Hack-o-Lantern (1988)

Before I even watched it, I knew I wanted this to be the movie to wrap up Schlocktober 2. There are three reasons: the title, its being Halloween-themed, and the short but savage one-and-a-half star review that John Stanley gave in Creature Features, which is where I first learned of it (plus, I knew it was on Tubi, so I wouldn't have to go looking for it). Other than a basic run down of the plot, all he had to say about it was, "Direct-to-video chiller-diller-thriller of minimum importance." But the title and his rating were all that stuck in my head, as when I went into this, I had no idea what to expect. I'm sure I watched the episode that the Cinema Snob did on it, as that was back in 2012, when I was still watching Channel Awesome stuff on a regular basis, but any memories from that had also long since evaporated by 2025. In any case, at the beginning of that video, which I revisited while doing this, Brad Jones said that Hack-o-Lantern is, "'Holy fucking shit!' bad," and I would say that he's somewhat right. It's definitely bad, and there are parts that will have you go, "Holy fucking shit!", but it's not as horrendously entertaining from start to finish as you'd hope. A mishmash of slasher, satanic panic, nudie flick, and rock and roll horror a la Trick or Treat, all set on Halloween, it has some truly outrageous and downright bizarre moments, some subject matter that is very taboo, and an over-the-top performance from the main villain. But, at the same time, there are sections where it tends to meander around, digressing to focus on random stuff that just kind of happens, and it's overstuffed in terms of plot-threads and characters, many of whom are utterly vapid, to keep track of. There's also a lot of really bad acting, as you'd expect, and the aforementioned taboo material is not only uncomfortable to watch, but it badly clashes with the movie's overall tone. In short, it is one out there movie, that's for sure, but its entertainment value, unfortunately, only goes so far.

Halloween, 1968. Early that morning, young Tommy Drindle gets a visit from his grandfather, who allows him to pick out a pumpkin from the back of his pickup truck. He also gives the boy something in a small, orange bag, which he says is special because he himself is so very special. Later, while carving a jack-o-lantern, Tommy accidentally cuts himself. While cleaning out the wound, his mother, Amanda, learns that he's seen his grandfather, whom she doesn't want near her son. Her husband, Bill, becomes frustrated over this, as Tommy's grandfather has some sort of unhealthy obsession with him. That night, he goes to confront him, only to find him leading a satanic cult in an old barn on his property. Bill is then murdered and Grandpa personally sets his body and car ablaze, near Tommy's house. Thirteen years later, Tommy has grown into a dark, ill-tempered, violent young man, and his grandfather now has an especially powerful hold on him. It's Halloween again, and it's now time for Tommy to be initiated into the cult. When Amanda confronts her father about this, he reveals that he intends for Tommy, who's actually the result of an incestuous rape he committed against her right before she was married, to take over as the cult's leader. Meanwhile, her daughter, Vera, is now eighteen and spends most of her free time out with her friends, and her boyfriend, Brian. Her other son, Roger, works as a deputy, and Amanda hates the idea that her family is splitting apart. Vera plans to go to a local Halloween party that night, attending with her friend, Beth, while Roger will work as security there. Over the course of the day, several gruesome murders are committed by someone wearing the same type of cloak and mask as the cultists. The victims include Nora Benningham, a woman whom Tommy hangs out with, much to his grandfather's disapproval, and Brian, after Tommy throws him out of the house when he catches him making out with Vera in her bedroom. It all comes to a head that night, just when Tommy is to be initiated.

I wasn't expecting to find much info on the film's director, Jag Mundhra, especially since, at this point, Hack-o-Lantern doesn't have a Wikipedia page. But, to my surprise, Mundhra himself does, and I learned quite a bit about him. Born in India, he harbored a desire to make movies at an early age, despite growing up in a very conservative family where movies were looked down upon. Though he studied engineering, and proved quite adept at it, he still wanted to be a filmmaker and ultimately went to the University of Michigan to embark upon his preferred career. His first two movies as director, Suraag and Kamla, produced in the early 80's, were a pair of Hindi-language drama films and are actually rated fairly high on IMDB. But, beginning with 1987's Open House, a slasher flick about a killer stalking real estate agents, Mundhra went on to make a number of exploitation movies, including both horror and erotic thriller. In addition to Hack-o-Lantern (which was shot under the title of Halloween Night in 1986, but wasn't released until two years later, going straight to video), he made stuff like The Jigsaw Murders, Night Eyes, Eyewitness to Murder, The Other Woman, Wild Cactus, Legal Tender, L.A. Goddess, and Tropical Heat, to name but a few. He did eventually return to doing movies in his native India, like 2000's Bawandar, based on a true story, and 2006's Provoked, which he considered, along with Kamla, a trilogy about strong women. However, he also continued doing those exploitation movies right up until his death, with his last movie being 2011's Naughty @ 40 (which also ended up being his lowest rated film on IMDB). He died that same year, at the age of 62.

