Pumpkinhead (1988)
Directed by Stan Winston
Starring Lance Henriksen, John D’Aquino, and Kerry Remsen
Ed Harley and his son live a quiet life in a rural town. That silence is shattered one day when some vacation teens accidently kill the Harley boy. Driven by his loss, Ed searches for a way to get his son back or get those kids back for what they did. He finds a witch in a backwoods swamp who can help him. She summons a demon of vengeance, with long claws and big fangs. This demon, Pumpkinhead, seeks out the teenagers and brutally kills them one at a time. Ed cannot shake the feeling that this is wrong. Not only did he not want all this blood on his hands, but he senses a connection to the beast. Once Ed realizes the true cost of summoning Pumpkinhead, he races to the teen’s aid in hopes of stopping the monster’s onslaught.
This movie really only exists for two reasons: the monster and Lance Henriksen. Winston does a fine job with his first movie, but he focuses the picture on those two and lets everything else fall by the wayside. The teen are forgettable and the actors playing them feel very green. The supporting cast does better, especially Florence Schauffler as the witch. And the script itself is alright, it just needs a few more passes on the dialogue. The mode and tension are quite good. The rural area where this all takes place is dripping with dread. The story is told well enough and keeps the suspense building all the way to the final confrontation. Winston got it done effectively and adeptly. What makes you interested, however, always comes back to those two things.
A Southern Gothic fairytale with excellent special effects, Pumpkinhead is an admirable directorial debut from Stan Winston. The creature design and effects are strong, making for a memorable antagonist. You can see bits of Giger’s influence, along with a feeling that the effects team wanted to create something visually arresting. And its face has a lot of emotive power, hinting at something deeper in the beast. Lance Henriksen finally has a chance to showcase his talents and he does not disappoint. As Ed Harley, Henriksen is the center of the story. He feels like a real parent and his grieving for his son looks authentically dreadful. It is a good performance from a man too regularly relegated to supporting actor status.
Pumpkinhead is a fun, bloody little movie. It does what any viewer wants to do at some point during a creature feature: put less attention into the supporting players and more attention into the main man and the bid bad. If you want a monster movie that you have not seen before, you could do a lot worse than this.
7 out of 10
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