a small and likely irrelevant role. A utility worker of similar individual who gets gored while one of the "stars" looks on. If you agree, Jack-o is the film for you. If not, rent Free Willy or something. If you feel plot is important, you're in the wrong genre, I'm afraid. Great for Halloween if you want to kill a few hours.

Not quite the worst movie I ever saw, but close.

[RikFlash · 1/10 · 1 November 2000]

If you are in search of a masochistic thrill, rent this movie, and show it to a group of your friends sober. This movie is just plane lame, but there not completely without value. The brief tits are nice, and there is one victim's death that is funny as hell. Other than that, this is straight garbage. But it is still better than "Grim" or "Spookies"

Jack-O

[Scarecrow-88 · 3/10 · 18 April 2010]

Mr. Jack, the Pumpkinman. Yeah, expect a camp horror flick here. Not as bas as I was expecting, but maybe that was because I was prepared for something truly excremental. I think one thing I admired about Steve Latshaw's "Jack-O" was the homage to screen legends John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell. Some critics I imagine would complain that their belated appearances was just an excuse to use footage of the two deceased screen veterans, but I could sense an appreciation for them even if their faces did cause me to feel a bit odd that they had been passed a few years after this movie was made. Good old Fred Olen Ray, an executive producer and one of two behind the film's idea, was more than willing to lend a fellow low budget filmmaker a helping hand. Carradine is a warlock who conjures a supernatural demon which looks like a scarecrow with a pumpkin head to kill the townspeople behind his lynching. Many moons later, and some dopey kids fooling around remove a wooden cross buried in it's grave, and so Mr. Jack, The Pumpkinman rises, scythe in hand, prepared to slice and dice. A little boy(played by the director's son), must save his father(Gary Doles), an ancestor of the family who sent Carradine to his death, by somehow killing Mr. Jack (something about being the fifth descendant and according to some rule must be the one to defeat Mr. Jack) or else the Kelly clan will indeed be put to rest by the Mackins. I could say I was interested in seeing how the filmmakers would present some pumpkin-head killer, but who am I kidding? I wanted to see Linnea Quigley and as much of her as possible..and Latshaw give me just that. I'm never one to complain when I get my customary Quigley shower as she soaps that magnificent naked body. Oh, and besides that you get a side-splitting murder by toaster with animated lightning bolts as the victim deteriorates to a skeleton! Anyway, a descendant of Mackens(Catherine Walsh) befriends the Kelly family wanting to help silence Jack forever, finally laying the demon to rest. Latshaw and company aren't without a sense of humor..you have to imagine they'd have to consider that their killer would be a laughingstock. And among the victims, a pair of uptight, penny-pinching conservatives who don't have the Halloween spirit. Oh, and there's also a fake decapitated head gag with a not-so-very-convincing prop which might provide some extra chuckles. Quigley, if you are interested, is a babysitter taking the Kelly kid trick-or-treating while her sister is off with the biker boyfriend on his hog. The effects are poor and Quigley's role is minor, (although she does prevent the kid from getting stabbed, before being socked across the face and knocked unconscious)..not a lot to recommend to slasher fans unless you enjoy cheap gore gags and seeing Quigley bathe her nude body. Without the nudity and modest gore, this could be a family television horror flick. Mitchell's part is of a host of the Dr Cadaver Horror Theater while Brinke Stevens turns up as the character of a bad horror flick on the boob tube(something called The Coven).

What a piece of CRAP

[Doom · 1/10 · 17 January 2003]

I can not believe I even wasted a NetFlix rental on this complete piece of CRAP. How long did it take to make this film? 15 minutes? On a budget of what? Fifteen bucks? I can spend a few hours with my Sony Camcorder and come up with something better than this treacherous lump of bile, and it's even available on DVD!?!! A very sad thing to think classics like The Stepfather have not been released on DVD but this chunk of steaming dung makes it to the format. Here's hoping my rating of ONE ONE ONE ONE makes the overall (already) pathetic rating of 2.5 go DOWN.

You don't know Jack-O.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 15 October 2016]

Amateurish, awkward modern slasher is not completely without its amusements, at least for die hard - and I do mean DIE HARD - B cinema completists. It's dull too much of the time, and the acting is by and large pretty dodgy. But considering just how minuscule the budget apparently was on this flick, it's to the credit of director Steve Latshaw and company that they pull off a movie that is at all coherent or enjoyable in the first place. The look of our evil pumpkin headed monster is decent, but the character obviously has not become an icon of the season.

A wizard played by John Carradine was put to death ages ago, and he placed a curse (but don't they all?) on his persecutors and their descendants. In the 1990s, the average suburban family the Kellys must do battle with the infernal demon of the title, conjured up by the wizard once upon a time.

The script by Patrick Moran is based on a story by Brad Linaweaver and Latshaws' contemporary Fred Olen Ray; Moran also plays Jack-O. It's on the lame side, all in all, with not much in it that's memorable in any way - save, perhaps, for the conservative couple the Watsons who watch a Rush Limbaugh parody character on TV. The gore isn't too bad, and Latshaw makes a good stab, if you'll pardon the expression, at generating some atmosphere.

But the characters are pretty inane. At least Carradine and his fellow veteran Cameron Mitchell (as a TV horror host) don't get embarrassed too much; their roles are really just cameos. (Their footage had been shot several years previously, and edited into some newly shot scenes.) The same goes for scream queen Brinke Stevens and *her* peer Dawn Wildsmith. Still, it's hard to completely knock any movie that gives Linnea Quigley the starring role, as she plays a surly, unlikely babysitter. Ryan Latshaw, who has the pivotal role of young Sean Kelly, is the son of the director.