I wouldn't necessarily say he gives the "best" performance in the movie, as he's very over-the-top and impossible to take seriously, but Hy Pike is definitely the most entertaining actor here. As the Drindle kids' unnamed grandfather, he chews the scenery like it's going out of style, talking in a raspy, Tim Curry-like voice, along with a bit of Harvey Fierstein's flamboyance and some very animated facial expressions. And yet, even at the beginning of the movie, where he, for all intents and purposes, appears to be just a kindly grandfather who's come to visit his young grandson on Halloween, giving him a pumpkin and a small rubber skeleton, there's something uncomfortably off-putting about him. The way he talks to Tommy, telling him, "And Grandpa's got somethin' very special for ya," while leaning in close and putting his hand on his shoulder, is rather "ugh," just as it is when he gives Tommy something he says is, "Very, very special," shushes him, and adds, "It's just for you... Because you are very, very special," while putting it in his hands and pulling him in for a hug. For a minute, you may think you're looking too much into it, but then, you see Amanda Drindle's reaction when she learns that Tommy has seen his grandfather, and proceeds to smash the pumpkin. And when she talks with her husband, Bill, about it, he mentions how Grandpa has some sort of unsettling interest in Tommy specifically, and has been told before to stay away from him. The movie doesn't waste any time in showing you why: when Bill goes to confront Grandpa that night, he's revealed to be the head of a satanic cult. Not only does he refuse to stay away from Tommy, he also tells Bill that the kid, "Belongs to somethin' greater than you could ever imagine," and has him murdered. He proceeds to have his body put in his car and personally sets it on fire near Tommy's house, saying, "Now, you'll never have to worry about Tommy again. Burn in hell, Bill." (That said, in the wide shot, you can tell that the fire is just burning and spreading in front of the car.)

Thirteen years later, Grandpa prepares to indoctrinate Tommy, who's now completely under his sway, into the cult, intending for him to eventually take his place as its leader. And when Amanda confronts her father as he's leaving her home, you learn just how truly despicable he is. When he told Bill that Tommy was never his child, he wasn't kidding: Grandpa actually raped Amanda on her wedding day, and Tommy is the result of that. (We see a flashback to hammer home the point but, fortunately, we don't see the details.)

Even more unsettling, when she goes to slap him during their confrontation, Grandpa grabs and holds her, telling her, "You know, that after all these years, you are still a temptation to me? You are beautiful, and a lurid woman, with no man for thirteen years. Don't you think it's about time we do somethin' about that?" Amanda fights him off but he drives away from the property, intending to carry out his plans for Tommy. (He's such a creep that he actually makes some uncomfortable comments about Vera, his

granddaughter, later on: "I just come by because I wanted to give a little somethin' to my favorite little gal.") However, there is some conflict between him and Tommy, as Grandpa doesn't like him hanging around Nora Benningham, saying he must remain "pure" for the ceremony. And that night, when Vera breaks in on the ceremony, Grandpa orders Tommy to kill her to prove his loyalty to Satan, but he refuses to harm his younger sister. Enraged at this disobedience, Grandpa tells Tommy he's no longer part of the cult and orders him to leave. He later goes to the

Halloween party, intent on killing Vera, only to be challenged and attacked by someone wearing one of his cult's robes and masks. He's mortally wounded during the fight, but before he dies, ensures that his legacy will live on.

When we see Tommy as a little kid (Bryson Gerard) at the beginning, he mostly comes off as innocent and naive, and loves seeing his grandfather when he drops by to give him some stuff for Halloween. He's most interested in the pumpkin Grandpa gives him and is later seen carving it himself. Here, he proves to be a bit mischievous, as he deliberately tosses the innards at young Vera, but otherwise seems like a typical kid. That is, until he cuts himself and, not only sucks on his bleeding wound, but says he likes the taste of it, adding, "Grandpa says it's good for me." And when his mother proceeds to smash the pumpkin upon learning where it came from, Tommy's expression hardens and he hides the "special" item Grandpa gave him in his back-pocket. That night, he watches out his bedroom window as Grandpa burns his father's car with his body in it, something he's surprisingly unfazed by. He then takes out what his grandfather gave him, a pendant with a pentagram on it, and swings it back and forth.

As an adult, Tommy (Gregory Scott Cummins) is now a tall, muscular, angry, and violent man who lives in a dump of a room down in the house's basement. He always isolates himself from the rest of his family, and does little more than work out and listen to rock music. He dresses totally in black, often wears dark sunglasses, and is standoffish to everybody else, especially his mother and younger brother, Roger. When Roger confronts him about his life, Tommy is irritable and wound up over everything he says, and literally starts shoving him around when he asks why he doesn't do something meaningful with his time. He proceeds to show him a closet full of satanic paraphernalia, much to Roger's horror, and also wears the medallion that his grandfather gave him. Tommy is preparing to be initiated into the cult that Halloween night, but his relationship with Nora drives a bit of wedge between him and Grandpa (he doesn't put up much of a fight about it, though). Tommy also does seem to still have some genuine affection for his little sister, Vera. When he finds her making out with her boyfriend, Brian, he violently breaks it up and throws Brian out of the house. More significantly, when Vera barges in on the initiation and Grandpa, in turn, tries to get Tommy to kill her, he can't bring himself to do it (he lets out a strained yell that's supposed to be a sign of his inner conflict, but instead sounds insincere and half-hearted). He instead cuts Vera free and tells her to run, before he himself is expelled from the cult. He runs off in frustration afterward, and doesn't show up again until in the penultimate scene, where he has one final, and truly affectionate, moment with his mother.

