Pumpkinhead 2

I just wanted to clarify that this film WAS IN THEATERS!!! It was not direct to video!!! IMDb IS WRONG!!! (as usual I have VHS of the TV ads for this film!

It received a large amount of free media attention due to the current president's brother Roger Clinton appearing in the film.

Once again, this was in theaters, it was NOT direct to video.

As proof I can break out my complete VHS of 'All My Children' for 1993 and show you the ads for this film! It was in theaters!

This film is in fact a very poor follow up to Stan Winston's cult classic.

It does not contain any of the characters from the first film. The story is merely a rehash of the original. A woman in run over by city slicker teens and a witch conjures the demonic monster Pumpkinhead to kill them.

So it's just like the first film sans the good FX and photography.

Sean Braddock takes up residence as sheriff in Ferren Woods, the town he grew up in, along with his wife and rebellious daughter Jenny. Straight away she gets in with the wrong crowd, where the group cause trouble one night when they accidentally cause the fire of an old witch's house and for fun unknowingly resurrect the demon known as "Pumpkinhead". The soul of the deformed orphan who lived in the woods returns to this deranged monster. It sweeps the countryside seeking revenge against those who were behind his death three decades ago and plus those teenagers who brought him back. Grisly death mount up, and Sheriff Broddock learns that the legend of the "Pumpkinhead" might have its foot in reality.

Do I care about its bad reputation? I guess not. Since I took the time to watch it. The low-budget, straight-to-video sequel is an okay addition that had its moments and sound performances to cater for its blaring shortcomings. However it's the monster we're waiting for, and director Jeff Burr (a sequel journeyman you could say) serves up the beast and bloody mayhem on a silver plateau. The ominously atmospheric first one (with a sublime lead performance by Lance Henriksen) is certainly superior in every department, but as for sequels go. You could do a lot worse. Well, it does seem like a pointless exercise, but just like the first sequel to "Candyman", the story plays the usual trumps (basic retread of first), but it also wants to overfeed the history of "Pumpkinhead". Burr knows there's nothing to surprise us anymore with a frail plot with an promising premise, so there's more of the monster shown on screen and what it dishes out is far more nastier, violent and more imaginative in its carnage. There's just something creepy and cruel about the deaths.

The make-up effects have some juicy inclusions, despite some cheap and corny looking aspects, but the imposing monster design still looks fair enough, even with some rubbery shades. Burr's junky direction is cheerful and plucky, but he demonstrates few striking visuals with well-filtered lighting (like strobe) that come across as foreboding in their set-up. Sometimes it can get laughable with too many hapless victims just standing there in front of "Pumpkinhead" waiting to get killed off, when there's an actual chance to do something or RUN! However the atmosphere is very patchy, which makes sure it doesn't have the same impact the original created.

Streaming from the production is a cheap TV feel, but the swiftly compact camera-work manages some inventive tilt frames, wild movements and trippy red "Pumpkinhead" vision lensing. The thrills and pace were kind of a stop and go affair, as you really felt it because the tepidly cardboard script lead to many silly (and contrived) avenues working there way in and the lack of an strong lead performance really showed it up immensely. There's nothing wrong with Andrew Robinson's sincerely hearty performance as Sheriff Braddock, but intensity was lacking, instead there seemed to be a lighter tone to everything about it. Except for the violence, of course. Thinking more about it actually, he looked rather flustered. The gorgeous Ami Dolenz makes for a wonderful performance as Jenny and Gloria Hendry kicks up some interest. The rest of the hysterical cast aren't so memorable, while the teens weren't particularly that good with the stereotypical traits. With Steve Kanaly, Hill Harper, Soleil Moon Frye and J. Trevor Edmond. Appearing in small and amusing parts are a familiar Linnea Quigley and Kane Hodder. Yep the trivia is right, Bill Clinton's brother Roger Clinton shows up as the Town's mayor.

Formulaic, cheesy b-fun emerges from this earnest sequel that doesn't try to outdo its original, but more so complement it. Maybe it's bad, but I kinda enjoyed it.

