Every day is Halloween for Pumpkin (Milly Shapiro), a young survivor living alone in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Her home is decorated with jack-o’-lanterns and other Halloween ephemera, a festive method of coping with extreme loneliness and an unavoidable sadness. But when a group of scavengers shows up at her doorstep one night, led by the seemingly friendly Thalia (Shannyn Sossamon), her hopes of someday finding a new family are reignited — momentarily. Before long, Thalia’s crew reveal their true intentions and turn what initially had promise into a home invasion nightmare. To survive the night, Pumpkin will have to make a choice much different than her beloved trick or treat: fight back or die.

Delivering a lean, mean and visceral new entry into the Halloween horror film canon, first-time feature director Ben Sottak also gives genre fans a new hero to champion in the Hallowarrior herself, Milly Shapiro, already a scary movie favorite thanks to her unforgettable work in Hereditary. Here, front and center, Shapiro earns empathy and applause in equal measure, anchoring Sottak’s brutal, crowd-pleasing love letter to every horror fan’s favorite holiday and heartfelt ode to underdogs beating the odds.—Matt Barone