Vera (Carla Baron) is initially not very enthusiastic about going to the Halloween party that night, given how melancholic her mother gets when the holiday rolls around every year, and the way Tommy's been acting. In the end, she not only opts to go, along with her friend, Beth, but also decides to have sex with her boyfriend, Brian, beforehand. Unfortunately, Tommy ruins the latter when he bursts in on them as they're making out in Vera's room and throws Brian out of the house. She also has to deal with her mother going on about wanting to keep the family together and complaining about what her other children are doing. And while she and Beth are on their way to the party that night, Vera realizes Brian has been murdered and buried in the cemetery. Convinced it was Tommy's doing, she goes to her grandfather's farm and bursts in on his initiation to confront him. That leads to her nearly being sacrificed but, fortunately for her, Tommy's affection for his little sister prompts him to instead cut her loose and allow her to escape. Vera and Beth run back to the party, tell Roger what happened, and send him to the barn. However, as Vera tries to calm herself, Beth is murdered and Grandpa shows up to kill her, only for someone else in a cult robe and mask to come to her aid.

In stark contrast to his older brother, Roger (Jeff Brown) is a clean-cut, likable young man who works as a cop at the local sheriff's department. Assigned to act as security for the party, he's also asked to investigate the cemetery, as there have been disturbances there lately, such as graves being overturned. When he stops by his old home, he learns how Tommy has been driving Amanda crazy, as well as that she doesn't approve of Vera's lifestyle or her boyfriend. His attempt at talking to Tommy does nothing but get him yelled at, pushed around, and confronted with the satanic stuff Tommy keeps in his closet. However, he does find that Beth has a crush on him, and Vera proceeds to set the two of them up. Not only do they hit it off but, that night, they do it in the cemetery, after Roger has shooed away some trick-or-treaters they found milling around there. Later, while he's standing guard at the party, Vera and Beth come in and tell him what happened over at Grandpa's barn. Roger gets the police sergeant and another officer to accompany him out there, but they find the barn completely deserted, with no signs of any satanic rituals. Initially thinking he's been the butt of a Halloween prank, he returns to the party, only to find Grandpa there, fatally wounded by the person who saved Vera from him. Before he dies, Grandpa does something to Roger, forming his cult's symbol with his fingers and touching Roger's face, with a red glowing dot briefly appearing. Then, seeing the killer get away, Roger, thinking it's Tommy, pulls a gun and tells them to freeze. When the person doesn't pay any attention, Roger shoots and ends up fatally wounding them. The movie then ends with the revelation of what Grandpa did to Roger: he's now the cult's leader.

Being the kind of movie that it is, there are the expected young characters here who serve as little more than cannon fodder. Vera's best friend, Beth (Patricia Christie), however, does have a bit more to her than some of the other victims. A very carefree person who encourages Vera to go to the Halloween party when she's having doubts about it, Beth also has a crush on Roger, asking for Vera to set them up (she even asks her if he looks as good out of uniform, as if Vera would have an opinion on that). While Vera is initially reluctant, telling Beth that Roger is likely not as wild as she would like, she does put them together. It actually works out really well for them, as they even make love in the cemetery that night. On the way to the party, Beth (who's dressed like Princess Diana) brings Vera by the cemetery to show where she and Roger did it, which was actually atop a grave. When Vera asks if she has any respect for the dead, Beth says they should feel honored. But while there, they uncover Brian's body. Beth accompanies Vera to her grandfather's farm to confront Tommy, the prime suspect, but since Vera tells her it's a family matter, Beth stays outside, unaware that Vera nearly gets killed in there. When she escapes, the two of them run back to the party and tell Roger about it. But while he's gone, Beth is murdered by the person who later saves Vera from her grandfather.

Poor Brian (Laurence Coven), Vera's boyfriend, is the definition of a butt-monkey during his brief screentime. First, Grandpa makes his disdain for him clear when Brian steps in while he and Vera are talking, thinking that Grandpa is just some old fart who's making her uncomfortable. He is, but Brian doesn't yet know he's her grandfather. When he's told as much, Brian tries to make up for it and talks to Grandpa more respectively, but it's too late by that point. Then, after that, he gets cock-blocked in a violent way when Tommy interrupts his and Vera's make-out session, nearly strangles him, and then throws him out of the house, threatening to kill him if he shows up again. And while stomping through the cemetery on his way home, Brian realizes he's being stalked. He runs, only to fall into an unearthed grave, with skulls and some bones at the bottom, and when he tries to climb out, he's confronted by the killer (whom he stupidly asks for help), who puts a shovel right through his skull and then buries his body.

