TOPTOBER - Top 5 Unconventional Uses of Pumpkins in Horror

As a celebration of all things October, BGH asked each of our writers to submit a Top 5 list of their choosing. Stay tuned all throughout October to see what these demented folks come up with!


We can’t escape them this time of year. They’re on our porches and outside our grocery stores. Go to a seasonally-appropriate activity like a corn maze or a hayride and BAM! There they are. As far as the eye can see. And you know what? Whether we like to admit it or not, we’re all going to consume our fair share of them in one form or another over the next few weeks.

Pumpkins. Few things are capable of instilling the Halloween spirit like the orange offshoot of the squash family. But if the horror genre has taught us anything, it’s that pumpkins have plenty of uses beyond sustenance and decorations.

Here are five of the best and most unconventional uses of pumpkins and pumpkin-shaped objects in horror (spoilers ahead):

5) As a Blood-Thirsty Avenger in Pumpkinhead

Technically Pumpkinhead is a demon whose head is vaguely pumpkin-shaped and not an actual pumpkin. However, if you’re looking to right some wrongs this holiday season, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more festive and ruthlessly efficient way of going about it than raising this guy from the grave. Just be 100% positive about what you’re doing before summoning him, because he’s tough to call off. If you think you might have second thoughts, stick to classic (and less permanent) revenge plots like flaming bags of dog poo on the porch or teepeed houses.

4) As Proof that Parents are Clueless in Halloween (1978)

In the original Halloween, Tommy Doyle walks out of school carrying what can only be described as the world's biggest pumpkin. Carry doesn't really do it justice. Tommy walks out of school, his arms ablaze as he struggles to support the weight of the massive gourd. That's better. Some bullies show up, they push him around, he falls and crushes the pumpkin. The involvement of the bullies is beside the point. What adult decided that sending this kid out to walk home with a pumpkin that weighed as much as he did was a good idea? Whoever it was should thank their lucky stars he fell forward and not backward. If the roles were reversed and that pumpkin had landed on him, well, there's no way poor Tommy makes it to Halloween 6. Lesson learned kids, adults don't know what we're doing either. We're just a little better at faking it.

3) As a Tool of Corporate Tyranny in Halloween III: Season of the Witch

First off, Silver Shamrock basically monopolized and sterilized America’s Halloween costume market with its line of wildly-popular masks. Not only are these masks – one of which is a pumpkin – everywhere (and likely very expensive), they are also very dangerous. So dangerous that anyone wearing one on Halloween night will be turned into a pile of bugs. Corporations, man. Always charging the little guy through the nose and then turning him into a pile of bugs.         

2) As a Flying, Flaming Symbol of Rebellion in Sleepy Hollow

The average place for a Jack-o-Lantern is sitting happily on a porch, where it will remain until it either rots, is eaten by squirrels or trashed by kids out on Mischief Night. In the hands of some cheesed-off citizens of Sleepy Hollow, it became a burning, airborne symbol of protest. In this case, said protest was hurled directly at the head of Ichabod Crane, a visiting police officer who, in their minds, had wrongly interjected himself into their civic affairs and their love lives.      

1) As an Exceptionally High-Stakes Barometer of Holiday Spirit in Trick ‘r Treat

As we already discussed, pumpkins as fun decorations are commonplace. However, in the town featured in Trick 'r Treat, there’s a lot riding on pumpkins. Extinguish your Jack-o-Lantern too soon and you could very well find yourself getting extinguished in particularly grisly fashion. Those are the rules and on Halloween, the rules are made to be followed to a T or else. (Honorable mention goes to this film’s Pumpkin as a Stabbing Weapon and Pumpkin as a Means to Resurrect Zombie Children).         

Colin

Contributor

Colin is a long time fan of horror movies, books and TV shows. Thanks to a childhood viewing of "The Shining," he still always checks behind the shower curtain ... just in case.