Sadly, this would turn out to be the final film appearance for Mitchell.

Five out of 10.

Supernatural slasher

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 6 November 2019]

JACK-O is a Z-grade supernatural slasher flick notable only for gathering together a bunch of B-movie actors who show up to do their bit. Sadly they're restricted to cameos, aside from the reliable Linnea Quigley giving another enthusiastic performance. This one was written by Fred Olen Ray, if you can believe it, and involves some cemetery pranksters removing a cross from a grave. By doing so they unwittingly resurrect the sinister title character, who has a pumpkin for a head and goes around murdering people a la Michael Myers. Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine show up on television sets and the gore effects are liberally splashed about, but it's all very bottom of the barrel and cheesy-looking.

That's Mr. Jack to you!

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 23 July 2010]

Not as bad as anticipated, but has plenty of room to become even a good B-movie. Low budget horror sometimes fools you and it becomes so bad its good. Not meaning to sound too familiar...a group of beer swilling teens decide to mess around in a local cemetery only to unleash a ghoul wearing a big pumpkin on his head. Its Jack-O(Patrick Moran), the incarnation of a murdered farmer seeking revenge for the slaying of his ancestors. This scythe wielding psycho lives up to his legend; but how do you stop him after he starts his people-reaping spree? Pretty campy with typical low cost and minimum effort special effects; but the score by Jeff Walton brings some attitude. Hey, its a hoot! The cast includes: Linnea Quigley, Rebecca Wicks, Gary Doles, Ryan Latshaw, Brinke Stevens, an appealing Catherine Walsh plus posthumous cameos by John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell.

Not sure if a real horror film or a kid's horror film...

[Aaron1375 · 2/10 · 31 October 2020]

I watched this film and was puzzled, was this supposed to be some family Halloween movie or was this supposed to be full on horror? With the extremely light body count I would say kid's, but with the slightly gruesome beheading, I would say horror. With Linnea Quigley, definitely horror, but it is so weak. No wonder no one remembers Jack-O as he was a joke in his first outing as he meanders around a lot and misses the opportunity to kill again and again! The film also likes coherency as we are treated to random scenes again and again and lots of shots of John Carradine who had been dead for over five years, apparently even death did not stop him from appearing in bad horror films!

The story, well a guy tells a boy this story about Jack-O and we kind of do a flashback a flash forward and like a flash sideways. It finally shows a kid waking up twice as he and his friends walk and discuss witches and then one of the friends starts pummeling the kid who woke up because that kid stopped the other kid from throwing rocks at a witches car! What horror! Then this woman inexplicably makes friends with the son and begins just hanging out at the house where the parents are going to do a haunted garage and inexplicably charge a dollar and not let their son help. The titular title character finally shows up and finally goes on a very slow killing spree as Linnea babysits the son whose parents are right outside trying to make money off their haunted house until Jack-O comes several minutes later to kill!

This film features John Carridine's picture and a few edited in movie clips, but I do believe he was in the film more than Linnea was. I would have preferred to see more of Linnea because she always adds spice to a film like this. There are a few others that make cameo appearances, but other than Cameron Mitchell and the ones I have already mentioned there is no one that noteworthy.

The movie moves along at a snail's pace and seems at times to be a film about a wacky parents desire to make money off their awful haunted house than it does about a supernatural killer from beyond the grave. The killer does get some kills in, but one of the victims dies by being stupid, Jack-O didn't touch them! The design is not all that bad though; however, they are more interested in showing us the feet of the killer than the pumpkin head. Like I said, it seemed like this film was going to be a children's movie, but they decided to go all in at the last minute and give us a tepid little murderous pumpkin man movie.

Rent this one for a good time.

[bigpappa1--2 · 10/10 · 13 May 2000]

Story involves ancient demon being released upon a small town on Halloween night. In all my life I have never seen such a cheesy film, but it is so d**m entertaining you can forgive its bad acting, effects, direction, and script. This is the best movie created for the Halloween season since the original Halloween. And when they introduce Linnea Quigley's character for the first time, she is butt naked in the shower for like 5 mins. Goodness they just don't get any better than this. Rush and buy this tape right away. 5/10

It's not good but has a retro charm

[rivertam26 · 6/10 · 8 April 2020]

This is undoubtedly a bad film but it's got a certain retro 80s charm to it even though it was made in 1995. It centers around a mythical creature named Jack o a pumpkin headed monster that's both goofy and rad. He exists because a wizard was put to death back in the day and this creature is his vengeance. Ad you can guess he comes alive on Halloween and goes after basically anyone whose in his way but especially a young boy whose a descendant of the man who imprisoned him. Its goofy and fun and stars Linnea Quigley as his cool babysitter. Now by no means should you expect a good movie on any level. It looks pretty much like crap and the performances are abysmal but it all works for what it is.

2.75/5

Extremely awful movie.

[addicy · 1/10 · 26 December 2020]

This movie bored me from start to finish. I knew the name of John Carradine(who died in 1988). Good question about how his relatives could approve archive footage to be used in this pile of crap. Nothing could save this movie. I did applaud one character for her smart thinking of hiding instead of running around like a brainless idiot.

The movie looks like it was shot with a hand held steady camera. Acting was stale, characters were not believable.

One death scene was laughable and unconvincing and bad.