Part 2: Pumpkinhead Film Review
You really could skip watching Pumpkinhead and just listen to the Misfits song Pumpkinhead, it literally tells you everything that happens in it.
I was going to say I don’t know when I first watched Pumpkinhead, but I actually do know the year. I specifically remember being at a Blockbuster and getting asked if I’d seen Interview with the Vampire which had just come out in 1994, but they couldn’t remember the name of it, so for some reason I said Pumpkinhead! I guess maybe I just wanted them to know I’d seen Pumpkinhead.
As I was getting ready to watch Pumpkinhead again after many many years last night, I noticed Amazon had all 4 Pumpkinhead movies. I know I’ve seen the sequel Blood Wings, as I remember that one being my favorite over the first.
The other two however, I believe were Sci-Fi Channel originals, or at the very least if I did see them, that would be the place I know would show them.
At least Lance Henriksen returns for them. He really was the best choice to cast in this role of a grieving father, out for revenge. He dies in the first, so I’m not really sure how he keeps coming back. I think as a ghost in the sequel and they just kept continuing on with that. Again, I could be totally wrong on this as my memories of the other movies are vague at best.
I was always a giant Pumpkinhead fan, I think maybe due to the fact of the great design of the creature. Speaking of effects, Stan Winston actually directed this movie. If you don’t know who that is, he’s a master special effects artist known for Aliens, Terminator 2, Predator… you name it, if it features a creature of some kind, he has most likely worked on it.
I believe Pumpkinhead was the first time he had a seat in the director’s chair. His only other feature was A Gnome Named Gnorm, a silly 90’s kids adventure movie I’m sure I rented like a million times.
So how does Pumpkinhead hold up after all these years? Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Lance Henriksen is obviously fantastic, but the characters, and the plot is a bit thin.
One thing that always bothered me about the first film, was how the kid died. A dirt bike crashed into him ever to lightly. Dirt bikes aren’t exactly heavy, they’re made to be light so you can do tricks on them. One crashing into you I’m sure would hurt but to just knock into you I highly doubt would kill anyone.
They’d have to be going really fast and land on your head in a way that it would snap your neck, in both cases in the film that is not what happens.
The main antagonist if you can even call him that, is this guy named Joel, he’s the one that made the fatal blow to Billy, Lance Henriksen’s son.
This film doesn’t really have protagonists or antagonists, unless you count Pumpkinhead.
Joel carries around a hunting rifle, which would have been a much better weapon to use in the fatal accident than a dirt bike.
This is just pure dirt bike propaganda, I tell you!
Lance Henriksen plays Ed, we see at the start of the movie him as a kid, witnessing Pumpkinhead kill a man in his backyard.
Now many years later, he has his own kid. Not really sure what happened to the wife, only know she died as he visits her grave when digging a new one for Billy.
Another thing I always found odd, was just how out of the times Ed and everyone in this Holler are. It’s like they are stuck in the 1920’s. We see just how backwoods everyone is when the teens… sorry, the “teens” are when they arrive, looking very modern for 1988.
Ed runs his own corner store out in the middle of nowhere, but I guess is perfect for dirt bike riding as it has nothing but open field and hills to jump off of.
A group of teens who look like they are in their 30’s arrive for the weekend at a cabin off somewhere in the woods, but stop to do some dirt bike riding at Ed’s store.
Billy has a dog that is in dire need of a leash. And maybe some behavioral training as this dog not only can’t stop barking at everyone but desperately needs to chase down these dirt bikes.
And of course, Billy goes running after his dog, getting lightly tapped by a dirt bike jumping a hillock.
Most of the teens freak out and take off back to their cabin, leaving Steven, the younger brother to Joel, to stay behind with the dying kid until his dad Ed shows back up as he went to get some pig feed for delivery.
Steven tries explaining to Ed what happened but he’s too enraged to listen or care. He takes Billy back home where he dies, setting Ed on a quest to find the old hag witch that can bring forth the avenger Pumpkinhead.
The hag agrees to do the deed, but Ed needs to dig up the body of a deform child first, whose head looks a lot like a pumpkin.
This is a pretty cool scene, as the graveyard, very much looking like a set, is still very spooky with pumpkins decorating a creepy looking mound of dirt.
The hag needs to bind Ed to Pumpkinhead, linking them. He sees what Pumpkinhead sees, a consequence of seeking revenge. Looking through this thing’s eyes is too much for him, so he sets out to stop what he put in motion.
One thing about this movie, it sure doesn’t waste much time, it really gets down to it about as quickly as it can, when usually with a movie like this we spend an endless amount of time with these unlikable characters as they wait for something to happen.
Because it moves so quickly, we really know nothing about any of them in the group. The only one we do get a bit of backstory on is Joel, who is freaking out since he’s recently gotten into trouble for hitting a girl with his car while drunk. Hell, he might be drunk now.
Steven we know is the younger brother and the girls in the movie are just their girlfriends. We do get a small confrontation between the group as Joel locks a couple who want to call the police in a broom closet. But that is instantly forgiven once Steven, Joel’s brother, goes missing.
One thing I was interested in was seeing how well the special effects hold up. This wasn’t done by Stan Winston but a different team, but the expectations are unusually high, even for a low budget movie like this.
The design is absolutely fantastic, there is no argument there. However, because it is just a puppet, it is very limited as to what it can actually do. A lot of times we just see Pumpkinhead standing there in the moonlight. Which is cool, but a majority of the kills are either off camera or just him reach down to grab someone.
There are a few really fantastic shots with Pumpkinhead, like when he gets hold of a rifle and shish kebabs Joel with it.
There’s also a really fun scene when Pumpkinhead smashes one of the girlfriend’s head against the kitchen window, taunting them inside the cabin.
When things kind of start going downhill for me was when everyone just starts leaving the cabin and run out into the woods. They then spend the rest of their time trying to get others to let them into their homes, only to run off again.
Eventually Ed shows up with a shotgun, trying to kill Pumpkinhead but this thing is unkillable, that is until Ed gets attacked by a dog, not only hurting Ed but also Pumpkinhead.
Eventually Ed teams up with the ones still left alive and arms himself with a flamethrower. They don’t have electricity or running water or even an indoor bathroom, but they sure got flamethrowers!
By this time, Pumpkinhead has started to look more like Ed and Ed is starting to look more like Pumpkinhead.
Eventually, Ed realizes that the only way to finish this is if he dies too. By then end however we see the hag witch burying the corpse of Pumpkinhead back at the pumpkin patch or is it, as the corpse might look like the one Ed dug up, but it now wears the necklace his son gave him at the start of the movie.
And that’s Pumpkinhead.
I saw this around the same time The Crow came out back in 1994. So I can see the similarities as they are both about revenge. However, Pumpkinhead is more of a cautionary tale, as really there’s only one responsible for this tragedy and it was an accident. That is unless you count the dog, as he’s technically the one responsible for all this.
Does this movie still hold up? Absolutely, it’s literally the perfect film to watch for Halloween and there’s like 4 sequels you can binge after this one.
This is worth checking out if it somehow escaped you over the years, I give it a SEE IT!
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