Nora (Angel Rush, whose real name was actually Jeanna Fine), the woman whom Tommy hangs around with, is memorable for her platinum blonde hair and the large amount of skin she shows, despite not having that many scenes before she dies. In fact, she's not wearing any pants or a skirt when she's in town, buying a bunch of beers while walking around with her underwear, which looks like a diaper, fully exposed, enough to where you can see that she has a pentagram tattooed on her left butt-cheek. (Given something we see during a ceremony later on, it would make you assume she's part of the cult, but given Grandpa's attitude towards her, that doesn't seem to be the case.) After he scolds Tommy for being with her, and orders her to take him home immediately, Nora goes back to her own, high-class home, where she swims in her pool while wearing just some bikini bottoms and a shirt that leaves her breasts completely visible when it's wet. Save for a little bit where she's wearing a towel, she's literally naked for the rest of the movie, as she takes a shower, then dries herself and her hair, only to get an unexpected visitor in the form of someone dressed like one of the cultists. Assuming it's Tommy, as she knows all about his grandfather's cult and Tommy's initiation, she lets them in, makes drinks for the two of them, and tries to entice "Tommy" by showing him her "costume": she takes off her towel and says she's Lady Godiva. She proceeds to lounge naked on the couch, asking them to play as her "horsey," but instead, she gets a pitchfork into the side of her head.

During the opening in 1968, Amanda Dirby (Katina Garner) is initially portrayed as your average mother of three kids, having to deal with their squabbling and antics while trying to hang up laundry. She's horrified when Tommy cuts himself while carving a jack-o-lantern, and is then incensed when she learns he got the pumpkin from his grandfather, whom she and her husband have barred from seeing him. After Amanda smashes the pumpkin, her husband, Bill (Michael Potts), having gulped down a bottle of beer, goes to 

confront Grandpa, as Amanda, for whatever reason, doesn't want to. Amanda tries to stop Bill, saying she'll again warn her father to keep away from Tommy, but Bill notes how it clearly doesn't work and heads on out, promising to be back shortly. Despite coming upon the satanic cult in the middle of one of their rituals in Grandpa's barn, and learning he's their leader, Bill, rather foolishly, orders Grandpa to stay away from Tommy. Even goes as far as to poke him in the chest while talking to emphasize his words, and physically threatens him if he shows up again. That leads to him being murdered by one of the cultists, then set afire in his car near Tommy's house.

Thirteen years later, Amanda is now a recluse and emotional wreck. Not only is she still reeling from Bill's murder, which she knows her father and his cult were responsible for, but she can only watch helplessly as his influence over Tommy grows. Moreover, when she confronts him about it, telling him to leave Tommy alone, it's revealed that Grandpa raped her on her wedding day, leading to Tommy's conception in the first place. Between Grandpa having no intention to leave Tommy alone, and

Tommy himself completely shutting her out, Amanda starts to crumble. When she's not at Bill's grave, remembering the good times, she's bawling her eyes out over Tommy, and being smothering and overly critical towards Vera and Roger, basically wishing they would stay with her all the time and forget about having their own lives. She disapproves of everything pertaining to their social lives, from Roger's actual profession and Vera always going out to be with her friends, to Brian, Beth, and Vera. She clearly doesn't

like it when Beth shows an interest in Roger, and she later gives Vera a hard time, accusing her of not caring about the home and land that Bill left behind them. She claims she just wants to keep her family together, and at the end of the movie, we see the lengths she's willing to go to do so. It turns out that Amanda is the one in the cultist robe and mask who's been committing the murders. She's taking out anybody who threatens to steal her children away from her: Nora, Brian, and even Beth, whom she kills at the Halloween party. She also kills a random

partygoer, likely because she earlier hit on Roger while he was working security, and defends Vera from Grandpa when he shows up to kill her, mortally wounding him in the short fight they have (though, it makes you wonder why she didn't do that sooner, when she was targeting her other victims). But afterward, she's fatally shot by Roger. She manages to get out of the dance hall, then stumbles through the woods and finally reaches Bill's grave, where she collapses into a crying heap. Tommy, having now left the cult, finds her and they have a genuinely 

affectionate moment, where he apologizes for how he treated her, and she, again, says she wanted to keep her family. Before dying in his arms, she tells Tommy that she loves him and kisses him. (It's actually a well-acted moment between them.)

This is another instance where I hate to admit that a not-so-great movie managed to pull the wool over my eyes, but I can't lie: I was surprised when Amanda turned out to be the killer. I knew it wasn't Tommy, as it was far too obvious, but I figured it was either Grandpa or some member of the cult committing the murders under his orders, given how he didn't like Brian or Nora either. This seemed to be confirmed when Grandpa showed up at the end to kill Vera himself, but then, another person wearing the same 

robe and mask appears, and I was pretty shocked when Amanda took her mask off while fleeing into the woods after being shot. Granted, looking back on the movie's events, it's hard to buy that she was going around, killing people in such grisly, violent ways, some of which would take an unnatural amount of strength, but you could also say the same thing about Mrs. Voorhees in Friday the 13th.

As for the disguise that Amanda uses, that of cultists' robes, it's fine, with the black hood and shoulders, while the cloak's body is a vivid red, but nothing amazing. The devil mask, when you get a good look at it, is actually kind of cool, though not that of a horror icon. And while she does resort to the typical knife in one instance, as well as a shovel when she kills Brian, her preferred weapon, an actual pitchfork, does fit with her costume (and had already been established in one scene that I'll talk about in a bit).

