Actually, that might be the Blow Pop I'm eating.
PUMPKINHEAD (1988)
Blogtober Qualifications: Demons, revenge, old witches, a complete misnomer of a title
Our story begins in 1957. A young Ed Harley is being put to bed by his mother as his father latches the door for the night, curiously holding on to his hunting rifle. Suddenly, a neighbor begins beating against the door, begging to be let in. The father refuses, and Ed looks outside to see the neighbor being taken away by something in the night.
We then cut to the present (okay, 1988), and a now-adult Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) now runs his own local grocery store, with his son Billy (Matthew Hurley). Everything changes, however, when a group of careless teenagers accidentally cause an accident that leads to Billy's death.
Ed, full of anger and rage, seeks the aid of a local witch in order to take revenge on the teenagers. This revenge comes in the form of Pumpkinhead, a demon of local legend, and the same creature Ed saw that night 30 years prior.
So today, obviously, we're talking about Pumpkinhead, a movie about a monster whose head is nothing like a pumpkin. There's some mention about how he's called Pumpkinhead because the graveyard he rises from is in a pumpkin patch. Still, it almost seems intentionally misleading.
But how's the movie? Well, it's pretty okay, if I do say so m'self. I like the story idea: a father who's just lost his son, seeking revenge against the people he blames for taking his son away. And he seeks said revenge by summoning a demon. Sure, it's a bit of an overreaction, but I can't honestly say I wouldn't do the same. I mean, when summoning a demon is an option, it would probably be hard not to take it, y'know?
The progression of the plot itself isn't exactly original, but it's entertaining enough. My one real complaint with it is the pacing. Sometimes we have long stretches of the plot not really progressing, then two or three plot points (or kills) in a a short amount of time. Still, overall, I enjoyed it.
*scattered applause*
Another interesting thing is that he's actually playing a human this time. He does a pretty good job here, especially in the scenes between him and his son. It's really weird seeing him smile and laugh. Y'know, like a human. There are a couple weird moments with his performance where he suddenly throttles all the way into overacting territory, but these are few and far between.
All of the teenagers are bland, and I couldn't keep their names straight. Even the "tough guy" character, the one who causes all the trouble in the first place, is pretty monotonous. But hey, they're here to be killed anyway, so yay?
There's a hillbilly kid named Bunt played by Brian Bremer. He's strangely creepy and he makes me uncomfortable. I don't mean, like, scary uncomfortable. Just if I was having a conversation with him I would rather not be.
And finally there's the witch Haggis, played by Florence Schauffler. She's a pretty cliche witch character, but she does a pretty good job.
But wait, there's one more character: Pumpkinhead. And let me tell you, he may not look like a pumpkin (still questioning that one), but he does look pretty freakin' sweet. I mean, the design is actually a little lacking, he's basically just a xenomorph with eyes and without a carapace. It's almost like the guy that directed this worked on Aliens or something.
Still, the execution of the monster is all kinds of awesome. I haven't looked into it, but I'd guess it's part suit part puppet (again, like a xenomorph), but the devil is in the details here. It's just a really impressive piece of work, and when we see its face in close-up late in the movie, it's pretty crazy how lifelike it is. I hate to keep harping on this, but just imagine how it would look if they had used CG.
It's actually kind of unfortunate that the design isn't a bit more original. It's decent, sure, but this is '80s horror we're talking about. This was the renaissance of the iconic horror villain, and some of the greatest of all time were created in this decade: Jason, Freddy, Chucky, Pinhead. Next to those titans, Pumpkinhead just can't stack up.
All told, Pumpkinhead (the movie) is a pretty good time. It's not gonna change your world or anything, but it's a quick, relatively easygoing ride. Heck, it's almost suitable for kids. There's a few "F" words here and there, but very little gore and no nudity. The most questionable aspect is Pumpkinhead itself, which younger kids (and some adults) may find a bit too much to handle.
I guess just warn them that he does not actually have a pumpkin for a head. That can be a real disappointment. Speaking from experience.
Tomorrow is Halloween, and we're actually going to be reviewing a couple episodes of a spooky TV show from my childhood. Yeah, that one.
Until next time!
Current interests:
Listening - Dio: Sacred Heart (1985)
Playing - Super Mario Odyssey (2017)
Reading - The Complete Books of Blood (Clive Barker, 1984)
Watching - Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985)
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