Carved is a unique dark horror comedy that was based on a short film directed by Justin Harding. It takes people on a crazy ride to Halloween 1993, where a pumpkin that seems harmless turns out to be a dangerous bad guy. The movie is set in Cedar Creek, Maine, and it’s about Kira (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), her boyfriend Cody (Corey Fogelmanis), and their friends who are trying to stay alive while a mutant pumpkin comes to life at Cedar Creek’s Pioneer Village during a carving contest.
The story starts when someone in town finds a pumpkin in a field that doesn’t look right. People in the village enter the pumpkin in their yearly carving contest without knowing what will happen. But the pumpkin quickly turns violent when it sees other pumpkins being carved, and it starts killing everyone it sees. Together with Cody, Kira, Wyatt Lindner as Trevor, and a few other survivors, they form a small group to fight back. As they move through the village, they come up with ways to beat the killer pumpkin, but it proves to be a tough and persistent foe.
In the final battle, the survivors trick the pumpkin into a tractor that crushes things, stopping its rampage. The movie does, however, leave viewers on edge by showing that some of the pumpkin’s children are still alive, which suggests that the nightmare may not be over.
Is Pioneer Village in Cedar Creek a real place?
The setting and historical appeal of Cedar Creek Pioneer Village make it seem like it is in Maine, but it is not. For the sake of adding to the strange and scary mood of Carved, the “living museum” that you see there is completely made up. They are not real places in the state. There is neither —Cedar Creek— nor a Pioneer Village with that name.
A living history museum, on the other hand, isn’t such a crazy idea. Along with costumed actors, The Norlands is a real living history museum in Maine that shows how people lived in the 1800s. This type of historical village looks a bit like the made-up town of Cedar Creek. However, The Norlands is more about the 19th century, while Cedar Creek in the movie shows how people lived in the 1700s.
There may not be a Cedar Creek Pioneer Village, but Carved was filmed in the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky, which is a real historic village. This 3,000-acre site, which is known for preserving the Shaker community’s history, made a great rustic setting for the movie. Shakertown is like Cedar Creek’s made-up Pioneer Village because it has beautifully restored buildings and beautiful farmland. It combines the scary and the real.
The team led by Justin Harding also used practical effects. For example, the killer pumpkin was made with puppets instead of CGI. By getting involved, the production got a classic horror feel, and the mutant pumpkin became a real person that the actors could talk to on set.
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