Review: R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead (2025)
By William Pattison
For Horror Bob’s Blog
I got you a young adult horror film that is promoted as
being written by RL Stine…
Sam, his older brother Finn, and his mom move to a farm
community. Sam is not at all happy about the move because there is nothing for
him to do besides go the the harvest celebration at a creepy old man’s farm at
the invitation of the sheriff. Sam to act out steals the farmer’s prize freaky
pumpkin which he later finds out is part of a curse the farmer put on the
community to get the community a good harvest each year. The cost is a child
who becomes the pumpkin and is lost and forgotten at the strike of midnight on
Halloween. When Finn finds out Sam stole the pumpkin he tried to give it back
to the farmer, but he gets turned into the pumpkin. Everyone forgets Finn exists,
except Sam. Now, Sam along with the sheriff’s daughter and a freaky guy who
lives in the woods and knows about the curse must find a way to save Finn and fight their way past the scarecrow who is
the guardian of the curse for the clock strike midnight on Halloween night.
Now for one thing this film was clearly credited as being
written by a writer other than RL Stine. Also, no where in the credits say it
is an adaptation of a RL Stine story and this pisses me off. Give me a break. I
expect when I see RL’s name on the film that it will at the very least an
adaptation of an RL story or in the case of the two Goosebumps feature film have
RL Stine characters and take place in RL’s world he has created. This film has
none of that. Yes, this film has a bit of the style of the Goosebumps kids TV
series, though it is far more violent and scary at times…Shit, they cut the
scarecrow’s head off in one scene and kids actually die, which is a big no no
in RL Goosebumps style stories. Also the ending is definitely notupper case something
RL would do. The scarecrow design is far scarier than anything in a genuine RL
Stine adaptation…Well other than the two season abortion of Goosebumps that
came out recently.
Honestly, I think modern teenagers would find this film way
too prudish for their tastes. Give me a break most kids now a days start out in
horror watching A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. So, this
film will not thrill original Goosebumps fans nor young horror fans. Shoot it
is as bad as that horrid Spirit Halloween movie that came out a couple years
ago. So, as you can gather I wasn’t
thrilled with this film and I refuse to recommend a fraudulent RL Stine
film, even though I know RL is getting paid for the use of his name. Sorry, RL,
I’m not supporting you being lazy…
Keep on Creepin’ Horror Bob’s Blog…