Heavy
Metal horror movies are an unmistakable staple of the 1980s, arguably beginning
with Heavy Metal and its colorful
smorgasbord of science fiction animation and horror before the likes of Demons, Trick or Treat, Black Roses and
Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare made
long-haired head banging terror into a subgenre all its own. The straight-to-video Halloween horror
vehicle Hack-o-Lantern, released on a
remastered blu-ray courtesy of Massacre Video, is another such entry in the
hair-past-shoulders length 80s demon horror fest involving a Satanic cult which
isn’t quite as wild as Ernest Borgnine’s cult in The Devil’s Rain but still has enough scenery chewing and
over-the-top deaths of its own to make it worth your while.
Set
in October around the time of Halloween Night, we happen upon a small family
whose Devil worshipping grandfather (Hy Pyke) is trying to indoctrinate young
son Tommy (Gregory Scott Cummins) into his Satanic cult. Efforts are thwarted by Tommy’s mother
(Katina Garner), but not before the cult murders his father, leaving the evil
granddad free reign to groom Tommy into his right hand man in the ways of
Beelzebub including but not limited to growing out his hair, wearing heavy
metal rocker attire and fashioning his own bedroom shrine to the Lord of
Darkness himself. Only his younger cop
brother Roger (Jeff Brown) and little sister Vera (Carla Baron) stand a chance
at rescuing Tommy from his grandfather’s plans to transform the man into a
vessel for Lucifer in the flesh.
Much
like the Golan-Globus production The Last
American Virgin, Hack-o-Lantern is
characterized by Indian director Jag Mundhra’s cultural disconnect from the
all-American material he’s tasked with directing. Featuring a high-school Halloween party that
happens to include a fully nude stripper everyone takes in stride, sex in a cemetery
atop a recently buried dead body, more full blown T&A than most skin flicks
and a heavy metal nightmare involving a long haired exotic dancer with a
pitchfork, this is a hair-past-shoulders length movie from a guy who has never
seen one before. Though director Mundhra
would go on to make several movies in the horror genre including The Jigsaw Murders and Eyewitness to Murder, the resulting Hack-o-Lantern in Mundhra’s hands takes
on the feel of gonzo filmmaking at times.
That’s
not to say this isn’t a lot of fun or isn’t easy to follow, but being a
straightforward occult slasher film set on Halloween night replete with
pumpkins and a costumed party, this is loaded with random eyebrow raising
asides including bare behind pentagram branding, a stand-up “comedian” who
comes out of nowhere and disappears never to be seen again, and an openly
incestuous Satanic cult no one seems to consider being remotely dangerous. Hack-o-Lantern
is not necessarily a solid horror movie by definition but has enough of the
familiar tropes mashed together that you’ll come away entertained if not a
little confused. It can be a lot of fun,
though be sure to check your brain at the door before entering this Halloween
party.
--Andrew Kotwicki
