"He's baaack!"
Jack-O is a 1995 Slasher Movie produced by Fred Olen Ray and featuring Linnea Quigley and John Carradine.
Decades ago, a warlock was slain for his crimes. With his dying breath, he summoned a pumpkin-headed demon to slaughter the family of his executioner. The demon was imprisoned and buried to fade into harmless legend. Now, he has been awakened, and a bloodbath shall soon begin!
Was given the RiffTrax treatment in 2020.
And no, there is no relation to the Guilty Gear character.
This film contains examples of:
- The Adjectival Man: One of Jack-O's nicknames is "the Pumpkin Man."
- Antagonist Title: Jack-O is the pumpkin demon.
- Arch-Enemy: The Kelly family as a whole has Jack-O, a demon sent by an Evil Sorcerer to avenge his execution by one of their own a century ago.
- Asshole Victim: Two of Jack's victims are a married couple who are the kind of Straw Conservative stereotype that rant about trick-or-treaters wanting handouts and watch a Fox News Channel-esque host that says liberals don't deserve to live.
- Big Bad: Walter Machen, the Evil Sorcerer controlling Jack-O.
- The Cameo: Director Steve Latshaw appears as a cable installer.
- The Chosen One: As the fifth male relative after Arthur Kelly, Sean is the only one who can kill Jack-O.
- The End... Or Is It?: Jack-O is killed, and his master is left an immaterial spirit. Our surviving heroes go out for breakfast to celebrate not dying. Then we pan to a pumpkin that starts glowing...
- Fake Shemp: Since John Carradine died years before the movie was filmed, body doubles are used for Machen when Carradine's face is not on-camera.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: Jack-O is a justified example, as it is a demonic automaton controlled by an Evil Sorcerer and has no personality of its own. It just shows up and kills whomever its boss tells it to.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Halloween.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Machen is a bound spirit for the film's duration, with most of the destruction being caused by Jack-O.
- Our Demons Are Different: These are pumpkin-headed beings who act as automatons for powerful sorcerers.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Jack-O was Buried Alive with a cross placed over his grave to curtail his demonic powers. The plot is kicked off by said cross being removed.
- Shout-Out:
- Halloween costume is Jason Voorhees.
- A neighbor is dressed as The Phantom of the Opera.
- Show Within a Show: Dr. Cadaver's Asylum of Horrors, a cheese Genre Anthology series in the vein of Tales from the Darkside or Monsters.
- Sinister Scythe: Jack-O has one as his preferred weapon.
- The Sociopath: Walter Machen, an Evil Sorcerer out to destroy the town that hanged him for his crimes. When he learns that a specific child can destroy the automaton he controls to commit his crimes., he orders said child Buried Alive.
- Stock Footage: Unused footage of John Carradine filmed back in 1985 and reused footage of Cameron Mitchell from another movie are used for Walter Machen and Dr. Cadaver respectively.
- Straw Conservative: Two appear in the movie as a husband and wife who watch a conservative talk show that espouses right-wing viewpoints. The husband even refuses to give out Halloween candy, comparing it to government welfare.
