One of his creations that I hold near and dear to my heart is the monster PUMPKINHEAD. The film marks Stan Winston's directorial debut and another team-up with monster-suit actor TOM WOODRUFF JR. and actor LANCE HENRIKSEN, the former having played the Gillman in MONSTER SQUAD, aliens in every alien film since ALIEN3, and many others. Lance Henriksen of course having played characters that seem to always end up being killed by Stan Winston's creations. All of these elements combine to make the movie Pumpkinhead something unique and special among the countless horror films of the 1980's.
THE PLOT
Ed Harley and his son live out in the middle of nowhere. Ever since Ed's wife died it has been up to him to raise their son. Together they run a tiny grocery stand along the road toward the mountains. One day a group of college kids stop by the shack on their way toward a mountain cabin for the weekend. While at the food stand one of them accidentally runs over Ed's son with a motorcycle. Instead of staying the kids flee to the mountain cabin to avoid facing the authorities. Ed takes his boy's body and also drives deep into the mountain wilderness to an old cabin. Living in the cabin is a very old woman who is said to be able to "do things." Supernatural things. Ed wants revenge. The old woman agrees to summon a demon of vengeance if Ed will give up his soul in exchange. Ed agrees. The demon rises. And the college kids die one by one.
THE GOOD
The Demon. The creature design of Pumpkinhead is one of my favorite monster designs. There aren't too many monsters out there like it. Tom Woodruff Jr. imbues the character with terrifying life, showing it's personality and menace unlike any other monster. Added to this the elements themselves seem to be effected when he's around. Wind, thunder, lightning. The way the filmmakers present the character it's as if the demon effects everything around it adversely, like the natural world is repelled by its presence. And then there's the terrible sound that follows, a gross cacophony of chittering insects. As far as displaying a demon on screen this film succeeds wonderfully.
The story. One of the posters for the film has the tagline "A Grim Fairy Tale." The story isn't anything new or particularly remarkable. It is a classic story of love, loss, and revenge. Set up like a modern fairy tale almost, the isolated location of rustic cabins in the forests at the foot of mountains gives the story a timeless quality yet still within the realm of present day. It's like the further you go into the woods to further you leave behind everything you know and enter a frightening world of archaic wonder and mystery. Again it's in keeping with the fairy tale theme and recalling a time when the woods were scary and filled with monsters and magic.
THE BAD
The acting. It's not the greatest. The central characters like Ed Harley, the Hag, and a few of the backwoods denizens are done well. But it's when the city college kids arrive that tells us all this isn't going to be an academy award winning film. But you know what, we probably weren't expecting that going in. In the grand scheme of things the acting is adequate and doesn't detract all that much. What this film really needed to get right was the monster and the lead actor, both of which this movie nailed.
THE VERDICT
It doesn't look like much at first but within the movie Pumpkinhead we're given a wonderful monster and classic themes which everyone can relate to. How far would you go to get justice? Would you throw away your humanity? Sell your soul? Summon the demon of vengeance? It's these questions that we all ask ourselves at one point of another and it's these questions that the movie explores. Pumpkinhead is another great gem to have come out of the 80's horror boom.
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Overall Ranking: 8 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 0 out of 10
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