Review of Pumpkinhead (1988) by Arny B — 13 May 2011

Pumpkinhead is a horror movie based on the famous poem by Ed Justin, directed by special effects guru Stan Winston (no wonder the visual fx are awesome). The film wasn't well recieved by critics or audiences at the time of its release, but it has since developed a deserved cult status.

Lance Henriksen plays Ed Harley, a store owner in a small southern town. When a group of teenage bikers accidently kill his son, Ed consults a supposed witch and asks her for the power to get revenge on the teenagers. After a strange ritual, a demon-like creature is summoned and the killings begin.

As you can see, there isn't much complexity in the storyline. It deals with revenge, witchcraft and a bloodthirsty creature, but that's the great thing about it. The film doesn't present us with a bad and convoluted explanation as to why this "demon" exists. What we need to know is that he was summoned and he's here to kill. You can notice from the beginning that the dumb teenagers are here to die and nothing more (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). Even though it can be said that the plot is ridden with cliches and the characters are not very good (except for Heriksen's Harley), I think the script works well for what it is.

The movie's ambience is very well done. The use of lighting and mist give it a very "october 31" vibe that works great with the content. The creature effects are incredible, "Pumpkinhead" looks nearly flawless. There's one point in the film where you can actually see the cables on someone who's supposed to be carried by the creature, and that looks terrible, but other than that everything looks great.

Overall the film has a great ambience, almost perfect special effects (except for that one scene), and Lane Henriksen is great. The script could have benefited from some polish here and there, but this is still a great 80's creature feature that is sure to please genre's fans.