Keep away from Pumpkinhead

Unless you’re tired of living

His enemies are mostly dead

He’s mean and unforgiving

 

Ed and his son live a simple, secluded but fulfilling life. Each is all the other has. The boy is killed by a group of teenagers in an honest accident, but the lack of malice in the tragedy doesn’t ease Ed’s pain. Remembering something he saw in his childhood he seeks out an old witch who calls up a demon to exact revenge. As Pumpkinhead embarks on his killing spree Ed realizes the enormity of what he has done and sets out to stop the monster himself even if it means sacrificing his own life.

 

This is classic monster horror. In some ways it’s a lot like a "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie. It’s a bunch of teens hunted down by an almost unstoppable killer. However, it goes beyond by adding some moral dilemmas that bring "Pumpkinhead" to a different level. The kids are not bad kids. This is not a story of wild teenagers getting into trouble because they're sneaking off to do things they aren't supposed to be doing. Only one of them acts maliciously, but even that is out of fear more than anything else. He does end up doing the right thing eventually. As for the rest of them they want to do the right thing from the beginning, and yet that doesn’t redeem them in the eyes of Ed who wants to make them all pay for their trespass.

 

Ed himself is a good man, it’s just that his grief leads him to an evil act. Eventually he, too, comes around and tries to do the right thing.

 

For all its lofty ideals and 2-sided characters this is still a campy monster/horror movie in other ways. It sometimes falls into the typical traps of the genre such as the stalker able to go from far behind to far ahead of the victims as if able to teleport. He also tends to vanish when he was virtually within arm’s reach only a moment before (gasp! Where did he go??) and appears in locations before the people who are running three times faster than he is.

 

The monster isn’t as complex as he probably would be in today’s CG world, but he still looks fearsome. The puppet allows for some facial expressions that are chilling. We get few closeups of it, but they are effective. I’m sure it would be far more graphic if created today.

 

The acting is fair with the most notable actor being Lance Henriksen as Ed. The actors playing the teens are typical for a slasher flick but are good enough to keep the mood more freaky than campy. There are a couple of other notable names, but they are in early bit parts rather than important roles.