Cassandra Peterson has joined R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2, and Tubi has released the first images from the sequel ahead of its October 9 premiere. Peterson plays a witch named Cassandra, described as wise, deeply connected to ancient magic, and aware of both the dark forces closing in on the town of Redhaven and the sacrifice it may take to stop them.
Entertainment Weekly ran the first look.
“R.L. Stine and I have been in the business of scaring kids for a long time, so joining Pumpkinhead 2 was such a treat,” Peterson told EW. “Playing Cassandra was the perfect ‘witchy’ role for me.”
What Redhaven Is Up Against
Jem Garrard returns to write and direct after last year’s R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, which premiered on Tubi on October 17, 2025 and was adapted from Stine’s The Haunting Hour. Bean Reid and Adeline Lo are back as Sam and Becka. This time a bullied student named Evan turns up a forbidden book he should have left alone, and the pumpkin-headed children of past sacrifices come crawling up out of the ground.
Where the Name Came From
Horror fans of a certain vintage hear that title and picture something else entirely, and the history is worth having. Pumpkinhead opened in October 1988 as the directorial debut of Stan Winston, the effects artist who built the Terminator endoskeleton and the queen in Aliens. Lance Henriksen played Ed Harley, a grieving father who goes to a backwoods witch to summon a demon of vengeance and then learns what the deal actually costs him.
Stine’s Redhaven movies are a separate thing entirely, built for a younger audience out of a different story. The two share a title and a pumpkin, and there is a pleasing rhyme in the rest: Winston’s creature was also called up by a witch. Four decades on, the witch is Elvira.
1988 Belonged to Both of Them
Here is the part that makes this casting land. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark opened on September 30, 1988. Winston’s Pumpkinhead followed on October 14, two weeks later. Neither one cleaned up at the box office, and both spent the next thirty-odd years becoming the sort of movie people replace on every format.
Peterson has been in the Elvira costume since 1981, when Elvira’s Movie Macabre first went on the air in Los Angeles, and she is still the most recognizable horror host the medium ever produced. Putting her in a Halloween movie aimed at kids is not a stretch. It is the job description.
When You Can Watch It
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 premieres exclusively on Tubi on October 9 as part of Terror on Tubi, the platform’s month-long horror push. No trailer has been released yet.
