Bullet Points: Pumpkinhead

Directed by Stan Winston and starring Lance Henriksen are all the words needed for me to immediately want to watch Pumpkinhead. Henriksen is a living legend and Stan Winston has left a legacy behind him for creature work that will never be matched.

Synopsis: After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers.

• The Boys: The movie opens with a family huddled down in their cabin while a man beats on the door. He’s seemingly running from the creature and while the family wants to help him, they’re frightened to do so. The small kid ends up witnessing the man’s death and then we’re transported to the present time. Or at least the present day 1988 hicktown. It’s here that we meet Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) and his son Billy (Matthew Hurley). They’re a father and son who are running a small general store in a very rural area. We don’t need to spend a bunch of time with them to see that they’re all alone and have a great relationship. It makes knowing that something bad is going to happen even worse.
• You kids and your gas-powered vehicles: A couple vehicles full of 20 somethings show up at Harley’s General Store and start ridding their dirt bike around. Ed has to run off to deliver a big order to a customer and Billy wanders off after his dog. In a instant, one of the guys runs over little Billy with his dirt bike and he’s thrown to the ground.
• Poor Lance: You wouldn’t normally think that something like that would kill someone but by the time that Lance gets back to the store, little Billy is in bad shape. The guys who did it didn’t leave him but once Ed returned he grabbed his son and took him back to their home to get him clean up. That’s when I almost lost it….Poor Ed. Poor Billy. The relationship between the father and son didn’t need an hour to build as I too, have a son about that age. All it took was a couple of lines and to watch the little kid die and tough guy Chad Cruise was looking around the room trying not to tear up. It’s an emotionally powerful moment in the film and one that sets up the entire angle of the story.

• You old witch: Ed’s first reaction is to find the old witch lady who might be able to bring his son back. Trust me, it’s not a good decision. What ends up happening is that the witch lady tells Ed that by following the path he’s on will surely lead him to Hell.
• Shriveled and saggy: Ed digs up the old bastard out of an ancient looking pumpkin patch. The creature turns into the monster and heads off on his path of vengeance. It’s not exactly what Ed had in mind, though. I felt like his trauma is so bad that he accepts revenge as some sort of coping mechanism and in the end realizes that more death isn’t the answer. A little too late for that one Ed….

• The Backwoods Avenger: The creature starts hunting down all of the characters involved in little Billy’s death. It doesn’t take long for the lot of them to start getting stomped out by the massive monster. John D’Aquino’s Joel is the one you’ll want to die the most. He’s the douchiest and most likely to die a gruesome death. A few women are also with the group but they get no reprieve from the destruction. A local kid attempts to help them by hiding them out but he’s no more likely to help than that bundle of crosses that they come across.
• Lower case T’s: It isn’t until they end up in an old church that we find out that the creature really hates cross shaped objects. By this point in the film, the chaos has brought Ed back into the fold and he’s distraught over what he’s unleashed. He realizes that it won’t bring back what he’s lost and slowly starts to change himself. It’s not a good change…The features of the creature start to look increasingly like Lance Henriksen which isn’t a good sign at all but we are all set for a pretty cool finale that makes you very happy that Stan Winston was involved in this.

The Verdict: I enjoyed Pumkinhead a lot. I love movies that really focus on the creature design as much as they do the kills and while this creature won’t win any American Ninja Warrior competitions anytime soon, he at least looks cool. Lance Henriksen is fantastic as Ed Harley. I really felt for him after his son died while also sympathizing with the group of kids who accidently killed little Billy. It makes for a tough call on both sides. The film honestly asks more questions than it probably should. Most movies that are creature horror films just get straight into the killing after introducing a few of the soon to be victims. Pumpkinhead gets you to first care about the Harleys before it ever introduces the idea that anyone could be avenged. It’s not your typical creature movie, for sure. It’s something much better and I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I almost cried during it. Must see!