The Weirdest, Most Bizarre Creature Feature of the Year Just Hit Hulu

Carved is the latest horror-comedy to hit Hulu as part of its yearly celebration of Huluween, and it's easily one of the craziest creature features of the year. Based on Justin Harding's 2018 short film of the same name, Carved is a campy ode to horror B-movies of the '80s and '90s. A small New England town recovering from a deadly tragedy is suddenly terrorized by a mutated pumpkin that comes to life and embarks on a violent killing spree, which is just as ridiculous as it sounds. Its motivations are simple: kill everyone who mutilated its fellow pumpkin brethren during the annual pumpkin carving contest. The film's narrative is straightforward enough, but the mutant pumpkin's creature design and its creative and vicious kills are what make Carved worth a watch this Halloween.

What Is 'Carved' About?

Set on Halloween night in 1993, the (fictional) historic pioneer village of Cedar Creek is celebrating their annual Pumpkin Fest, one year removed from the trail derailment and chemical spill that devastated their community. An opportunistic reporter shows up under the guise of covering the festival, but is really there to discuss the deadly disaster that took place a year earlier. Aspiring playwright Kira (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) directs a musical retelling of the haunted history of Cedar Creek and dreams of a different life in New York City, but is forced to take care of her little brother Trevor (Wyatt Lindner) after their parents died during the trail derailment. When local stoner Clint (Matty Cardarople) stumbles across a massive, freaky looking pumpkin on his father's property and brings it to the pumpkin carving contest, all hell breaks loose.

As soon as the pumpkin carving contest begins, said pumpkin comes to life and starts violently murdering the contestants, its vines acting as arms that impale, scalp, and behead its victims. As the bodies pile up and the crowd scatters, Kira, Trevor, and a ragtag group of survivors join forces to escape the pumpkin's bloodthirsty wrath, though some are luckier than others.

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'Carved's Creature Design Turns a Mutated Pumpkin Into a Formidable Villain

Though the concept of an animated killer pumpkin is inherently funny, the creature design in Carved makes the animated pumpkin an antagonist that's also spooky and disturbing. Before it even comes to life, there's something unsettling about its unnaturally large size and gnarled appearance, but once it begins its attack on the festival goers, it becomes downright horrifying. The vines emerging from the pumpkin's mouth and eyes come to life and act as its legs. The creature darts around like a spider, using its legs to stab, choke, and decapitate its victims. As it seeks to exterminate anyone who participated in the pumpkin carving contest – which includes Trevor – it can even use its legs to burrow under the ground to locate its victims, making it all but impossible to escape.

Maddie (Sasha Mason) deduces that the mutant pumpkin is a result of the infamous chemical spill, and also notices that the pumpkin is a female, with a blossom emerging from the top and emitting a screeching noise to taunt its prey. This detail poses a further threat when Kira and company discover its baby mutant pumpkins that must be destroyed to save the town from future attacks. The creature is both unpredictable and methodical, intent on killing those who carved up its fellow pumpkins during the contest, but also attacking anyone who crosses its path.

Carved's use of both practical effects and CGI to bring its ferocious pumpkin to life works to its advantage, and Harding was inspired to use practical effects by movies like Tremors, Gremlins, and Aliens. As Harding told ABC 7 News, "The idea was to make a classic '90s-style monster movie using classic '90s-style film techniques. Puppets, reverse-photography, sort of old-school techniques." C arved's mutant pumpkin isn't scary enough to give hard-core horror fans nightmares or make you look twice at the jack-o'-lantern on your front porch, but its clever use of practical effects make it a compelling creature feature, as do its increasingly absurd and violent kills. The novelty of watching an animated pumpkin murder people is made even more entertaining by its creative and gruesome methods of attack, including a scene where the pumpkin wields and disembowels one of its victims using a kitchen knife. The unseriousness of the film's conceit and the shockingly violent kills that accompany it make Carved a fun, spooky watch before Huluween comes to an end.

Carved (2024)

Release Date October 21, 2024

Director Justin Harding

Cast Peyton Elizabeth Lee , Corey Fogelmanis , Wyatt Lindner , Carla Jimenez , Sasha Mason , Jonah Lees , DJ Qualls , Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur , Elvis Nolasco , Matthew Cardarople , Jackson Kelly , Chris Elliott

Writers Justin Harding , Cheryl Meyer

Carved is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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