Since my first viewing of Hack-o-Lantern was after it had been released in HD on Blu-Ray, I was able to see it looking about as good as it's probably ever going to. And I have to say that, despite its many faults, it is appealing to the eye when you see a good print. The prologue looks especially gorgeous, opening up with a montage of the dawn, while the rest of it is bathed in a lovely orange lighting scheme that helps give off the vibe of Halloween, as well as alludes to how this takes place thirteen years before the main story. The nighttime scene, where Bill 

discovers Grandpa's satanic cult in the barn, is also shot well and is even a tad atmospheric, with how the pitch blackness is accented by the glow from the candles that the cultists are using as part of their ceremony. While the main story is shot in a more conventional manner, at least as far as the daytime scenes go, it still looks nice, with lots of bright colors thanks to its being set on a cloudless, sunny day. And it becomes even prettier later on, when it gets close to sunset.The nighttime scenes are still nicely dark, with lots of instances of fog, and the ceremonies in

Grandpa's barn have that same lovely but eerie glow to them because of the candles. Also, the scenes at the Halloween party are often bathed in bright, vivid colors due to the different spotlights there, and Jag Mundhra and his cinematographer, Stephen Ashley Blake (who doesn't have much else of note on his resume, save for Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, which he shot before this), use various long, panning shots throughout the venue to ensure that you're able to take it all in. Finally, they shoot the

flashback to Grandpa having his way with Amanda on her wedding day in a soft, ethereal manner that makes it come off as otherworldly and dream-like, as well as, by extension, all the more unsettling. That's to say nothing of the unsettling straight on close-ups you see during this scene, with the most disturbing when Grandpa comes right at the camera with his mouth puckered, and when he gropes her breast.

I also find the locations and settings here to be very appealing. The film was shot entirely in the Los Angeles area, and while that is very clear in some scenes, there are others which feel as though they could be taking place almost anywhere in the United States. That's especially true of both the Drindle home and Grandpa's property and barn, which could be in Middle America somewhere. The former is this upper, middle-class home, with a large ranch, that's separate from the main town, located at the top of this curving hill, and it seems to become more high class

after the time skip (that could just be because it's changed due with the times and has become more modern). The property has some lovely fields and orchards, as well as the macabre addition of Bill's grave located nearby. The biggest change, however, is Tommy's living arrangement. Instead of the typical childhood bedroom he had as a kid, he now lives in this cluttered basement area that, according to Roger, is very stuffy and uncomfortable. It also has little real furniture, a "bed" that's just two mattresses stacked on

top of each other, a bench with a dumbbell, a bar he uses to do pull-ups, and various posters and pictures on the wall. When he shows Roger his closet, we see it contains lit candles, skulls, marked up dolls, weird things inside jars of liquid, and a big pentagram on the back wall, with the whole thing bathed in an unearthly red glow. Similarly, Grandpa's innocuous-looking barn has a large pentagram etched into its floor, some candles, a small altar, and a contraption which Vera's hands are tied to when Grandpa tries to get Tommy to kill her.

Other noteworthy settings include Nora's very upper-class home, with a swimming pool that looks more like an expensive, decorative fountain than something you could actually swim in, a very white bathroom, and a large, posh living room that has its own liquor bar (the color scheme, though, consisting of salmon and white, is rather "ugh,"). The cemetery, where Brian meets his end, is not only memorable because, you know, it's a cemetery, but also because it looks surprisingly beautiful in the broad daylight scene leading up to the murder. And not only is the large 

town hall where the Halloween party takes place decorated to the gills, but the people there are memorable thanks to their costumes. In addition to the band playing on the stage, you've got guys dressed up as women, including a heavyset guy wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra; a girl wearing a catgirl-style costume; a stripper who's dressed in red, with a white stoal; a woman wearing a big hat that's made to look like a salad bowl; a guy wearing a stereotypical Native American headdress; an older woman doing a 

belly dance routine with an actual boa constrictor; an Asian woman dressed up as a kind of ghost, with a dark kimono and pale face makeup (a guy asks her, "Say, wanna be my geisha?", and she says something in Japanese, which he takes as a compliment, and she then yanks his hat down and grumbles, "Buzz off, buddy,"); and a guy with a mask who suddenly goes into a standup routine for a bunch of people standing around outside (I'll get to him later).

As I've talked about before, I absolutely loved Halloween when I was a kid and still do to this day. Thus, I'm a sucker for anything that incorporates the vibe and iconography of the holiday, and Hack-o-Lantern is no exception. Not only does the prologue have that orange lighting I mentioned but I just love the visuals of Grandpa's old pickup truck that's full of pumpkins and hay bales in the back, that little rubber skeleton he gives Tommy, the little orange sack containing that satanic medallion, and the sight of Tommy carving a jack-o-lantern. It continues into the

main story-line, with Beth scaring Vera while she's in the bathtub with a fake spider, all the decorations and costumes you see at the party, the trick-or-treaters whom Roger and Beth come across in the cemetery, and not to mention the cemetery itself, the gravestones, and the nighttime fog. While it's certainly evocative of the holiday's much darker side, the cultists, their wardrobe and masks, and all of their satanic symbols and paraphernalia, can be considered part of the Halloween flavor as well. Like I said, 

those shots of Grandpa's barn give off a rustic, Midwestern sort of feeling that I often associate with the holiday (it actually makes me think of some of the visuals in Dark Night of the Scarecrow). And I love this shot of Amanda quietly lighting a jack-o-lantern on her front porch, as it nicely encapsulates the whole holiday for me.

