The Pumpkin Karver [2006] [DVD]

Apart from the opening sequence, there isn't much to recommend about this film because its a tad predicatible and there are extremely long boring periods between each kill. The annoying thing is that most of the annoying kids and bad actors don't get killed.

There are some decent kills with a decapitation but most of the others just get a face carving (even the pretty girl from Friday Night Lights).

The ending was very similar to Indentity and if you have managed to keep awake during the film, then you can see it coming a mile off.

The alternative ending on the disc is even worse so I'm glad they never used that ending.

It seemed to want to steal so many elements from other films without giving inself any original ideas.

There were some extras on the disc - a making of feature but nothing else worth mentioning.

If you want to see this at Halloween then the best suggestion is to rent it because you won't want to see this film more than once.

I liked this movie, its a slasher film -its no halloween so if thats what you want get that... its on amazon. This film as a plot -involving a brother and sister who are involved in a death which comes back to haunt and follow them. Its a good watch and is honest straight forward and kept you watching its ok shot and is worth its price.
Other reviews have been negative at times i dont know what they expect for this price- it follows in the footsteps of other slashers its not going to rienvent the genre.

I've read nothing but negative reviews of this film; I haven't even found a single horror reviewer with anything good to say about it. Certainly, some of the criticisms are valid, but I still thought Pumpkin Karver was a pretty darn good horror movie. I don't know why it's so hard for some people to sit down and enjoy a slasher film these days. They decry the formulaic nature of modern horror films, then complain when a film like this one doesn't follow the same old tried-and-true formula they claim to despise so much. Worst of all, they criticize the lack of gore in Pumpkin Karver. Now, as you might already know, I crave blood and gore as much as anybody out there, but it's not the be all and end all of every single horror movie. I don't judge a slasher film by the number of dead bodies it stacks up over the course of an hour and a half. I also don't demand that every horror film I watch explain everything to me at the very end - a little ambiguity isn't necessarily a bad thing. Okay, so the ending of Pumpkin Karver is a little goofy, I'll grant you, but at least it wasn't written in blood from the very beginning.

The opening scene of Pumpkin Karver ranks right up there with Scream, The Ring, and maybe even Halloween, if you ask me. I won't give you any details, but I will say it takes place on Halloween and involves a babe, a murder, and a surprise - and it leaves one young man rather emotionally scarred. So how do you move on from a pumpkin-related tragedy? Apparently, you move to a town called Carver and take part in a big Halloween party with a bunch of silly teenagers with names like Bonedaddy and Skinner. Things are definitely looking up for young Jonathan Starks (Michael Zara), as his seriously hot sister Lynn (Amy Weber) has hooked him up with a hottie named Tammy (Minka Kelly). There's just something about Tammy; she isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, and her voice is a little on the squeaky side, but she definitely has IT. Unfortunately, not everyone is in a partying mood. Tammy's former boyfriend still thinks he owns her, this weird old dude keeps popping up and going on and on about the art of carving and how he likes to carve the evil out of people, and there's also a Pumpkinhead dude who seems to be haunting Jonathan. In case you're wondering, drunk, goofy kids in silly costumes will definitely die on this night.

I don't have a problem with the gore and special effects. It's all pretty well done (with one dude meeting with a most ignominious end), even though the whole "carving" aspect of the murders seems to come and go. The weird old farmer dude is a bit of a problem, though. With all of his monologues about the art of carving, you know he's either the killer or the biggest red herring you've ever seen. Then you've got Jonathan having all these weird visions of old Pumpkinhead, so you don't know if he's just nuts or if the dude really exists. These facets of the story do make the whole story a little bit on the lame side, but at least they keep you guessing as to the true identity of the killer.