Hack-O-Lantern (1988)

 

I'll start by saying this: there were a few things here and there I did like in Hack-O-Lantern (1988). The film as a whole very much resembles a lot of low budget horror films in the late 80s. This was most definitely on the shelves of horror sections in rental stores of my youth. It never made it into my own VCR at home, though.

So just a bit of my own back story. There was really only one rental store where I could get R-rated films. I mentioned this in the past that there was this appliance store with movie rentals more or less helped to keep those who owned the store out of the red. So the rules of not renting out R-rated films weren't as enforced because those behind the counter wanted to get back to selling their washing machines and lawnmowers. Other stores did enforce their rules so I can remember all these horror movies on shelves I couldn't rent. I can only imagine Hack-O-Lantern's box would have bulged my eyes even as I had no opportunity to ever rent it. Still, you age if you are fortunate and get the chance eventually. Teenagers, or plenty of them now, do have that luxury. It is amazing what you can find on YouTube, Tubi, and Shudder. All those movies, like Hack-O-Lantern, I do hope, get a chance to meet the eyes and attention of future horror fans who will either reject or accept them. But the idea that they all just fade into obscurity is tragic to me. Look, films like Hack-O-Lantern are an acquired taste...that is an oft-used description of horror films in general, really. 

Shot by Jag Mundhra, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of the genre and bring whatever he thought he could to it, Hack-O-Lantern focuses on an old Satanist cult leader's (Hy Pyke) plans for a grandson (the hulking Gregory Scott Cummins, with this snarl and sour expression fixed always on his face), while some killer in a devil mask, black suit, and red cape is taking out victims close to the grandpa's family. Pyke's desire to fully graduate Cummins into his cult -- a cult that meets for their Satanic meetings in a barn, wearing their attire, with the pentagram/goat combo available for aesthetic and worship purposes -- is very, very important to him. The question is: is that full and complete indoctrination so important Hy would kill to make sure Cummins is in his cult officially?

I mentioned at the start there are a few things I actually did like even if the film really didn't punch my ticket. I think if you are in a Halloween mood, this film might just appeal to you. I think Mundhra had just enough Halloween (there are lots of pumpkins in pastures and on walls as decorum) to make sure the holiday and season are represented as a particular motif and backdrop for the plot. I think the killer's get-up is just right for the backdrop, and that shovel-to-the-head kill is gnarly. And, quite surprisingly, I thought the angle involving a mother wanting to keep her family together (two sons and daughter) while opposing her father with icky incestuous feelings towards her -- something reiterated time and again between a mother and her young adult children -- got across with me. I actually understood her perspective while Cummings holds her at the graveside of the murdered father/husband, established at the beginning as a direct threat to the position and authority of Hy in regards to his recruitment of Cummins as a kid into the Satanist cult fold.

I didn't anticipate a lot of nudity, but learned that the director hired porn stars comfortable naked in order to get plenty of it in his movie. Jeanna Fine, in particular, has a full body nude scene after a shower when confronted by the killer and meets the end of a pitchfork...it is ironic if anything. 

The rock video dream sequence with music from DC La Croix where Cummins is speared in the throat with a pitchfork is also inspired, although, I think reactions to it will be on the amusement side. This is where the film is most aged, taking us back to the hair metal era of music.

The acting is rough. The 80s horror industry as far as nickle-and-dime productions went often hired those who perhaps hoped to make it somehow. But there is a reason why they were often one-and-done. But, heck, at least if the films can survive obscurity and neglect, that one lone acting credit will keep them alive and well. The striptease at a Halloween party seems out of left field and random, but Mundhra wanted his nudity and got it in his film. The family dynamic really left me wanting to take a shower. The grandpa is a sleaze and openly hostile...his daughter tries to combat his impression on her son, even desperately coming at him using his own methods of violence and disguise. I will admit that I wasn't always captivated by the presentation...Mundhra was really handicapped by his budget and the cast was very much what it was.

Cummins and Hy sharing their Hail Satan hand gesture

Hy and his Devil's Horns

Concerned Mama

There is a second son who is a motorcycle cop (though, the motorcycle isn't department issue) and closer to his mom than Cummins played by Jeff Brown, a softie with a gentle heart, innocuous to a fault. So the irony of the ending when Hy passes on his evil to Brown is not lost on me. That is a touch I can appreciate as a horror fan...yes, it could be seen as campy, I get that. Brown's sister's (Katina Garner) friend, Beth (Patricia Christie) takes a liking to him and eventually comes an off screen but inferred fuck at a graveyard before the big Halloween party. So Carla Baron as the mom, Vera, remains uptight and vocal about how her adult children are gradually moving out of her life, growing up, and supposedly leaving her behind. I think that does resonate all the way to the end. Here is her yucky dad trying to take one son, ultimately possessing another, ultimately undone by her need to protect her kids from the man who destroyed her own life. Maybe that can punch through all the amateurishness of the production. 2.5/5

This was watched through a special Joe Bob Briggs' Halloween episode during the pandemic year. Issues with Joe's crew led to them leaving the set in protest for bad wages and improper treatment with the host ultimately singing about it in a depressing hymn with a light dimmed low. It was an amusing recurring theme Joe, Darcy (who is not responding well to the use of a Ouija Board), and Austin, his director, play to the hilt. Joe does give us his customary, well-informed, well put together information dump and insight.