The Pumpkin Man

Suffice it to say that I had never actually heard about this 2023 horror movie titled "The Pumpkin Man" from director Ryan Sheets prior to stumbling upon it by random luck here in 2024. And with it being a horror movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

Since I had no idea what I was in for here, then director Ryan Sheets had every opportunity to impress and entertain me.

The story in "The Pumpkin Man", as written by Janae Muchmore, Jeff Rhodes, Nick Romary and Ryan Sheets, was sort of okay I guess. Truth be told, I wasn't really expecting to sit down and watch a horror movie that sort of felt like it was aimed at a young adult audience. But some of the scenes were rather graphic to be suitable for a young adult audience, so the movie was a bit all over the place.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list in this 2023 horror movie. And that is actually something I enjoy when I sit down and watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were actually fair. It was writer and director Ryan Sheets whom portrayed The Pumpkin man as well in the movie. Talk about going all in, huh?

Watchable, sure, but "The Pumpkin Man" was not an outstanding or memorable horror experience. Watchable for a few visceral scenes here and there, but you're not in for a grand horror experience from the narrative.

My rating of "The Pumpkin Man" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Well it was a good effort. The movie oozes Halloween spirit and pumpkin madness as promised. A good modern film addition for the Halloween season. However, it was not a sufficient effort to put it in the cadre of seasonal classics. For example, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, for Christmas, and the original 'Halloween' (Michael Meyers) movie for Halloween. This Pumpkin Man movie does not even come close to that, but being that there are actually limited actual Halloween themed movie choices out there, and the fact that this was a very solid attempt at first time feature film creators and actors, this movie is well, meh. However it delivers on Halloween themed suspense and occasional Pumpkin Man gore. So, it checks all the Halloween boxes, and does so fairly well. Acting was meh. Script and plot meh. Cinematography, sound(track), color, visuals, and overall Halloween ambience are pretty good to very good. It's not a great movie, but it is good edition to the Halloween holiday spooky season, and pumpkins a plenty. It is NOT a waste of time and could be a good movie to just have on the background during the Halloween holiday. That's just about the best compliment I can give it. It got a few extra stars on the rating simply for delivering on Halloween theme and not being terrible.

I've followed the South Ridge Films YouTube channel for a few years and I was really excited to see them get a feature film released, so big congrats to Ryan Sheets and the team.

The movie itself is quite good for fans of the low budget horror sub genre. The movie looks stunning and and the colors and visuals are great. The cinematography is excellent, and The Pumpkin Man himself looks great and is captured well on film.

The film oozes the Halloween season and is perfect for that time of year. I had a lot of fun and am anxious to see what is next for The Pumpkin Man and the team behind it.

Get the Blu-ray from Scream Team Release for some fun special features too.