Still, there's no denying that this thing is a total mess, and not just because of the bad acting and mediocre characters. There are numerous moments throughout the film which, for one reason or another, are completely random. Sometimes, it's just an odd choice on the filmmakers' parts, like at the beginning, when Tommy, after watching his Grandpa drive away, takes off his sunglasses and glares right at the camera (like the Cinema Snob said, it's like he's pleading for you to help him escape this movie). Other times, you get scenes that serve little to no purpose in the long 

run, like when Tommy attacks Brian while he and Vera are making out, or when he shows Roger the satanic stuff in his closet. While the former exists to set up Tommy's protective streak towards his little sister, and give Vera a reason to suspect him of Brian's murder later, it's still so sudden that, in the moment, you'll be left wondering why it just happened. But the latter literally doesn't amount to anything, as we don't see what happened after Roger comments that he now understands why Amanda doesn't want Tommy around Grandpa, if anything 

even did. And then, there are instances where the movie will briefly cut away from the main action to something else and then cut back, seemingly just to pad out the running time. After the scene between Tommy and Roger, it briefly cuts to Grandpa's farm, as we watch him get into his pickup truck and drive off, before cutting back to the Drindle home, where Amanda is now visiting Bill's grave. Yeah, there was no point to that brief cutaway, and that becomes especially true during the third act, where it'll cut 

from Vera and Beth going to confront Tommy after they find Brian's body, or their fleeing the scene after Vera is nearly sacrificed, back to the Halloween party, where nothing significant happens. Obviously, the only reason why they do that is to show off more crazy costumes or give the band they paid for more screentime.

Then, there are scenes where the story just grinds to a halt to focus on something insignificant. When night falls during the second half, we see this ceremony at the barn, which has nothing to do with Tommy's initiation later on. For about three minutes, we watch the cultists pass around this cup of goat's blood and drink from it, before indoctrinating this blonde woman by having her strip naked and get a pentagram branded onto her butt (the woman barely reacts to it, and the actual branding looks like it was drawn in ink). The following scene focuses on Roger and Beth

doing it in the cemetery, right on top of a grave, but even though Beth feels and even grips Brian's cold, dead hand poking up through the dirt, they don't discover his body until she's with Vera later on (she assumes it's Roger's hand, even though she can feel him touching her with both of them elsewhere). They're not murdered afterward, either, despite classic slasher tropes leading you to expect it. And before you think it was put in there to add some sex appeal, like the extended sequence where Nora is totally

naked, you don't see anything except their discarded clothes flying up from behind the tombstone. Shortly afterward, when the Halloween party is first established, with Roger and other partygoers watching the stripper, we cut to outside, where a character who's credited as "party comedian" comes out and entertains those milling around out there. It doesn't last as long as these other moments I've mentioned but, as it goes on and the guy tells one joke after another (some are okay, others are just cornball), you're left wondering what this has to do with anything. 

But the most random sequence, by far, is early on, when Tommy, attempting to shut out his mother as she's ranting at him outside his door, puts on some headphones and plays a cassette in his Walkman, which leads him to have a dream where he's the lead guitarist in a rock band from hell. No joke, it suddenly feels like you're watching an 80's music video, as Tommy and this band rock out in front of a violet-red, smoky backdrop; a woman in a black, tribal-style bikini, wearing a ring of bones around her waist, materializes from some bolts of lightning, in-

between what looks like the sacrificial altar pillars from King Kong; said woman later does the Kali, multiple arms motif, then dances around to a guitar solo while the film does a weird filter effect; a female singer belts out a song called Devil's Son throughout the sequence; there's some quick and sudden cutting/dissolves that's evocative of something you would've seen on MTV back then; and at the end, that woman, who's now wearing a necklace with three skulls hanging from it, shoots lasers from her eyes that

disintegrate all but Tommy, and proceeds to sing the song herself, as the two of them circle around each other. The sequence ends with her pushing Tommy to the floor, shooting his guitar with her lasers, which turn it into a silver pitchfork, and she picks it up and stabs him in the neck with it. She keeps pushing it and pushing it, as Tommy writhes around, both in the dream and in the waking world, until the woman reaches down and pulls up his severed head, after which he wakes with a gasp. As bizarre as this movie does get, nothing else like that happens.

