Very well executed

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

"The Pumpkin Karver" is a terrible film. It's that simple. It's trying to be a slasher, but offers very little slashing. It's dumb, not scary, and most importantly, not entertaining.The plot is so thin, it was probably written on a Kleenex, or a napkin. It doesn't make sense, somehow, the guy, who is obviously murdered in the first 10 minutes, is the killer. The plot: on one Halloween, Johnathan and his sister, Lynn or something, are carving pumpkins, when Lynn's boyfriend tries to scare her. Bad scare scene later, and he's dead, the result of John's carving. One year later, they're going to a costume party (not in costume, wtf?) when they meet a creepy old guy with pumpkins. Several lame, and obviously fake party scenes later, and people are coming up dead. More bad party scenes, scenes of the killer failing to kill, bad gore scenes, and the killer turns out to be... The old man, or the guy he killed in the beginning, who knows, who cares? Yup, the plot is bad. Yes, the acting is incredibly lame, and the gore, once again, bad. I could make better gore effects in my basement, in 10 minutes. Oh, and if you're expecting gore, keep looking. There is, maybe, 3 gore scenes in the entire movie. Sure there are more killings, but with barely any gore. So you're going to have to sit through many, many, many bad party scenes.Just skip this movie, if you're unfortunate enough to have seen it, I'm sorry.

The Pumpkin Karver starts one Halloween night as Lynn Starks (associate producer Amy Weber) prepares for a party, her younger brother Jonathan (Michael Zara) carves spooky faces in Pumpkins because, well, that's what he likes to do I suppose. Lynn's annoying jerk of a boyfriend Alec (David J. Wright) decides to play a Halloween prank on her & attacks her with a fake knife, Lynn is scared & calls out for help & Jonathan comes running with a very real knife of his own & stabs Alec to death. Jump forward One Year Later & Lyn & Jonathan are moving to the small town of Carver in order to forget the terrible events of a year ago, once there the first thing they do is prepare for another Halloween party with some local teens but that tragic events of a year ago still haunt Jonathan & when someone in a mask similar to what Alec wore starts killing people no-one is safe but who is it? Is it Jonathan? Is it the crazy old man? Is it the ghost of Alec? Who know's...Co-written & directed by Robert Mann this is your typical teen slasher that happens to be set around Halloween so comparisons to John Carpenter's seminal classical Halloween (1978) may arise but the two films are very different in terms of style & tone, while nowhere near the worst teen slasher I have seen that's by no means any sort of recommendation as The Pumpkin Karver is still a pretty damned bad 90 odd minutes. The script has some silly theme about Pumpkin carvers (the whole town is called Carver & the guy who founded it is a top Pumpkin carver himself) running through it, seriously the way some of these character's go on you would think it's an Olympic sport! The plot here is fairly basic with some sort of prank going horribly wrong & someone ending up dead or seriously injured & then on the anniversary of the accident teens start getting killed off, it's very familiar teen slasher territory to be honest & The Pumpkin Karver adds nothing to the mix. The body count isn't particularly high, the murders are forgettable & the character's are all horror film clichés although the girls do look very nice I have to say. I would say that the biggest problem with The Pumpkin Karver is the confusing narrative, the ending is supposed to be a twist but it's poorly done & you never quite know whether it's going for a supernatural angle or an unstoppable undead killer one, the whole body switching twist revealed at the end could have been used more effectively that's for sure.There's not even more gore to compensate for the lame & predictable story, a woman has her face cut with a knife, a guy is impaled on a huge drill, a guy is decapitated while taking a leak & ends up urinating on his own severed head (don't ask) & there's a bit of blood splatter but overall The Pumpkin Karver is pretty tame. There's zero nudity as well & I can't believe the makers killed off the best looking girl in the whole film so early, just another reason to dislike it I suppose. Generally speaking the film is competent & reasonably well made for what it is but there very little tension, hardly any build-up to the kills & scares are limited to people suddenly walking into shot & scaring various people who weren't expecting them. The whole film looks too bright & being set in a small desert town there's no Hollween late autumn feeling or atmosphere. The killer mask which looks like a rotten Pumpkin face is sort of cool & there's a amusing little Men in Black (1997) parody at the start but their hardly worth the effort of seeing the film for.With a supposed budget of about $1,000,000 it's competent as I said but bring nothing new to the slasher genre & doesn't particularly make a good job of ripping-off other better films. Apparently filmed in Lancaster in California. The acting is alright, as I said the girls her are very hot looking so that helps but not enough in the end.The Pumpkin Karver is a basic teen slasher film that can't decide if it wants a rational explanation to the twist ending or a supernatural one & in the end just feels like a mess. The fact there's hardly any kills doesn't help either.

