HACK-O-LANTERN
1988, Legacy Entertainment

DIRECTOR:  Jag Mundhra   PRODUCER:  Raj Mehrothra

STARRING:  Hy Pyke,  Greg C. Scott,  Katina Garner,  Carla Baron,  Patricia Christie,   Jeff Brown,  Larry Coven,  Michel Potts.

   Movie also released under the title HALLOWEEN NIGHT:

   

When a movie starts out with a truck driving around with a bed full of pumpkins, you gotta figure it's sometime around Halloween, right?   Well, that's how this movie begins, and it is, in fact, Halloween.    The driver of the truck turns out to be a twisted old fruit who is bringing a pumpkin to his grandson, and in addition he gives the child a small, wrapped package.   He tells the child that the gift is something "very, very special", because the he is "very, very special", but he musn't tell anyone about the gift.   The boy agrees, and grandpa drives off.  A nice, family scene, yes?

Well, not exactly.   In the next scene, we find the little boy carving his pumpkin when he accidentally cuts himself.   He puts his bloodstained finger in his mouth, and his mother admonishes him:   "Tommy, we have to wash that."   The little boy replies that he likes the taste of blood, and "Grandpa says it's good for me."   At the mention of "Grandpa", Mom freaks out, asking WHEN Tommy saw Grandpa, and if he gave Tommy the pumpkin.   She then demands to know if Grandpa gave him anything else;   Tommy denies any other gifts, and Mom proceeds to smash the pumpkin to the ground while Tommy looks on, dismayed.

Later we find Mom and Dad deep in conversation about Tommy.   Dad wants to know why Grandpa is fixated on Tommy, when he has two other grandchildren.   He goes on to say that since Grandpa won't listen to Mom and leave Tommy alone, he will go and have a talk with Grandpa.   Mom begs him not to go because "It's Halloween," but Dad goes leaves the house.  

He arrives to find Grandpa conducting a satanic mass, and Grandpa informs him that they "don't like trespassers here."   Dad demands that Grandpa leave his son alone, and Grandpa replies:  "Tommy was never yours.   He belongs to something greater than you could ever imagine."   Dad repeats his demand that he leave Tommy alone.   Then one of the members of the cult sneaks up behind Dad and clobbers him with a hammer, and they take Dad back out to his car and set it on fire.   Meanwhile back at Dad's house, Tommy is looking out the window at the fire, then turns around and sits down on the bed.   With a thoughtful look on his face, he unwraps the gift that Grandpa gave him earlier (which turns out to be a pentagram necklace) and continues to look at it, seemingly spellbound.

The scene shifts to 13 years later on another Halloween, where a (now grown-up) Tommy is looking at the same necklace.    He walks outside at the sound of a truck horn, and there stands Grandpa, with another truckload of pumpkins.   Grandpa says that tonight is Tommy's "night," when he will "find out what power is."   They both then cackle madly, and make the sign of the devil.   In the background, we see Mom looking fearfully out the window.   As Grandpa drives away, Mom steps out in front of his truck, forcing him to stop.   She begs Grandpa to leave Tommy alone.   Grandpa says he won't, because "Tommy is mine."   Mom replies that no, Tommy is her son, and says that Grandpa should leave Tommy to her, since he and "his people" took her husband from her.   Grandpa replies that her husband has "always been here, with us," and laughs as he holds up a necklace with a bone on it.   Mom begins to cry and they struggle, and Grandpa says that "After all these years, you are still a temptation to me,";    we see a flashback of him raping Mom -- his own daughter -- on her wedding day.   He then drives off, leaving her in tears.

The movie then proceeds to show the dynamics of this extremely dysfunctional family.   Mom, as it turns out, is overprotective of her three now adult children, and dislikes all their friends and significant others.   She thinks they should spend more time at home, with family.   Apparently, she is still deeply affected by her husband's death, and has "never been the same" since.   Daughter Vera is a typical young woman, interested in going out with her friends and romance with her boyfriend, and in the Halloween party she is putting on down at the town hall.   Clean cut son Roger is a police officer, an occupation which Mom disapproves of, and Tommy is your typical rebellious young man, preferring listening to heavy metal, indulging in violent, satanic daydreams, and hanging out with his slutty-looking, witch girlfriend, Nora.   But maybe that's to be expected of a young man whose Grandfather is inducting him into his satanic cult on Halloween.

In the midst of all this drama, people begin to get murdered by a psychopath in a devil mask and cloak.   At some point, Vera discovers the dead body of her boyfriend, decides it was Tommy who "did him in" and races off to Grandpa's to find him.   She arrives in the midst of a satanic mass, none other than Tommy's "initiation" into the cult, for which he is wearing the very same robe and mask as our psycho killer.   Grandpa decides she must die for her sacrilege and that Tommy must kill her.  But he can't;   she's his sister, after all.    He lets her go.   Grandpa says he's deeply disappointed, and tells Tommy he must leave, too.   But Grandpa is still determined that Vera will die, so he takes off after her.

Vera has fled to the Halloween party, where cop brother Roger can be found.  Roger runs off to Grandpa's, but Grandpa has gone to the party to finish off Vera.   However before he can do so, the masked killer arrives and attacks Grandpa;   they struggle, and the masked killer..., well, kills Grandpa.   Brother Roger arrives in time to shoot the masked killer as he flees.   However, the killer is only wounded, and gets away.   Then Roger tends to his dying Grandpa.   With his dying breath, Grandpa declares that "the power is in the blood", and touches Roger's forehead, leaving a weird glowing dot which immediately fades.

Meantime, we see the masked killer stumbling through the woods and into the cemetary.   He arrives at Dad's grave and pulls off the mask, revealing "himself" to be Mom!   Tommy arrives and cradles his dying Mother in his arms.    Mom whispers that she "only wanted to keep her family together."

In the final scene, we see yet another satanic mass being conducted on yet another Halloween by a robed figure standing with it's back to the camera.   The figure intones:   "We welcome the night!" and turns to reveal his identity:   "chosen one" Roger!

RATING:     

This is actually one of the better-made movies in this genre.   The acting is also better quality, and it does make more of an attempt at a plot than most "B"'s.

A scene where daughter Vera is taking a bath;  Nora gets naked to take a shower and have sex with Tommy.   Later, a stripper puts on a show at a party, and a witch strips and gets branded.

SCENES THAT MAKE ME GO "HMMM...,":

1. Dad races out of the house on Halloween to confront Grandpa.   He isn't afraid to go, and yet he isn't at all surprised to find Grandpa conducting a satanic mass.

2. Grandpa tells Dad that "Tommy was never yours", and yet Dad never asks what he means by that.

3. In one scene, Nora's pentagram tattoo is shown high up on her butt.   In another scene, it's shown in a totally different place (low) on her butt.
4. Actually, I don't think the actress that played Nora was ever on the set with the other actors.   In the scenes where she appears with other actors, you never seen her from the front, and she seems to be wearing a bad wig.   Wonder if she was the director's girlfriend?

5. Vera boldly goes to Grandpa's to confront him on Halloween.   I guess she doesn't remember what happened to her father when HE tried that!

DID YOU KNOW...,:

 -   The band in Tommy's heavy metal daydream is real-life band DC LaCroix, who was fronted by metal maiden Sylvie LaCroix.

 -  Katina Garner (Amanda) also appeared in ROLLERBLADE with HARD ROCK ZOMBIE's Sam Mann.

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