Carved is More Fun than Hacking Up a Jack O’Lantern

The Huluween season is alive and well, with the streamer’s third dose of original horror titles just in time for Halloween—and Jack O’Lantern season. Plucking Justin Harding’s 2018 short film Carved from the Pumpkin Patch, Hulu keeps with their trend of turning short film concepts into feature-length narratives, as they did with the recent Mr. Crocket. Those who’ve seen the Carved short may remember a family meeting their end at a vicious, ragged-looking pumpkin when they try to turn it into a front steps display, and the feature follows in similar shoes. However, the concept for the movie is far more ambitious than I thought a film about a killer pumpkin would go. Carved starts with a bang, offering a multitude of bodies everywhere in the initial frames. Blood is strewn around a carving contest table and the surrounding farmhouse walls. And that thing that goes bump in the night—it’s bumping.

The viewer is in the thick of it here, and there’s a lot of cause for excitement as the camera pans past a sign that reads “staff carving contest.” It’s surely a morose pun in the Freddy Kruger vein while tendrils wriggle on the screen against the sounds of knives creating deep, cavernous flesh wounds and blood-curdling squelching sounds, but It’s a gorgeous macabre cacophony that feels like home to me. The familiar face of Mr. Crocket’s Elvis Nolasco graces the screen as a reporter desperate to escape a bad situation while documenting the entire spectacle. Regardless of how I would feel by the time Carved ended, I knew Harding would make it a fun ride getting there.

Traveling back to the start of the day for context, Carved focuses on a group of drama club kids who have more drama going on behind the scenes than the community play they’re performing on stage. Kira (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) just found out that her boyfriend Cody (Corey Fogelmanis) is leaving town without her and doesn’t know how to tell her little brother Trevor (Wyatt Lindner), who looks up to him. Joining this group is a corporate transplant family led by Bill (Supernatural’s DJ Qualls), who are there to cover up, propagandize, and mitigate claims against a chemical company that (whoopsie!) spilled some bad non-specific stuff in the quaint village a year earlier.

With the odd pairing pushed together through the circumstances of a pumpkin seeking revenge for his chopped-up brethren at an autumnal gathering gone awry. Co-writers Harding and Cheryl Meyer could easily conform their plot into a verbose Walking Dead essay on group dynamics, filled with differentiating viewpoints on politicized values. Yet, Carved functions on the dynamic of ‘lay back, relax, and have some fun,’ which, considering it’s two weeks before the Presidential election, plays very welcoming as an excuse to disengage from the doomscroll for ninety-five minutes. Even the subtextual chemical spill plays more like a nod to Return of the Living Dead and doesn’t strive for anything deeper. In fact, the whole film feels like an amalgamation of familiar tropes and sequences, Frankensteined together for funsies.

A lot of tight and close framing is used to create the creepy-crawly tension of the pumpkin’s tendril-like root system, leaving wide shots few and far between, which may be based on the film’s cramped locations. The practical effects have an incredible 80’s nostalgic appeal. The monster is a marvel of gnarly delight, while a scalping scene had me grinning gleefully. Carved’s CGI counterparts are acceptable, though they leave something to be desired, especially with how lovingly puppeteered the film’s creature is. The result here is a vibe of an old-school late-night made-for-tv movie, and there’s a lot of charm in that.

Carved is fun, but it isn’t going to hit with every horror lover. It’s silly, messy, has a ridiculous number of plot holes, and an instantly tedious character narrative that it helpfully diffuses for most of the movie. However, lots of gore, interesting side-plots (Bill and Kev forever!), reckless decisions, and unique kills keep the film from growing stale. It’s pure slasher entertainment and it’s a blast! The cameo power of Scary Movie 2’s Chris Elliott and Stranger Things’ Matty Cardarople, along with the fantastic role of The Mick’s Carla Jimenez, certainly helps. So, turn off your brain and indulge in the pumpkin spice like a latte-drinking soccer mom on their way to Target. Carved is a pure serotonin injection for the season. It’s far from a perfectly Carved pumpkin, but it’s worth giving this creature feature a try.

Carved is now streaming on Hulu.

Carved | Official Trailer | Hulu

Ripe for revenge. This Huluween, stream #CarvedHulu on October 21st. SUBSCRIBE TO HULU’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL Click the link to subscribe to our channel for the latest shows & updates: http://www.youtube.com/hulu?sub_confirmation=1 START YOUR FREE TRIAL http://hulu.com/start FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hulu/ Hulu on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hulu Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hulu ABOUT HULU Hulu is the leading all-in-one premium streaming service that offers an expansive slate of live and on-demand entertainment, both in and outside the home.