THE HAUNTED PUMPKIN, a scary (but kid-friendly) Halloween Special

About This Video

A Halloween special that's scary for small children and sweet for everyone else. The Haunted Pumpkin is a PRODUCTION. Van rigs Govee Permanent Outdoor Lights into a red-dotted trail (the lights buried under dirt rather than mounted under eaves, repurposing the hardware), builds a story around the pumpkin, and directs the episode with the same care he'd bring to a Tom Sachs installation.

Twelve and a half minutes is long for a holiday video, and the runtime signals that this isn't a themed interlude but a full episode. The "kid-friendly" qualifier in the title is doing important work, drawing the boundary that separates this from the ironic-horror aesthetic that dominates YouTube Halloween content. Van is making something for his own children, and the effort-to-audience ratio (months of setup for a single October night) is the implicit argument for how holidays should work. I love this one.

Transcript

foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] let's go see let's go see [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] no they're fine but I think that one's haunted

this one I think that's a haunted pumpkin why I don't know it just it's got a weird look about it

[Music] can hold it but I think there's a ghost inside of here [Music] look at what we got what is that the building houses buddy that's

to light our jackals let's just pull it up oh pull it up foreign

this is cool see I think we can maybe use those inside our jack-o'-lanterns or maybe you

cut a hole in the bottom I got a plan for him I don't know how to cut it

so okay pull the top off okay all right oh what the uh it's a haunted pumpkin I'm telling you there's a ghost in there

[Music] come here check out these like look wow look at this we can change the colors look you can change it to green yellow can I

say yeah push the push that purple one see purple isn't that great what color should we do for the pumpkin

orange because of Halloween right yep let's cut a hole in the bottom right

and then we can put it on here and it'll light up the whole pumpkin won't that be cool yeah so just cut a

little hole in the bottom and he'll light up okay all right so watch all right stand over here

hold the oh [Music] [Applause] all right buddy I just want to show you something what come here [Music]

when it's laid out look look at the pumpkin what it's back to normal

why what happened it's magic It's Magic it's it's haunted yeah we'll have to call it again and again and again so do you want it to look like this

yeah that's what you don't have to look like yeah all right let's get some guts out of

here there you go haha [Music] I knew it Let It Go yeah I think it's rolled down the hill you think it rolled down the hill but I don't see it anywhere I just see all the

old smash pumpkins [Applause] that I smashed someone stole it where'd it go es down anymore maybe it just disappeared

[Music] because I gotta show you something what [Music] come here I'm going to show you this way in the woods

[Music] here keep going that way growing has a lot up there look look follow those lights let's go up there come on

come on [Music] what is that what's happening up here [Music] Freddy what's inside of it that's where the pumpkin went it was on the pump it was on

oh my God another skeleton what is this I think should we check this out it's a pleasant all right

oh what is this it says what does it say it's a skeleton key this says buddy look at that key okay it says what does it say it says follow

it says follow the red dots [Laughter] [Music] we have to look for the X x marks the spot where the buried treasure is Bud well

where is it where is it do you see an X well hold on right there look

look let's dig it up let's see what it is all right get that shovel let's dig it up let's see what it is

okay dig away what do you think can you hold this skeleton yeah I'll hold this Skeleton Key

what's that swing I don't know maybe that's the top of the treasure keep digging yeah you're gonna have to

take here Isabel maybe you should help let me know if you need some help digging I need some help all right let

me give it a shot where did this come from all right see

if you can pull it out it's a treasure chest huh oh we got it we got it

in the hole oh it's so dirty canvas all right all right you think you'd open it up yeah it's a treasure box oh no it's locked

what about the Skeleton Key here oh it's open it's open is it do you think wait there's got to be more in it dig

oh what is it oh it's a skeleton costume [Music] hold it up back in the light let me see let's see that's gonna be your Halloween costume

bud it's my it's your new Halloween costume [Music] thank you Govi for sponsoring this episode I use the Govi floodlights to light the haunted pumpkin the Govi

Allure smart ground lights to light the path into the woods the Govi link stream LED bulb string lights to light the

casket set and the Govi permanent outdoor lights to light the Red Dot path

these lights are white and multi-colored and controlled by your device Google home or Alexa I was able to turn the

lights on while I was shooting and I didn't read or watch any instruction manuals and and I'm a techiverse gen xer

to say the least you can program the bulbs individually turn them off or on individually individual colors and these

Govi lights are capable of countless colors so you can leave them up year round not just for Halloween

Products & Tools Mentioned

• Govee permanent outdoor lights uses
• Govee floodlights uses
• Govee Allure smart ground lights uses
• Govee LinkStream LED string lights uses
• Govee Archos Arc uses