Warning: spoilers for Carved’s 2018 short film and 2024 movie.
Hulu’s black comedy horror movie Carved is based on a 2018 short film, and though it has the same premise, there are some big differences between them. Back in 2018, the winner of Huluween’s short film contest was Justin Harding’s Carved, which has now gotten a feature-length version. Co-written and directed by Harding, the full version of Carved presents a one-of-a-kind serial killer when an unusually big and strange pumpkin suddenly comes to life during a carving contest. The pumpkin goes on a killing spree, making Halloween a true living nightmare.
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After escaping the carving contest, Kira (Elizabeth Peyton Lee) leads the rest of the survivors as they all try to come up with a plan to escape, get help, and possibly kill the pumpkin as well. However, the killer pumpkin turns out to be a much more dangerous and smarter villain than it seems, so Kira and company have to get very creative with their escape and attack plans. Although 2024’s Carved takes the same premise and villain as the short film, it made some significant changes to it that were ultimately for the better.
8 The Pumpkin Is Sold In Carved’s Short Film
The Pumpkin Gets A New Family In The Short Film
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In both Carved’s short film and the feature-length version, the killer pumpkin is found in a field – what changes is who finds it and what they do with it. In the short film, the pumpkin is found by a farmer as he harvests pumpkins. After taking some normal-looking, average-sized pumpkins, he comes across a really big pumpkin, darker in color, and with a rougher texture that makes it look as if it’s starting to rot and as if it has eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
The farmer later sells the pumpkins, with one very loud and spoiled kid demanding his father buy him the “disgusting” pumpkin, which is hiding behind a trash can. The farmer sells the pumpkin to the family, and he simply smiles. In the 2024 movie, the pumpkin is found by Clint (Matty Cardarople), a local man who’s smoking weed while walking through the field, where he almost trips on one of the pumpkin’s tendrils. Clint drives and attends the Corn Wagon, and he takes the pumpkin to the village, keeping it in the wagon until his friend Wes (Jackson Kelly) sees it and takes it.
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7 The Pumpkin Isn’t Taken To A Carving Contest In The Short Film
There’s No Carving Contest In Carved’s Short Film
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As the pumpkin is sold to a family in 2018’s Carved, it isn’t taken to a carving contest as in the feature-length version. Once the spoiled kid gets what he wants and his father buys the “ugly” pumpkin, they go back home. The family also takes some normal, inanimate pumpkins as they are going to carve them and make jack-o-lanterns. The family begins to prepare the pumpkins and leaves the “ugly” one for last, so the pumpkin simply witnesses the massacre of the other, normal pumpkins.
Wes decides to take the pumpkin and enter the carving contest, and Clint doesn’t oppose this.
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In Carved, Clint doesn’t have a clear plan for the pumpkin, but Wes does. Wes decides to take the pumpkin and enter the carving contest, and Clint doesn’t oppose this. Wes is already high when he takes the pumpkin, and so when the contest begins, he takes a bit longer to start carving. When the pumpkin comes to life, he believes he’s having a bad trip, but the pumpkin is really alive and ready to kill him and everyone else.
6 2024’s Carved Gives The Pumpkin An Origin
There’s A Reason Why A Killer Pumpkin Exists
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The time constraints of a short film don’t leave enough room to explain things and answer the biggest questions left by the story. In the case of Carved’s short film, it definitely serves its purpose of presenting a unique and unexpected serial killer, but its backstory and, most of all, why it’s coming to life and killing people so easily are unknown. Luckily, the feature-length version of Carved solves this and gives a believable (and kinda predictable) origin to the killer pumpkin.
The chemical spill is the origin of the killer pumpkin, meaning that it is a deadly mutation.
At the beginning of 2024’s Carved, it’s explained that the village is recovering from a chemical spill caused by a derailed train the year before. As confirmed by Maddie (Sasha Mason), the chemical spill is the origin of the killer pumpkin, meaning that it is a deadly mutation. Because of this, the killer pumpkin isn’t the only one of its kind, as revealed in the third act, near the end of Carved, when the offspring of the killer pumpkin are introduced.
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5 The Pumpkin Has A Clear Motive In 2024’s Carved
The Killer Pumpkin Doesn’t Kill At Random
The pumpkin seems to kill at random, but it actually has a clear motive and a specific list of targets – or, at least, it does in the 2024 movie. For the same reason explained above about the time constraints of a short film, 2018’s Carved doesn’t go into what the pumpkin really wants and why it kills – it simply does, and that’s enough for a 5-minute story. However, the movie not only gave the killer pumpkin an origin but also a motive, and it actually makes a lot of sense within the silly concept of Carved.
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The feature-length version of Carved sees the pumpkin tormented by what it sees at the carving contest: adults, kids, and teenagers joyfully cutting pumpkins, taking out their insides, and pretty much mutilating them. Carved even shows some of the pumpkin’s thoughts, in which it sees and remembers the contestants as a lot happier and more cruel than they really are. The killer pumpkin, then, wants revenge against the carvers, and only goes after the contestants, the organizer of the contest (the village’s general manager, Bill), and Clint, as it all started because of him.
4 Carved’s Movie Is Set In 1993
Carved’s Short Film Has A Modern Setting
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One of the biggest differences between Carved’s short film and its feature-length version is the time setting. The short film doesn’t explicitly say when it’s set, but it’s implied by the clothes, the family’s house, and the surroundings that it’s set in the present (2018, that is). However, the full-length version of Carved opted for a completely different time setting, which certainly helps add suspense and more challenges to Kira and company’s escape plan and mission to get rid of the killer pumpkin.
