Through his Goosebumps and Fear Street book series, author R.L. Stine has introduced generations to horror. With R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2, director Jem Garrard does the same with a family-friendly horror film that also taps into the classic Halloween stories we all grew up with.
In addition to being an R.L. Stine story, the Tubi original features horror legend Cassandra Peterson, also known as Elvira, in a witchy new role. We spoke with Garrard and Peterson about striking the right balance between fun and fear, the Elvira Easter eggs in the film, and why the character was a perfect fit for Peterson.
HGL: Jem, I love R.L. Stine, as most of us do, and grew up on Fear Street. He does an amazing job of blending family-friendly, spooky fun with real horror. As a director, how did you decide how far to push a scare?
Jem Garrard: I don’t think you need to water down kids’ horror. I wanted actual scares in there. You can really push the jump scares and the tension. You pull back on the gore, but I don’t think that’s the best part of horror anyway. It’s about creating the suspense, the tension, and the release.
When you have that sense of fun and adventure, it helps balance everything out, so I never felt like I really had to pull back. I wanted it to be a family movie where parents and adults are jumping, too.
HGL: Cassandra, you described this role as the perfect witchy role for you. Your character is living the cottagecore dream. What about the script made you say, “This is who I want to play. I’m going to get involved with this?”
Cassandra Peterson: First of all, her name was Cassandra. She had red hair. And she was a witch. I thought, “Okay, typecasting. That’s me.” It was nice. I feel like I’m entering my crone era here, so I liked moving into witchcraft.
For me, witches are powerful feminine symbols who stand up for themselves, very much like the character of Elvira. It was almost a way to play a character who was similar to Elvira in some ways without having to wear that damn costume.
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HGL: I don’t know whether it was intentional, but I saw a dagger on the wall behind you in the cottage. We know that Elvira never leaves home without one!
Jem Garrard: We might have planted a few things around… There will be little Easter eggs to look for.
HGL: I love that. How did the two of you work together to further shape Cassandra the witch?
Jem Garrard: I wrote the character and called her Cassandra. There was probably some influence from Elvira in there. When we had the script ready and decided to send it to Cassandra Peterson, though, I didn’t actually think this would happen.
When it did, it was very surreal. I was blown away. I thought, “Okay, how do we want to play this?” Then, just from chatting with Cassandra, I thought we should bring as much of her into the character as possible. Audiences are going to love that.
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 is now streaming on Tubi.
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