Death O'Lantern

From the evil minds at Warlock Home Video comes Death O'Lantern,  a SOV horror flick that plays like a hybrid of Nightmare on Elm Street and Jack-O.  Right off the bat I could see a huge difference between this film and Die-B-Que in both acting and tone.  This really feels like it was shot in 1986 and is loaded with 80's pop culture references.

Well that can't be a good thing.....

Four friends are trying to get to the bottom of the killings that have been taking place around their hometown of Sleepy Hollow Heights.  Phoebe, Patrick and Lucas are all horror fans and have a horror club, while Adrianne (Phoebe's best friend) is your typical prude.  When teens start dying in their town, the horror kids think it's kinda cool and speculate on the horrible ways that kids are dying.  As the bodycount grows, they become more concerned and start looking into the towns past.  That is when they discover the legend of Stingy Jack!  

Stingy Jack!!!!!!

Ouch!

Stingy Jack was an old drunk in the 1800's who hated children.  He would play horrible Halloween pranks on the children in town until one year his prank went too far and he killed a child.  He was sentenced to death himself.  While waiting to be executed, it is said that he struck a deal with the devil, which allowed him to return every Halloween to hunt the children of Sleepy Hollow Heights.  The teens set out to try and find a way to destroy the pumpkin headed child killer and recruit the help of Scarlet, a bad ass, leather jacket wearing, switch blade wielding chick.

The gang reads up on Stingy Jack

Lucas and Patrick

Here we come....walking down the street...

The acting in this film is handled much better than in Die-B-Que, with the actors playing their roles straight with touches of camp.  It made the movie much more engaging and enjoyable.  The special effects by DARK MAGICFX are perfectly suited for this film.  I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but the coolest kill and the best gore FX were were done before the title sequence and opening credits!  It certainly reminded me of the SOV videos of the 80's which would go all out on an immediate gore gag and then scale back for the rest of the movie.  I think that might have actually been a tactic that was purposely used......tricking the viewer into thinking that if there was a cool kill and gooey fx right off the bat that surely the rest of the film would deliver as well!  It certainly worked on me!

Pay no attention to the pumpkin headed demon behind you.....

Courtesy of Stingy Jack

Boo!

Death O'Lantern was a really fun one for me and I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel.  Stingy Jack is a pretty cool character and there are plenty of creative Jack O'Lantern/Halloween related deaths that could be had in another film.  Who knows....perhaps Warlock with unearth a sequel or two!

Bwuaaaaa-huaaaa-huaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!   See y'all in Death O'Lantern Part II!!!!!