There are few characters in modern cinema as enduring and unapologetically larger-than-life as Madea, and Tyler Perry knows it. In Madea’s Haunted Halloween: Curse of the Pumpkin (2025), Perry leans all the way into the madness, crafting a film that is equal parts horror parody, slapstick comedy, and surprisingly heartfelt family story. The result? A riotous ride that proves Madea can out-shout, out-fight, and out-sass any demon foolish enough to cross her path.
The story begins with an eerie discovery: a cursed jack-o’-lantern unearthed beneath a sleepy small-town graveyard. The legend claims that once lit, the pumpkin summons a malevolent spirit that thrives on fear, twisting shadows into monsters and stirring the dead from their rest. It’s the kind of setup you’d expect from a straight-laced horror flick—until Madea gets involved. From the very first scene she appears, Perry makes it clear: this ghost picked the wrong grandma.
What elevates this entry above mere parody is the way it balances scares with comedy. One minute, the film delivers genuine chills with scarecrows that creak to life under a blood moon, their stitched faces twisting into grotesque grins. The next minute, Madea is swinging her purse like Thor’s hammer, smacking the evil right out of them while muttering about how “ain’t nobody got time for this pumpkin mess.” The tonal whiplash isn’t a flaw—it’s the point.
As with all Madea films, the supporting cast shines as the perfect foil to her unstoppable personality. Aunt Bam (Cassi Davis) brings her signature mix of obliviousness and hilarity, often mistaking demonic whispers for the voices in her head. Joe (also Perry) provides the crotchety comic relief, cracking jokes even as the walls drip with ectoplasm. And of course, the younger family members serve as both victims and skeptics, caught between Madea’s warnings and their own disbelief.
Visually, the film leans heavily into campy horror tropes—thunderclaps, flickering lights, creeping fog—but Perry’s team stages them with surprising polish. The cursed pumpkin itself is a grotesque marvel, its flickering grin casting sickly orange light across the set. The special effects, while never aiming for realism, serve the film’s exaggerated tone perfectly. The scares hit hard enough to make audiences jump, but never linger long enough to dull the laughter that follows.
One of the film’s strongest aspects is its pacing. At just under two hours, it never overstays its welcome. The haunted set pieces come fast and furious—possessed trick-or-treaters, a cornfield chase, and even a séance gone horribly wrong—but each one is punctuated by Madea’s fearless commentary. She may scream, she may curse, but she never backs down. That defiance becomes the film’s central theme: fear only wins if you let it.
Thematically, Perry sneaks in more than just jokes and scares. As always, there’s a message about family, faith, and resilience buried beneath the chaos. Madea’s determination to protect her kin—whether from demons or bad decisions—grounds the absurdity in something universal. By the finale, when she squares off against the pumpkin spirit itself, the battle feels not just like a showdown of fists and fire, but of love against fear, community against chaos.
Tyler Perry’s performance as Madea remains as magnetic as ever. He knows this character inside out, and his timing—whether for a cutting insult or a perfectly-timed slap—is impeccable. Watching him seamlessly shift between Madea’s righteous fury and slapstick buffoonery is half the fun. Perry also deserves credit for committing fully to the horror-comedy blend, never letting one genre overwhelm the other.
The humor ranges from sharp one-liners to pure physical comedy, and while not every gag lands, the sheer volume of jokes ensures audiences will laugh early and often. The scares, meanwhile, are clever enough to keep horror fans entertained without alienating those who came solely for laughs. It’s the rare horror-comedy that feels genuinely balanced, and that’s no small feat.
By the climax, when the cursed pumpkin grows into a towering, fire-spewing monstrosity, the film embraces full-blown absurdity—and it’s glorious. Watching Madea take it down with nothing but attitude, household weapons, and sheer stubbornness is the kind of spectacle audiences didn’t know they needed. And when the credits roll, you realize: no demon stands a chance against Madea’s mix of heart, humor, and unshakable willpower.
Verdict: Madea’s Haunted Halloween: Curse of the Pumpkin (2025) isn’t just another Madea movie—it’s a bold, gleeful blend of scares and sass, a celebration of horror tropes turned upside down by the most unkillable personality in comedy. With an 8.2/10 score, it stands tall as one of Madea’s most outrageous—and most entertaining—adventures yet.