Crazy high school kids get into something they don't understand and release the soul of Tommy, a boy killed in 1958. Of course, we know who the monster is after, but the Sheriff (Andrew Robinson) is going crazy trying to figure it out.

And, does the town doctor (blaxploitation star Gloria Hendry) rent a room in the sheriff's house? She sure seems to be there a lot.

I have to say that the monster was certainly creatively done and provided some gory action. I find the fact that he can respond to the sheriff's pleas to be stretching it a bit.

Ami Dolenz and Soleil Moon Frye provided enough eye candy to keep viewer interest.

I'm going to preface this by saying, I enjoyed Pumpkinhead I. It was a good story about backwoods lore. Though the camera found the monster a little too often (Stan Winston can be forgiven for falling in love with his creation, though) it was a good 80's popcorn horror flick.

Having said that, the people who made Pumpkinhead 2: Bloodwings, should be skinned alive, strapped to a chair with their eyelids peeled open and forced to watch this ridiculous piece of garbage again and again. Did Andrew Robinson even read the script before he showed up to shoot this train-wreck?

You were in Hellraiser for God's sake, have some pride!

Did these idiots even watch the first film? Was that old woman supposed to be the same witch that stole Lance Henricksen's soul? I hope not--because otherwise, it's quite an accomplishment that she was suddenly good, and that her name was changed.

The fifties flashback? The mullet-ed mayor with the guitar? The annoying medical examiner who--for some strange reason is ALWAYS at the sheriff's house? And the idea that this new Pumpkinhead was the hell-spawn of the old Pumpkinhead and some "not so special woman" is idiotic. What? Are you trying to tell me they slept together? Did you see the first movie? If you look closely, you'll notice that ol' Pumpkinhead isn't exactly anatomically correct.

The absolute most horrendous part of this movie came in the character of Paul--otherwise known as the friend who didn't get any throughout the whole film. I want to say something to Paul right now, are you listening? You had no point at all in this film. You deserved to get killed for those stupid clothes you had on. Your one job was to go and get the car from around front--you couldn't even do that right. May God have mercy on your soul.

I don't know why God let this movie get made. My buddy Marc told me I had to watch it because it was so stupid. I believed him beforehand, but--in a Twilight Zone-ian sense, I had no idea HOW RIGHT he was. I want to conjure Pumpkinhead to come get him for having brought it home from the video store.

I feel like having watched this movie, I've somehow been exposed to some great and terrible contagion that will make me incapable of appreciating a good movie ever again.

Pumpkinhead II is interesting because it succeeds where its predecessor failed and where that one succeeded, this one fails. Pumpkinhead II , contains better acting, a more interesting back story, while at the same time, it is noisier, less stylish and unconvincing in special effects. As a result Pumpkinhead II is no better or worse than Stan Winston's film. It is just another low budget horror which offers some charms for the monster fans.

Getting a little carried away one night, a group of kids resurrect a body which is buried on the property of the town's fabled witch. As it happens, the body they dig up is deformed boy who in the 1950s was killed by a group of town ruffians. Now with the boy's soul inside him, Pumpkinhead goes after his killers (now middle aged) and his awakeners. As the killings start to occur, Sheriff Braddock tries to piece this whole mystery together amidst an agitated and highly superstitious town. Both Pumpkinhead and the town want to kill each other, whose gonna live?

I'll give this movie credit for one thing, it increases the monstrosity from the first. Although still far from scary, this monster is far more aggressive than his predecessor, and he kills with great ferocity, clawing, gnawing dismembering his victims. On the negative side, the special effects have fallen a bit. The first Pumpkinhead may have been a slow mover, but his movements were rather fluid, and muscular and like a creature. This one moves like a guy in a suit and is shot from too many bad angles which ruins the scale of the creature.

If you liked Pumpkinhead, then I don't think you will be too disappointed in this. Maybe as a whole, it is slightly less accomplished than the original. but it's sufficient for a sequel.