Reading a TV Guide description of Pumpkinhead (1988) as a kid, the type of movie that would only be programmed super late at night on a weekend, always intrigued me. A man gets revenge on the bikers who killed his boy by raising up a supernatural creature. Reading that it was directed by Stan Winston, known as the Special Effects guy of Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, was also tantalising.
With cinematography from Bjoan Bazelli (of King Of New York and Body Snatchers), there’s a strong visual style to Pumpkinhead, from the amber hue of the lamplight cabin interiors to even the thatchy surroundings of the local store that Lance Henriksen and his son run. Contrasted with the foggy swamp sets, particularly the pumpkinpatch where “Pumpkinhead” is dug up from. The special effects team behind the titular creature produce a tall long-limbed creature, not a world away from the Queen from Aliens, and it’s an impressive feat of practical effects. What holds the film back is its script and following through with its ideas. The group of young people who go dirtbiking and accidentally run over Henriksen’s son are pretty thinly drawn (it’s only clarified halfway through that two guys are supposed to be brothers). When Pumpkinhead starts dispatching of the group, the “kills” are often underwhelming, a lot of grabbing people and throwing them away.
Pumpkinhead lacks the intensity of Cameron’s The Terminator or Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, all united in a narrative engine of characters being stalked by unstoppable forces. Henriksen once again proves his weight as an actor, conveying his character’s stages of grief, from rage to regret, trying to halt the deal with the devil he’s made, even if it’s not all there in the dialogue. With the thematic similarities between this story and Pet Sematary, it would have been amazing if Henriksen was the lead in the Mary Lambert film version. My other highlights were the great make-up and voice work of the Witch character, the Old Hill Woman, loved all her scenes; the fact that one of the bikers was played by John D’Aquino (he was in the Seinfeld episode of the guy who bets that Dustin Hoffman was in Star Wars); and the great character actor George Buck Flower, always playing bums and yokels, playing what else, an Appalachian hill person.
While not completely successful as a horror movie experience, with the promise of its creature and the Faustian bargain made to raise it, there’s enough atmosphere, strangeness and pure craft to make it worth visiting.
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