Related Hulu’s New Horror Comedy Surprisingly Ends 2 Tiring Genre Tropes
Hulu’s new horror comedy Carved has one too many horror clichés, but, surprisingly, it ends two very tiring genre tropes, benefiting its characters.
2024’s Carved takes the audience back to Halloween 1993, as the village prepares for its annual celebration and activities, such as a stage play and a carving contest. Setting the events of Carved in 1993 is beneficial to the story, as the survivors don’t have many communication methods between them and with the outside, making it harder for them to get help and warn each other of the killer pumpkin’s moves.
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This leaves Kira and the group with only some walkie-talkies to communicate with the head of grounds, Kevin, who was injured and hiding in another building, and with landlines through which they plan to call the police for help. The group also uses the walkie-talkies to distract and mislead the killer pumpkin, but an honest mistake by Kevin makes the pumpkin realize it has been tricked, which only angers it more.
3 There’s No Village In Carved’s Short Film
Carved’s Short Film Takes Place Somewhere Else
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The 2018 Carved short film takes place in three different locations: the field where the pumpkin is found and taken, the farm where the pumpkin is sold to the family of the spoiled kid, and the family’s house. The 2024 version of Carved not only changes the time setting but also the location, taking the characters, pumpkin, and viewers to Cedar Creek Pioneer Village, a “living museum” in Maine, where Halloween is their specialty. After its opening kill (very much like in some famous slashers), Carved introduces Cedar Creek in a short video.
The village also brings some obstacles and limitations to the survivors during the pumpkin’s murder spree, as there are only a few safe places where they can hide.
It’s explained that in Cedar Creek Pioneer Village, visitors can experience the joys of a simpler time through historical reenactments, such as the stage play written (and directed) by Kira, set in the 1700s. The village also brings some obstacles and limitations to the survivors during the pumpkin’s murder spree, as there are only a few safe places where they can hide. The group also doesn’t have weapons and objects they can defend themselves with, and getting help from the outside is quite difficult as the village doesn’t seem to be close to other houses and more.
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2 The Killer Pumpkin’s Design Is Too Cartoonish In The Short Film
The Killer Pumpkin Looks A Lot Better In The Movie
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A major improvement in 2024’s Carved is the design of the killer pumpkin. In the 2018 short film, when the pumpkin is first shown, it’s very obvious that it has a face, even if it isn’t fully formed. The pumpkin has two sunken areas like angry eyes, another smaller sunken part between the eyes to form a nose, below another area simulating a mouth, and it’s shaped in a way that resembles a skull. In other words, the short film makes it very clear from the beginning that there’s something wrong with this pumpkin.
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However, the pumpkin goes through a radical but not exactly better or scarier transformation when it comes to life. For some reason, the killer pumpkin develops human eyes and teeth, and its shape completely changes – it’s basically a big, floating, orange face. The 2024 feature-length version of Carved thankfully changes the design of the killer pumpkin, and it’s no longer cartoonish and a lot more believable (as believable as a killer pumpkin can be, that is).
The pumpkin in the 2024 movie is bigger, darker, and has a rougher texture. The pumpkin also has two sunken areas that resemble its eyes, but the rest of its face is a lot more subtle. The pumpkin doesn’t have a mouth, but the texture in that area gives the idea of teeth (though not human). The pumpkin doesn’t change its shape when it comes to life, and there’s something like grass coming out of its “eyes”, giving it a bit of a rotten look.
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1 2024’s Carved Has A Better Tone Than The Short Film
2024’s Carved Is A Major Improvement Over The Short Film
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Another major improvement in the feature-length version of Carved is its tone. Of course, a killer pumpkin isn’t a villain that can be taken seriously, but it would be very easy for it to be absolutely ridiculous. The Carved short film leans more into comedy-almost-absurdity, with the obnoxious kid demanding to take that specific pumpkin, the family carving the pumpkins in an almost manic state, and the pumpkin suddenly having human eyes and sharp teeth. The most horror-like moment in the short film comes at the end, with the head of the father without eyes, nose, and lips decorating the house’s entrance.
The comedy in 2024’s
Carved
comes from the human characters and not from the killer pumpkin.
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2024’s Carved also has its comedic moments, but it does a better job of mixing comedy and horror and embracing the silliness of its own concept. The comedy in Carved comes from the human characters and not from the killer pumpkin, and the latter is pretty brutal in its kills, either using its tendrils to kill or whatever weapon or object it can take.
The characters in the movie are aware of the ridiculousness of their situation, but it’s a lot more dangerous and terrifying than it sounds. Both the short film and the feature-length version of Carved are worth watching, and it’s up to every viewer to decide which did the killer pumpkin best.
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Carved (2024) R
`In 1993, after a nuclear disaster, a historic village’s staff must fend off a vengeful killer pumpkin on Halloween.
Director Justin Harding Release Date October 21, 2024 Cast Peyton Elizabeth Lee , Corey Fogelmanis , Wyatt Lindner , Carla Jimenez , Sasha Mason , Jonah Lees , DJ Qualls , Marc-Sully Saint-Fleur , Elvis Nolasco , Matthew Cardarople , Jackson Kelly , Chris Elliott