I can’t imagine how different I’d be if Cassandra Peterson, Elvira herself, hadn’t guided me into the world of classic B-movies.
As a child of the 1990s, I consider myself incredibly privileged to have grown up during a golden age of accessible gateway horror. Thanks to the tireless efforts of television productions like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, So Weird, Ghostwriter, Eerie, Indiana, and even animated offerings like Courage the Cowardly Dog and AAAHH!! Real Monsters, my TV diet mostly consisted of Canadian-produced scare fests and whatever movie I had rented that week from the video store.
At the time, plenty of people thought my parents were nuts for letting me watch so many scary movies, but the combination of horror TV and whatever VHS copy of Elvira’s Movie Madness I could get my grubby little paws on truly molded me into the person I am today. In 2026, gateway horror isn’t as prevalent as it once was, but that doesn’t stop it from being as important as it’s always been. That is why it’s such a joy to see Jem Garrard back with a sequel to their hit Tubi horror flick, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, with Pumpkinhead 2 featuring Cassandra Peterson.
“With gateway horror, there’s such a level of freedom and creativity which is so important for young people, Gerrard tells me. “Horror is this safe, controlled space to explore these fears and anxieties in a way that we might not be able to articulate in the real world.”
They explain that with these Pumpkinhead movies — which are based on the R.L. Stine short story featured in his 1999 children's horror collection Nightmare Hour — they wanted to bring real heart, real consequences, and not dumb down the story just because the film isn’t rated R. “Young audiences are incredibly smart and I wanted to give them something they could think about as well as enjoy,” they say.
R.L. Stine is one of the formative pillars of gateway horror for many people, myself included, but I was fortunate enough to be old enough to enjoy horror hosts like Elvira and Svengoolie. That’s something many youngsters don’t get to experience unless they have cool adults in their lives to introduce them to this grand world of low-budget goodness. (Consider this your call to be that cool adult in someone’s life, dear FANGORIA reader).
“My evil plan was to do this role and appeal to younger viewers [and then] their parent will say, ‘You've never seen Elvira?’ and then they show them Elvira, and I have new fans!” Cassandra Peterson jokes. “But believe it or not, I think of Elvira as very family-friendly. I know, it’s weird. Family-friendly with cleavage.” Peterson, celebrating her 45th year as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, says she has fans of all ages and thinks playing this witchy character in Pumpkinheads 2 is exactly what she needs. “I’m still being a spooky character but not having to wear all that stuff; it’s the perfect fit for me out of drag,” she laughs.
Not to mention, playing a part in a movie that offers a safe outlet for scares also inspired her to sign on. “It's important because even when I was a kid back in the ancient times, we sat around campfires at Girl Scouts and told spooky ghost stories, and they've been around forever,” she says. “Kids need horror too, but the right kind of horror, because everyone just naturally kind of wants that adrenaline rush, so I think appropriate horror for younger audiences is fantastic, and that's really one of the things that drew me to doing this project.”
Director Jem Garrard has had a hell of a year with Terror on Tubi, and has also directed the drag queen-led horror comedy Slay and the teen slasher Buzzkill, starring Siena Agudong (Carrie) and Brec Bassinger (Final Destination Bloodlines). When I asked them what they have learned from directing horror projects for very different audiences that applies across the board, their answer was music to my ears.
“With gateway horror […] you don't just want to bring the horror and scares, you really have to balance it with levity and fun and adventure,” they tell me. That sense of levity is important even when they’re making horror geared toward adults, when they can push the tension and scares that much further. “I think in Pumpkinhead I realized I could do that here as well,” they say. “I don’t need to water down these scares; You really remove the gore, but you can have that same level of tension in a kid’s movie, and so both audiences kind of inspire each other’s movies.”
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 is now streaming on Tubi, and trust me, there are some legitimately solid scares in this thing. Be the cool adult the youth of today need to see in this world and scare them silly this Halloween season.
