Pumpkinhead (1988) Review

Pumpkinhead (1988) Review

 

When I think of great monster movies from the 1980’s I usually think of such classics as The Thing, The Fly, or The Blob. Those were all remakes, and there were many great monster movie sequels from that decade, too (like Aliens and Godzilla vs. Biollante) but what about something original? Pumpkinhead is one that is often brought up as being underrated or underappreciated—at least, it used to be, but it has found a cult following from certain horror fans since its initial release, and I can see why.

In the 1950’s, a rural family have to lock a man out of their house because a monster is marauding around outside, and many years later, the young boy from that family, Ed Harley, is now grown up and has a young boy of his own, Billy. He runs a small convenience store in the middle of nowhere, and one day some teenagers bound for a cabin in the woods stop by to pick up supplies and recklessly ride their motorcycles around the surrounding dirt hills. One of them almost runs over Billy’s dog, and runs over Billy instead! The guy freaks out and takes off, and Billy dies shortly after, so Ed takes his body to an old witch in the woods to see if she can bring him back. She says she can’t, but if it’s vengeance he seeks, that she can help him with. Ed digs up a corpse out of a remote pumpkin patch (hence the creature’s name) and the witch turns it into Pumpkinhead. As the demon hunts down the teens one by one, Ed discovers he has some kind of connection to the demon, and begins to realize the mistake he’s made in bringing about Pumpkinhead’s return.

Pumpkinhead was inspired by a poem by Ed Justin and captures the idea of an American urban legend without overcooking the concept. It also plays into some interesting themes on vengeance, with the creature being connected to the vengeful Ed, though these themes aren’t fully realized by the time the movie reaches a somewhat clichéd conclusion. It was the directorial debut of special effects creator Stan Winston, who had already made a name for himself in Hollywood by creating some of the most impressive creature effects ever shown on screen. He had worked with lead actor Lance Henriksen previously on the James Cameron-directed films The Terminator and Aliens (and speaking of Aliens again, the Pumpkinhead monster looks a lot like the xenomorph, which is probably no coincidence, and it makes many of the same hissing sounds), and Henriksen is great as always, but some of the other acting is a bit amateur.

For all the interesting ideas it explores, a good chunk of Pumpkinhead is just a monster-on-the-loose flick with a lot of typical clichés. The scenes with Henriksen are good, but the scenes of the teenagers running from danger are not as compelling—that is, until Pumpkinhead shows up to kill them. The monster is a real treat for practical effects fans, and while you would think Winston would be the mastermind behind the monster of his own movie, he actually had other artists design the creature, and one of them, Tom Woodruff Jr., even played it. Those guys helped him work on Aliens and would go on to form their own company, Amalgamated Dynamics, later creating the effects for Alien 3 and many other films to follow. Winston and his team were able to make the Pumpkinhead monster look menacing and convincing even on a very low budget thanks to his expertise, so despite the fact that Pumpkinhead is definitely a B-movie, it at least looks above-average.

Although it’s a lean 86 minutes including the three minutes of opening titles, the film moves at an uneven pace. One thing I’m impressed by is how sparingly Pumpkinhead is shown. I would have understood if a movie with a really cool looking monster directed by an FX creator showed the monster way too often, but Winston actually withholds showing it in full for quite a while, and gives it enough close-ups to be satisfying, but never lets the camera linger too long. Unfortunately, he doesn’t manage to create many scary moments with it, either. There’s definitely some effective atmospheric work, with lots of fog and backlit trees making it almost feel like a classic horror film at times more than an 80’s production, but the jump scares are obvious, the kills are a bit generic, and while there are a couple gory moments, not a whole lot is shown in a very interesting way.

Pumpkinhead has a great monster in an otherwise average movie, but anyone who loves 80’s horror should give it a chance. If you go into it not expecting greatness, you’ll probably find the positive aspects I’ve highlighted enjoyable, and while I think the greater respect and awareness it’s garnered since its initial release has been earned, I still don’t think it can hold a candle to the best 80’s monster movies.