Review of Pumpkinhead (1988) by Stuart K — 05 Sep 2012

The directorial debut of effects man Stan Winston, (The Terminator, Aliens, Predator), he also did the story for this with Richard C. Weinman, Gary Gerani and Mark Patrick Carduccihis is a creepy and schlocky horror film that works to a point.

It does get a little tiresome after about an hour, and we've seen it all before, but it does have it's moments. Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) runs a small store in a rural part of America, with his young son Billy (Matthew Hurley).

Ed leaves Billy alone while he goes out to run an errand, but while he's out, a group of teenagers with some motorbikes. They stop for a break, and they go to ride their bikes in the nearby hills and sand dunes, but they end up accidentally killing Billy.

The teens flee apart from Steve (Joel Hoffman), who tends to Billy. Joel, who ran him down, is scared as he's been convicted once before for a similar offense. Inconsolable with rage, Ed goes to witch Haggis (Florence Schauffler) who unleashes the vengeance demon called Pumpkinhead.

Ed soon realises he's made a terrible mistake and goes out of his way to stop Pumpkinhead from causing carnage and murder. It's a very silly horror film which led to straight to video sequels, Winston only directed one other film, A Gnome Named Gnorm (1990), which sank without trace.

Pumpkin head had potential to be a good film, but bad cliches and the same old kids in danger attitude let it down. Pity really.