It’s inspired by the Junji Ito story, The Enigma of Amigara Fault. It’s the first one I’ve done that projects an image from the rear in addition to the front-facing image. I read the story a couple of years ago, and it struck me as an appropriate subject for this type of jack o’lantern.
A candle is insufficient to get the proper display, because it doesn’t produce enough light. In order to get it lit properly, I have a bare white LED that’s providing the light for the front cutout, and I have an LED flashlight to show the back image. There are multiple LEDs in the flashlight, which produces a multiple overlapping images. I’ve used electrician’s tape to cover most the flashlight lens to minimize that.
I’ve done a number of other fancy jack o’lanterns in prior years, although not for the past few. I’ll have to see if I have photos available to upload.