These various digressions are indicative of how poorly written the film is, and not always in a so bad, it's good way, either. Like I said in the intro, the film tends to meander, cutting from the actual plot to those inconsequential moments and scenes I described up above, and it gets to be a bit mind-numbing after a while. Also, the parade over-the-top satanic panic schlock, slasher sleaziness, full nudity, and attempts at comic relief don't mix well with the more uncomfortable aspects of the story, namely that

Grandpa raped his own daughter on her wedding day, resulting in Tommy. While I did initially enjoy how the opening gradually introduces sinister connotations into what initially seems like a wholesome scene between a kid and his grandfather, that later revelation creates a feeling of ickiness when you look back on the opening in retrospect. The flashback to the rape itself, while not showing more than Grandpa forcing a kiss on her and fondling her breast, is still disturbing, obviously, with its stylized execution and 

lack of any sound, save for the music, making it all the more so. It's also unsettling and unpleasant how he's continuing to cruelly lord this over Amanda, admitting that he'd do it again if he could, as well as how he tells her that there's nothing she can do to stop his diabolical intentions for Tommy. When coupled with the mental anguish she has over her husband's murder, compounded by how Grandpa now wears one of Bill's bones around his neck, the transition from these scenes, and those of the whole Drindle family 

drama, to the more overdone and comedic ones, isn't always the smoothest. And finally, the ending, where it's revealed that Roger is now the head of the cult, is eye-rolling. It's not completely random, as you see Grandpa do something to Roger before he dies at the party, using that satanic hand gesture on Roger's forehead, but it comes off as a desperate attempt at either a sequel-bait or just a shock ending.

Another problem with the writing is that the story feels cluttered and overstuffed. You not only have the situation with Grandpa and his bad influence on Tommy, and the killings that are being committed (which you don't even realize are separate from the former until late into the story), but you also have the focus on Amanda's crumbling psyche and desire to keep her family together, Vera's dealing with what's going on in her family, as well as putting her friend together with her brother, Roger's burgeoning relationship with Beth, and, during the third act,

Tommy leaving the cult, Grandpa planning to kill Vera for her interference, and the final confrontation where Amanda is revealed to be the killer, not to mention that ending. Thankfully, it's not as overly long and drawn out as Dreamcatcher, but like that movie, it is still a clusterfuck, with too many plot-lines and characters to keep track of.

On a technical level, there are some instances of really bad ADR here and there, with one of the most egregious being when Grandpa begins the ceremony where they drink the goat's blood and brand that naked woman; some of the words he says during this scene do not fit his lips at all. Also, when that stripper comes down to do her thing during the party, the transition from the song the band is already playing to the music they play for her is very abrupt, as the former suddenly fades out and the latter starts up.

While the film certainly has slasher elements, it has a fairly low body count and only a few memorably gory kills. In fact, the first grisly makeup effect is during that rocking dream sequence, when Tommy is stabbed in the throat with the pitchfork. Whereas the gore effects during the actual kills are typically shown only in very quick cuts, the camera lingers on this first one, even if Tommy's struggling and writhing, as well as the dark cinematography in the close-ups, make it hard to pick out the details (likely deliberate, as it looks as though it's just some fake blood on his neck,

with nothing to simulate any puncture wounds). The bloody severed head that the woman then picks up, however, looks really gnarly, and is shot from just the right angle to make it effective. (I would question how she was able to decapitate him with a weapon not meant for that but, whatever. It's a dream.) The first onscreen death, that of Nora, has her getting a pitchfork in the side of her head, with blood gushing out of her mouth. It's a fair enough effect, although it's ruined a bit by how you can see Nora breathing after the pitchfork is ripped out of her (that's 

something of a common problem in this film), as well as by some small, orange-looking splotches of blood on the French window behind her. Brian's death in the cemetery looks really nasty, as he gets a shovel right into his skull, with blood gushing out of it. However, he doesn't look all that bad when Vera and Beth dig up his body that night (mainly because I don't think they applied the actual prosthetic again and, instead, just put some dirt and blood on him). The random partygoer who hit on Roger earlier is killed in the 

dressing room, where she gets her corset tightened really taut, then receives a knife right into her back, resulting in a wound where blood gushes out. Vera and Beth later find her dead in there, but think she's passed out from drinking too much.  And speaking of Beth, she gets strangled from behind and Vera finds her hanging in the closet, with streaks of blood oozing out of her nose and mouth (for some reason). Like Bill's death at the beginning, the last two kills, Grandpa and Amanda, are completely bloodless: Grandpa gets a pitchfork stabbed into him and falls from atop a small flight of stairs, while Amanda is simply shot in the back.

There are some visual effects to be found here, albeit in a very limited capacity and dated manner. It consists of some old-fashioned matting and animation work, mostly in Tommy's dream, when that woman materializes out of the bolts of lightning and when she shoots lasers out of her eyes (which glow red, while the lasers themselves are green) that "disintegrate" the band by enveloping them in green, after which they disappear, until Tommy is the only one left. A similar effect like the latter is used at the end, when Grandpa curses Roger to become the cult's new leader.

