Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Michael_Elliott Jack-O (1995) * 1/2 (out of 4) An evil wizard is put to death but before that can happen he places a curse on the town. On Halloween that curse comes true with a Pumpkin Man showing up to take revenge.This movie apparently got made because Fred Olen Ray had footage of John Carradine and Cameron Mitchell that he wanted to be used in a film. Both men were already dead so he told director Steve Latshaw to build a story around that footage and the end result in JACK-O. This is pretty much what you'd expect from a direct-to-video release from the 1990s. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but if you're a fan of the slasher genre then you'll still want to check it out.Obviously they were working on a very low-budget here so you have to expect certain technical issues. If you're expecting some sort of high art then you're certainly going into the wrong sort of film. As I said, there's really nothing ground-breaking here and there's no question that this here is a bad movie but it does offer up a little entertainment. Linnea Quigley plays a babysitter here and she also has a wonderful shower sequence where she shows off her body. If you grew up watching these sorts of films then you know who Quigley is and you know what she does best.The film also manages to take unused footage of Carradine and Mitchell so fans of them will enjoy seeing the footage. Neither give Oscar-worthy performances but the footage being included here is what it is. The look of the monster certainly isn't scary but I actually liked the design and thought it was better than what you normally see from movies like this. Again, there's nothing great here so be prepared for what you're getting.

Scarecrow-88 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).

lastliberal OK, I could only find three reasons to consider this film worthwhile considering the extremely low budget.First there was Linnea Quigley and Rachel Carter. Actually, the two of them gave me four good reasons to watch, and watch I did.The only other reason to watch is that a lot of was filmed right down the road. Now, I didn't know this beforehand, but I saw an Orange County car tag and said, wow! this was shot in Florida.I was impressed by the flashback to the past and the ancestors of the young kid, but that was really it. The killings by the pumpkin man were pretty lame, with the exception of the biker.If you want to see Quigley and Carter, OK, but Return of the Living Dead will give greater thrills.

Woodyanders 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.