Farmer trashes the pumpkin patch. Shaun turns mad scientist to fix it. Chaos, obviously, follows.

That's the setup for Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, the newest stop-motion feature from Aardman Animations, which opens in theatres on September 18. Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film sends the Mossy Bottom flock into a horror-movie fever dream days before Halloween.

Here's the plot as laid out by JoBlo, which posted an early review Sunday: the clumsy Farmer wrecks the flock's beloved pumpkin patch, so Shaun cooks up a growth serum using a suspiciously helpful home science manual. The pumpkins grow overnight. So does the trouble. The Farmer vanishes, a mysterious orange-haired creature starts prowling the woods nearby, and soon Shaun, his dog Bitzer and the rest of the sheep are racing to stop a pitchfork mob from lynching the Farmer before Halloween gets cancelled entirely.

JoBlo's review leans hard into praise, calling the film a nod to Frankenstein, The Shining and even Michael Jackson's Thriller, and predicting it becomes a Halloween tradition for families who like their animation hand-crafted rather than rendered. The reviewer flags the almost total absence of dialogue as the film's biggest strength, arguing that Aardman lets grunts, bleats and expressive character work carry the story instead of leaning on narration.

A subplot getting a specific mention: a slow-burn will-they-won't-they between the Farmer and the local vet, who according to the review is sharp, animal-loving and has a side interest in cryptozoology. JoBlo's writer says the Farmer's constant bumbling gets a little maddening to watch but reads as earnest rather than annoying, and openly roots for the pair to end up together by the next instalment.

The score comes from Natalie Holt, who's worked on Loki and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and gets a specific shoutout in the review alongside the film's soundtrack choices.

Worth remembering that this is one review, from one outlet, filed the same day the piece went up, so treat the Halloween-classic prediction as an opening bid rather than a verdict everyone's signed off on. Aardman's stop-motion track record with Wallace & Gromit gives the studio a lot of goodwill going in, but wider critical response and audience numbers will only start coming in once the film is actually in cinemas.

September 18 is the date to watch. That's when The Beast of Mossy Bottom gets tested against an actual paying audience, not just an early screening crowd.