Carved is a comedy-horror film about a vengeful pumpkin. Someone might have come up with the plot while under the influence, and it probably will be a fun watch if you’re in the same state of mind. Jokes apart, Carved is neither funny nor scary. It’s a creature horror, but the creature is a pumpkin with sharp tentacles, so there is no scare there. The film has a good dose of gore though, perhaps the only saving grace. The 1993 pumpkin fest was an important event for Cedar Creek, and the general manager of the event, Bill Brown, was hopeful that the small town would finally move past its ill reputation. Cedar Creek was widely covered by the media during a chemical spill that resulted in several deaths. The pumpkin festival was a desperate attempt by the people of the town to try and move on from the tragedy that affected their lives in more ways than one. But no one knew that hiding in the field was a monstrous pumpkin ready to seek revenge on those who dared to mess with its kind!
Spoiler Alert
Who did the pumpkin monster target?
Carved is centered around Kira and her little brother Trevor and their desperate attempt to survive. Kira and Trevor had lost their parents to the chemical spill, and from then Kira became Trevor’s sole guardian. She was a gifted writer, and for the pumpkin festival, she wrote and directed a play. Her boyfriend, Cody Hill, was a talented actor, and her support system. Kira enjoyed writing stories and characters keeping him in mind, but she felt betrayed when she discovered at the pumpkin festival that he was offered a role on Broadway and he was planning on moving to New York. Kira could not imagine living in Cedar Creek without him, and she feared that she alone would not be able to look after Trevor. Kira was in a terrible mood after she learned about his plans, and she decided not to participate in the pumpkin carving competition. She asked Trevor to take her spot, and he was more than happy to do so.
Meanwhile, Clint, a local stoner and son of corn supplier Earl Craven, stumbled upon a bizarre-looking pumpkin while smoking a joint in the field. He was fascinated by its size and strange appearance, and he decided to carry it with him to the pumpkin fest. His friend, Wes, showed interest in using the pumpkin for the carving competition, and Clint did not mind sharing it with him. Wes, who was high as a kite, arrived at the competition with his gigantic pumpkin. He initially struggled to find a knife, and by the time he did, the tentacles of the pumpkin grabbed hold of his hands, held his head tight, and forced him to slit his own throat. Seeing the gory mess, the participants tried to run away, but the pumpkin monster was not so easy to escape. Using its tentacles, it grabbed hold of the participants and brutally killed them. Kira managed to rescue her brother before it was too late, and they locked themselves in a tool shed with the handful of people who survived the attack. They eventually deduced that the pumpkin monster was after the participants of the pumpkin carving competition. Seeing the joy and enthusiasm with which the participants carved and cleaned the pumpkins, the monster felt hatred towards them. It wanted to avenge the deaths of its fellow pumpkins, and with its special hearing ability and vision, the monster had successfully tracked down most of its targets.
How was the pumpkin monster born?
Assumably, the pumpkin monster was a by-product of the chemical spill. Maddie, Kira’s friend and an actor, told the survivors how she had seen closely the effect of the chemical spill. She and her parents had moved to Cedar Creek to run the cleanup drive, and that was when she saw a large amount of toxic waste around. While the people of Cedar Creek desperately wanted to move past the CLIONYX spill, it was obvious that the after-effects of the disaster had only begun.
Did the survivors make it to Cody’s truck?
The survivors came up with a plan—Cody would run to the locker where he had kept the key to his truck, while the rest of the gang would move from the tool shed to Cody’s truck in the parking lot. They had already made contact with Kevin, the head of the grounds at the event, who was attacked by the pumpkin monster but had survived. Kevin had been hiding at the security office, and he contacted Bill through a walkie-talkie. Kevin was asked to keep the monster distracted while they executed their plan. Kevin had five walkie-talkies in the security office, and he flung them in different directions, and he used them to confuse the monster. Cody had made it to the locker, but he mistakenly dropped the key in the vent. Trevor had followed Cody to the locker, and he was heartbroken when he discovered that Cody was about to move to New York (Trevor saw him with a guide to New York book). He could not imagine his life without Cody, and he hyperventilated with the sudden turn of events. While Kira calmed her brother, Barb (a technician who worked closely with Kira in her play) fetched the video camera (that the reporter was using before he was killed) from the barn to help Cody locate the keys.
