R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is a supernatural young-adult horror adventure that premiered on Tubi on October 17, 2025. The film brings the signature creepy-fun tone of Stine’s work to life, blending eerie mystery with emotional depth set against the perfect backdrop of Halloween-season spooks.
The story centers on Sam, a resentful teenager whose life is already uneasy after his family’s recent move to the small town of Redhaven, a place “where the harvest never ends.” Sam’s awkwardness and frustration are amplified as he struggles to fit in and cope with changes in his family. Things take a horrifying turn when Sam’s older brother, Finn, mysteriously disappears after a strange encounter involving a peculiar pumpkin on an isolated farm.
In a terrifying twist, Sam soon discovers that no one in Redhaven remembers Finn ever existed—not even his own mother. Photographs and memories erase him from existence. Bewildered and desperate, Sam turns to his new friend Becka and the quirky local outsider Rusty to help unravel the town’s chilling secret: an ancient harvest curse tied to the land, pumpkins, and a sinister scarecrow-like creature that haunts the surrounding fields.
As Halloween night races toward midnight, the trio dives deeper into Redhaven’s dark legends. They uncover hints of a curse that binds the town’s fate to forgotten souls and eerie supernatural forces lurking beneath the veneer of friendly autumn festivities. With time slipping away and eerie encounters escalating, Sam must confront his own inner fears and guilt if he has any hope of saving Finn and restoring his brother’s existence in everyone’s memory.
The film balances lighthearted moments of teenage camaraderie with genuinely creepy sequences—haunted farmhouses, whispering cornfields, and the unsettling presence of the Pumpkinhead creature itself. While it stays accessible for younger viewers, it doesn’t shy away from emotional stakes: the hurt of loss, the pain of isolation, and the courage it takes to confront things that go bump in the night.
Pumpkinhead may not be the bloodiest horror movie, but it delivers memorable chills, a hauntingly atmospheric setting, and a story that lingers long after the final scare.