"The Pumpkin Karver" is a rather surprising and fun modern slasher.**SPOILERS**Following a tragic Halloween accident, Lynn, (Amy Weber) and Jonathan Starks, (Michael Zara) move to a new town to forget their past. Meeting up with locals Tammy Boyles, (Minka Kelly) and her friends Amber, (Lindsey Carpenter) Connie, (Rachelle Clune) Vicki, (Briana Gerber) Joe, (Thomas Hurn) Lance, (David Austin) and A.J., (Jonathan Conrad) who are trying to prepare for a special party. As he's still being haunted by the incident from his past, where he mistakenly killed a man in self-defense wearing a Halloween mask, he begins to believe that someone wearing the same mask is following him around in town. When a series of murders around town make the others start to believe that his stories are true, the real reason is blamed on a town legend involving a spirit known as The Pumpkin Karver, and they race to stop it before it's too late.The Good News: There's actually some good stuff in this one when it counts. The film has a really impressive and unique looking killer, with a rotting pumpkin mask that actually has worms and other things sticking out of it, leaving a really great impression with it's wicked smile and twisted glare. There's also one of the greatest back-story set-ups ever, with the opening murder scene. It's one of the greatest accidental murders in the genre, coming across as a genuine, only-one-way-to-take-it accident and is actually a fun scene in it's own right, making it appear even better than just being the one great moment. The film also manages to get it's killing moments into the last half, giving that a whirlwind pace which gets the film ending on a high note. From the last forty minutes are full of fun, brutal, suspenseful action-packed moments all rolled together to make it very fun. The first attack, inside the parking lot, is a fun little mini-sequence that end on a pretty nice gore moment, the wander through the pumpkin patch has very little that doesn't work for it including a little suspense and bloody gore, and the big fight in the garage at the very end is rather interesting. There's also a really fantastic stalking sequence thrown in through the garage before it happens which gets some pretty tense moments in, a couple interesting confrontations and an incredibly interesting and original conclusion to it. It even has a really nice and sleazy scene in the middle to throw in some nudity in it as well. All of these here make the film watchable.The Bad News: This one here doesn't have that many flaws, but they are there. One of the main ones is that the film has a pretty low body-count for such a big cast. This one here manages to put up a respectable-sized amount for the actual killing, places them in an isolated location with a maniac that has a unique weapon of choice, and yet there's almost none in here outside of a couple near the middle. This one had a perfectly nice amount to knock off yet there's too many left at the end who don't get knocked off. There's also the fact that the mythology for the killer's return is a little confusingly handled, as there's a back-story given but there's no real follow-up from it to the others. The biggest flaw, though, is that there's a real slow part to get going. There's a lot going on in it, introducing all the characters in the town and then the family relationship which takes up a lot of time. Then ingraining them into the town's traditions and practices takes up a little more time, and before it's all done, there's about half the time in the film before anything happens at all. It's slow-going is made up for with it's fun second half, but the wait to get there is a little much. Otherwise, these here are the film's only flaws.The Final Verdict: An enjoyable, if somewhat flawed modern slasher that offers up at least elements of entertainment mixed in with the other facets it has. Give this a shot if interested in the more modern slashers or don't mind a slightly flawed film, otherwise heed caution with this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity

Jonathan(Michael)is tormented by the tragic death at his hands, when he accidentally murdered his sister's boyfriend, thinking he was protecting her from a real killer during a really stupid prank gone awry. Lynn(Amy Weber) decides it might be best if they packed up and headed for a Halloween party in the boonies..the country farm plantation town of Carver for some much needed fun away from the horror of the past. Jonathan is receiving frightening supernatural threats from the person he killed and several teenagers are dying at the hands of a psycho in a warped pumpkin mask with a carving blade. Is the killer actually Lynn's dead boyfriend, who might've received a passage from hell to torment Jonathan? Could the killer actually be nutty, belligerent farmer Ben(Terrence Evans)who owns the plantation and has the unique ability to carve pumpkins skillfully?The kind of cheap slasher horror crap you expect with added moronic premise of a possible fiend from hell manifesting himself through Jonathan. The characters are the annoying boozer types you expect..it's too bad not enough them meet their doom. Cheap horror effects do not help matters. Amy Weber provides some much needed eye candy, quite well built in her tight jeans and smallish shirt. Minka Kelly as Jonathan's love interest Tammy provides a worthy heroine to root for. Not much to recommend about this one, except the setting provides old farm houses, steel sheds & silos for the killer to roam and hide. Unusual for this type of slasher flick..no nudity to speak of. Not as many death sequences either, and most of those are unsuccessfully lame or off-camera. Terrence Evans is quite over-the-top as farmer Ben, always ranting and raving like a loony regarding everyone's lack of the ability to carve..not to mention the jargon he spits about Jonathan's evil taking over. There are actually kids in this film named Bonedaddy and Spinner..so if that doesn't inform you what kind of movie awaits nothing will.