Jack-O

The Kelly family lives in the fictional town of Oakmoor Crossing, just before and during Halloween. The family, consisting of father David, mother Linda, and son Sean, live a normal suburban life, but are eventually visited by a stranger who identifies herself as Vivian Machen. Both the Machens and the Kellys have a long ancestral history in Oakmoor Crossing, and Vivian reveals that one of the Kelly's ancestors hanged a supposed warlock named Walter Machen, who raised up a pumpkinhead scarecrow, named Jack-O, from hell to take revenge on the Kellys. The Kelly ancestor ended up burying the monster in a shallow grave. But, through the antics of several teenagers, Jack-O is raised again and seeks revenge on the Kellys.

Jack-O features several notable low-budget film actors. Linnea Quigley plays a prominent role, and both Cameron Mitchell and John Carradine make posthumous cameo appearances.

Director Steve Latshaw had several cast and crew members that joined him on three film projects: Dark Universe (1993), Biohazard: The Alien Force (1994), and Jack-O. Fred Olen Ray served as executive producer for all three films, and Patrick Moran, who played Jack-O, had writing credits on all three as well. Additionally, Wicks and Walsh both appeared in Jack-O and Biohazard: The Alien Force. Latshaw's son, Ryan Latshaw, also appeared in all three films.

Jack-O received largely negative reviews. According to a commentary track by Latshaw and Ray, one reviewer referred to the film as a "shit pickle".[1]

J.R. Taylor of Entertainment Weekly gave it a grade of "B", calling it an "entertaining disaster".[2] The film has been unfavorably compared to the 1989 horror film Pumpkinhead, with Taylor writing that Jack-O "may be ripped off from the more atmospheric Pumpkinhead",[2] and author John Kenneth Muir calling Jack-O "a low-budget variation on the much superior" 1989 film.[3] Muir also wrote that, while Jack-O is "undeniably ambitious"—arguing that the film "labors to make a point about political polarization and the culture war in 1990s America" through its conservative suburbanite characters[4]—it contains "virtually no suspense and pretty bad acting too. In execution, the film is pretty indefensible [...] neither particularly scary nor particularly well-made."[5]

Jack-O was released on VHS. In 2005, the film received a "10th Anniversary Edition" DVD release, which includes such additional content as a commentary by Steve Latshaw and Fred Olen Ray, and footage from a failed Latshaw project titled Gator Babes.[6] The commentary by Latshaw and Ray has been noted for the combativeness between the two, up to and including "a heated argument that results in Latshaw storming out."[7]

• Jack-O at IMDb