Movie Review: Carved

One year after a train derailment spilled toxic waste on the outskirts of a Maine farming community, the town is trying to lure visitors back for their annual Fall Festival. Held in the “living museum” Cedar Creek Pioneer Village, the event features vendors, musicians, a play, and other typical activities, before capping off with a timed pumpkin carving contest. Corn-themed food truck operator and heavy marijuana user Clint (Matty Cardarople) arrives at the village too late to set up but has an unusual pumpkin from his farm with him that his friend Wes (Jackson Kelly) takes to use in the contest.

As everyone begins gathering in the barn for the pumpkin carving, aspiring playwright Kira (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is reeling from the news that her actor boyfriend Cody (Corey Fogelmanis) has been cast in a play in New York City and will be moving in a matter of weeks. The train disaster took the lives of both of her parents, leaving her to raise her younger brother Trevor (Wyatt Lindner), and Cody’s help has been invaluable to them both.

As the contest begins, Village general manager Bill (DJ Qualls) is struggling to keep local TV reporter AJ (Elvis Nolasco) on topic. Grounds manager Kevin (Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur) tells the entrants to start and Wes, very stoned, immediately begins stumbling around for his carving knife. The unpleasant looking pumpkin in front of him seems to notice the glee with which the other pumpkins are being brutalized and grows irate, such that when Wes finally prepares to plunge his blade it wraps its tendrils around his arms and forces him to stab himself, before launching on a bloody rampage.

Kira, Cody, and Trevor, along with their other theater troupe members Barb (Carla Jimenez), Maddie (Sasha Mason), and annoyingly arrogant Shane (Jonah Lees), escape to a neighboring structure with Bill and an old war veteran named Arthur (Ted Ferguson). The pumpkin is stalking around the grounds, moving in an eerily spider-like fashion on legs made of vines, leaving them trapped and trying to plan some sort of escape before the surprisingly intelligent gourd finds a way inside.

This is a ridiculous premise, and fortunately everyone involved knows it. The actors play their roles winkingly earnest, allowing the viewer to get invested in their fates, with the exception of Chris Elliott as Clint’s father Earl, whose over-the-top redneck schtick is immediately grating and out of place. The script by director Justin Harding and cowriter Cheryl Meyer leans into the silliness, mixing in plenty of gags. They don’t all work, but enough do and they make for a nice juxtaposition with the grisly violence. Harding is also adept at building suspense, with a few scenes proving far more tense than one would expect from the material.

Carved is hardly a masterpiece, but it’s far better than it has any right to be. If you’re the sort of viewer who can enjoy the occasional bit of campy nonsense, you should probably check this out. With homages to other cheesy monster flicks like Deep Blue Sea and Tremors, a mostly endearing cast of characters, some decent laughs, and more than a few effective scares, Carved is a pleasant slice of dumb fun that is well-suited for the Halloween season. ★★★