Editorials
5 Iconic Jack O’Lanterns in Horror
When I think of Halloween, one of the very first images that pops into my mind is a porch with a few jack o’lanterns on them. Those flickering designs and faces that people lovingly carve each year is something that I relish seeing. It’s a demonstration of creativity from those who are adept at using carving tools or they can be a reminder of childlike innocence, a simple face all that’s needed to show the love of the holiday.
But, as us horror fans know, not all jack o’lanterns are safe nor are they all innocent. In fact, some of them can be downright murderous!
Below are five examples of iconic jack o’lanterns seen in horror movies. They are representations of the fact that nothing is as innocent as it seems, that there can always be something malevolent biding its time behind something as simple as a pumpkin.
Halloween – Intro
I don’t know what it is about this introduction but it always creeps me out. The slowly approaching jack o’lantern is completely and utterly innocent. There is nothing scary about how it is carved. It’s legitimately the iconic jack o’lantern shape that you see everywhere. And yet it always unnerves me, sending shivers up and down my spine, John Carpenter’s 5/4 music weaving a magically sinister spell.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch – Mask
I feel like having two Halloween films is alright because one of them is this classic. And while the first film had that great intro, this film took the jack o’lantern and turned it into a way to kill off countless amounts of children. How much more badass can you get than that?
Trick ‘R Treat – Sam
Anyone who has seen this movie (which hopefully is all of you) knows how much this movie oozes the Halloween spirit. And what could be a better way to take the idea of a scary jack o’lantern and make it actually terrifying than by making it the face of the main baddie? Michael Dougherty really nailed creating something special with Sam, ending up with a character that we all want to see a great deal more of!
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – The Headless Horseman
Again, it’s not seen for very long but the vision of the Headless Horseman holding a flaming jack o’lantern aloft while atop a reared black horse is easily amongst the most iconic and memorable moments of this incredibly charming short.
This iconic scene even received an homage in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow.
The Nightmare Before Christmas – Jack “The Pumpkin King” Skellington
When the main character is hailed as “The Pumpkin King”, which pretty much translates into “The Boss of Halloween”, some respect should definitely be shown! And while the pumpkin scarecrow suit Jack wears doesn’t appear for very long, it’s actually the first character of Halloween Town that we see, the one that points the direction for us to go. Sneaky sneaky…
Bonus: Return to Oz – Jack Pumpkinhead
Okay, so this technically isn’t a horror film. However, anyone who’s seen it knows just how dark and twisted it is. Hailed as a kid’s movie, it’s anything but. Just watch the clip above and you’ll see how macabre this movie ended up being. And what you’re seeing isn’t even the worst of it!
Alright readers, now that you’ve made it through, why not tell me some of your own personal favorites in the comments?
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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