It probably goes without saying, but there's never any tension here, be it in the buildup to the kill scenes or when Vera is captured by the cult and Grandpa tries to get Tommy to kill her in order to prove his devotion to Satan. You just know from her pleading, as well as his earlier established soft spot for her, that Tommy isn't going to go through with it, and it's also not surprising when he, instead, cuts her loose so she can escape. Afterward, Tommy is ostracized from the cult and runs off into the woods, disappearing until the very end; meanwhile, Vera and Beth run back to the

party, tell Roger what happened, and he, along with the police sergeant and another officer, head out to the farm. Although that random woman is killed in the midst of all this, for the most part, this is another instance where the movie feels like it's twiddling its thumbs. While the cops find nothing but an empty barn, Vera and Beth mill around at the dance, until they go into the dressing room, and find the latest victim, whom they think is in a drunken stupor, slumped in the corner (as if her deathly pale skin, half-open eyes, and lack of breathing wasn't enough 

of a sign that she's shaken off the mortal coil). Vera leaves Beth in there to hang her coat up in the closet, only for the disguised Amanda to emerge from it and kill Beth, before hanging her body in the closet (given how small that closet is, I don't know how Beth didn't see her before but, then again, this is the same woman who didn't realize she was holding a corpse's cold hand while making out with Roger). Vera then comes back in to see what's keeping Beth, only to find her body, and realizes that the other partygoer is dead as 

well. She ducks out of the dressing room and comes upon who she thinks is Tommy, as they're wearing a cultist robe and mask. However, it turns out to be Grandpa, and he prepares to kill her, only to be confronted by the still disguised Amanda, wielding a pitchfork. Grandpa grabs a machete from another partygoer, and he and Amanda briefly get into a classic sword duel while heading up the stairs, before Grandpa is fatally stabbed and falls to the floor

below. From there, in rapid succession, Roger returns, Grandpa curses him, he fatally shoots Amanda, she runs back to her property and collapses at Bill's grave, where she and Tommy have one last tender moment, and Roger, at some point (no idea how long after the fact the ending is set), becomes the cult's new leader.

This is yet another not-so-great movie that actually has a pretty good music score. In this case, it's courtesy of Greg Haggard, who, around this time, also did some music for a few episodes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. The main title theme initially sounds like it's going to be a tad upbeat and silly, but when it begins in earnest, it's actually a solemn, downbeat, electronic piece of music (unfortunately, thanks to the Cinema Snob, I can't unhear how the main melody does sound an awful lot like the theme to Channel Awesome movie, Kickassia). It has a sound akin to that of a church organ, and is accentuated by an occasional series of bell tolls. The music also helps make Tommy's scene with his grandfather at the beginning initially feel innocent, but it starts to turn sinister afterward, and there are some truly atmospheric parts of the score for when Bill goes to Grandpa's farm to confront him, with the music going all in on the church organ sound there as well. One part where the score gets a bit silly is when the movie transitions from young Tommy to adult Tommy, as this fast-tempo synth music starts playing, which does fit with that scene. Also, during the flashback to Grandpa raping Amanda, Haggard goes for a sort of silent movie feel to the music, as well as some more synth, and it kind of clashes with the disturbing nature of what you're seeing. And the music for Roger and Beth's love scene is a bit cheesy. But other than those hiccups, the score isn't too shabby, especially whenever it accentuates Amanda's mental anguish (the music plays during her and Tommy's final moments together at the end is genuinely poignant).

The soundtrack, however, is the definition of 80's, and as corny as it is, you can't help but love it. I've already mentioned Devil's Son, performed by D.C. La Croix, which plays both during Tommy's dream and at the start of the ending credits. After that, you have the songs the band plays during the Halloween party, like Against the Law by The Mercenaries (I always remember the lyrics that go, "You can't do it, you can't do it,"), which also plays during the ending credits, Sweet Dreams (no, it's not a cover of the Eurythmics song), and I Know You Don't Mean What You Say, which are both performed by Haggard himself. And the music that stripper does her stuff to is this electric guitar/piano number that isn't the sexiest thing you've ever heard, but is still fun to listen to.

Hack-o-Lantern isn't likely to become an all-time Halloween favorite, and, what's more, as bad as it is, it's not consistently entertaining enough to be considered a classic on that score, either. On the truly positive side, it does have some well-done cinematography and interesting examples of style, as well as some nice locations and settings, a handful of enjoyable makeup effects and gory kills, a not too bad music score, and, above all else, it really embraces the feel and vibe of the holiday itself. What's more, Hy Pyke gives an entertainingly over-the-top performance, the music video-like dream sequence is really random but definitely memorable, and the soundtrack is awesome for anybody who loves cheesy 80's rock music. But, all that said, the movie has major story problems, as it's very cluttered, with one too many plot-lines and characters to keep up with; there are many moments where it digresses into something that's either inconsequential in the long run or just random; the subject matter of incestuous rape does not mix well with how ridiculous and goofy much of the rest of it is; many of the characters aren't acted well and are also downright stupid in some instances; and the climax is nothing to write home about, with the final scene coming off as a desperate attempt to end with a shock. As always, I encourage anybody who's interested to, if nothing else, give it a chance and judge for yourself, as you might actually find yourself a new traditional flick to watch every year, especially if you like bad movies. But Hack-o-Lantern is another movie that I don't see myself watching again now that this review, and this second Schlocktober, is behind me.