Meanwhile, Kevin had mistakenly attracted the monster to himself. Billy decided to risk his life to be with Kevin, and the lovers ultimately died a tragic death. By the time Cody, Trevor, Kira, Barb, Maddie, and Shane made it to the car, the monster had already started following them. Shane desperately tried to unlock the car, but the monster got hold of him before he could escape. Shane was brutally killed by the monster, and the rest of the gang managed to hide in a barn. Trevor suddenly remembered while munching on corn candies that Clint’s corn wagon was still out there, and they could try driving it since Clint used a screwdriver as a key. While Kira, Cody, Trevor, and Barb made it to the truck, the monster attacked Maddie. They had no choice but to drive away to a safe spot.
Did Kira, Cody and Trevor survive?
While trying to escape in the truck, they discovered that Clint had been sleeping the whole time, and he had no idea what had happened at the pumpkin fest. He refused to believe that there was a pumpkin monster out there, and he tried to slow down the truck. This led to an accident, and Barb lost her life. Kira, Trevor, and Cody could sense that the monster was near, and instead of running away, they decided to play dead. The fake blood and their decision to hold their breaths had almost convinced the monster that his enemy was dead. The monster was after Trevor because he had also participated in the pumpkin carving competition. Just when the monster was about to leave, Clint expressed his disappointment seeing the condition of his truck. The pumpkin monster remembered Clint very well—it despised Clint for plucking it out of the field without ever wondering the pain it might have felt. The monster dragged Clint to the field and repeatedly attacked him with its tentacles.
During Carved’s ending, Kira decided to head to the nearby house for help, and she soon realized that the house belonged to Clint’s father, Earl Craven. She tried to explain the danger they were in, but of course, as was expected, Earl laughed at her. He realized that Kira had been telling the truth when he saw the monster controlling his son’s body with its tentacles. Earl tried his best to shoot the monster, but he repeatedly missed, and the monster ultimately grabbed hold of his shotgun and blew his head off. Kira came running back to Cody and Trevor, and the monster followed her. While the monster wrapped its tentacles around Trevor, Kira grabbed hold of a baby monster pumpkin from the field and threatened to kill it. Holding it hostage worked, and Cody, Kira, and Trevor managed to enter a barn. The three lured the monster to their trap using the baby monster pumpkin. They had pitchforks in their hands and were ready to attack the monster. They pinned the monster and dragged it to the harvester, and in Carved’s ending, the monster finally disintegrated into a green slimy liquid.
What happened to the little monsters?
The next morning, when Trevor walked to the fields, he was attacked by a baby pumpkin monster, but surprisingly, Maddie came to his rescue. As it turned out, Maddie was still alive! She’d outwitted the monster by using a pesticide that she found lying next to her when she was under attack. Kira, Cody, Maddie, and Trevor knew they had no choice but to kill the little monster pumpkins that were about to bloom. They gathered the pumpkins, and Kira turned them into mush with the help of the harvester. While they waited for help, Cody offered to stay to help Kira raise Trevor. But after everything she had been through the previous night, Kira believed she was prepared to raise her brother alone. She wanted Cody to live his life to the fullest as an actor, and she congratulated him for making it to Broadway. Kira figured it was time to find someone else as a muse, and she concluded that a monster pumpkin could make a great story.
In Carved’s ending, a tentacle peeks out of Clint’s severed head, hinting at the possibility that a monster pumpkin survived. Maybe it will be the end of Cedar Creek, or maybe Kira will embark on another adventure to deal with the trouble. Everything is a possibility where a pumpkin can turn into a monster!
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