Pumpkinhead

• Directed by Stan Winston (Directorial Debut)
• October 14, 1988 (Limited) / January 13, 1989

After an accident claims the life of his son, a man goes to a witch to summon a demon to grant him vengeance.

I am caught between two extremes when it comes to Pumpkinhead. On the one hand I enjoyed it but on the other it does not quite live up to its full potential. Despite the premise of a vengeance seeking demon there’s a distinct push in it for style and substance over cheap thrills. Not that it doesn’t have that, but the focus is on making something strange and odd and disturbing.

When I first saw this film I wasn’t too thrilled-mostly because at the time I wanted something that was heavy on gore with the possibility of scares. This doesn’t have heavy gore or any real scares but rather a ton of atmosphere and weird to spare that comes together to create something very unusual.

The element of vengeance that drives the plot gets mixed in with regret and fear over getting just that. Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) reacts in anger and comes to regret (some of) the consequences of his anger. Despite fighting to stop the demon that HE wanted summoned, Ed Harley is not really the hero. His whole goal for helping the kids that HE sicked the demon on was to not have to view them dying even though HE really wanted them dead.

There are no heroes in Pumpkinhead. There are only victims. Harley is a victim. Ed’s son is a victim. The kids he sends it after are victims. If anything there is just a villain in the form of the Old Hill Woman (Madeleine Taylor Holmes) who takes advantage of the situation to unleash her evil.

The creature itself looks good. The only problem is its movement. I think that the camera lingered too much and showed the limitations that come with practical effects. The facial expressions were fantastic, but its walking was just a little fake looking. While I am no fan of CGI, even the real thing can only do so much and you need to be aware of the limitations and hide them.

But somewhere it just misses the mark. It does not delve into its themes and the acting by most aside from Henriksen and Buck Flower as Mr. Wallace feels weak. The characters mostly do not get built enough that you can name them when they die. It is so bad you will not even recall the name of the sole survivor.

With a focus more on atmosphere and style as well as an attempt at a good story Pumpkinhead is an unusual entry in the horror monster genre. I could certainly see why it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is certainly worthy of a look by horror connoisseur fans.