Elvira is stepping into a Pumpkinhead movie this Halloween. R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 premieres free on Tubi on October 9, and Cassandra Peterson, the horror host known as Elvira, plays a witch in the family-friendly sequel.
About R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2
This is not the 1988 Stan Winston creature feature of the same name. R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is a separate property, a Tubi original based on a story by R.L. Stine, the author behind Goosebumps and Fear Street, pitched at a younger, family audience in the vein of Goosebumps and The Haunting Hour. It is the kind of gateway horror that works for kids and pre-teens as much as longtime genre fans.
It follows R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, which premiered on Tubi in October 2025 as a feature-length take on an episode of the anthology series R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour. That first film was a hit for Tubi, which fast-tracked a sequel for the following Halloween. Jem Garrard, who wrote and directed the original, returns to write and direct.
According to the official synopsis, the sequel picks up when a new Pumpkinhead curse awakens in the town of Redhaven, and returning characters Sam and Becka have to stop it before it claims the entire town. The first film followed teenager Sam after his family moved to Redhaven and his younger brother vanished, with no one else remembering the boy existed, sending Sam and his friends racing to break a harvest curse before Halloween ended.
Cassandra Peterson Plays a Witch
The big addition to the sequel is Cassandra Peterson, best known for four decades as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, who plays a witch named Cassandra. In the official character description, she is “wise and deeply connected to ancient magic,” someone who “understands the dark forces threatening Redhaven and the sacrifice it may take to stop them.” The first-look images show Peterson in period dress in a misty forest, a departure from the vampy Elvira look she is known for. For horror fans, her casting is the real draw here, dropping a genuine genre icon into a kids-and-family sequel.
Streaming Free on Tubi October 9
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 starts streaming October 9 on Tubi, which is free and ad-supported, so there is no subscription required. It is part of Terror on Tubi, the platform’s annual Halloween push of horror movies and originals that runs through October. Because Tubi costs nothing to watch, the sequel is one of the season’s easiest no-cost ways to get in the Halloween mood, and it lands just weeks before the holiday. A trailer has not been released yet, but Tubi has shared first-look images ahead of the premiere.
For more new horror to stream this season, see our Halloween 2026 Streaming Guide.
