Pumpkinhead : Le Démon d'Halloween

Pumpkinhead is directed by Stan Winston and stars Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino, Kimberly Ross & Joel Hoffman. Music is by Richard Stone and cinematography comes from Bojan Bazelli. Plot sees Henriksen play Ed Harley, a loving and devoted father raising his young son on his own after the death of his wife. His world is shattered when a group of adventure seeking teenagers accidentally kill his boy in a motorbike incident. Struck with grief and fury, Ed seeks out a mountain dwelling witch that can invoke the demon Pumpkinhead to do his vengeful bidding for him. However, calling up Pumpkinhead comes at a cost to Ed as much as it does to the teenagers it now seeks.

Tho in essence it is just a creature on the loose killing the teens movie, so a stalk and slash piece if you like, Pumpkinhead is more appealing than most of its ilk. It's an old fashioned movie, rich on atmosphere, presenting a moralistic tale that's steeped in rural folklore and horror legend. It's also propelled forward by a damn great performance from Henriksen. Special effects guru Winston directs assuredly, with a strong visual sense and a knowing that as his movie shifts to the inevitable kill after kill sequence; he had to develop his protagonist first. It's during the first half where Pumpkinhead earns its stripes as Winston takes time to fully form the relationship between father and son, it's tender and very believable, so when the tragedy happens, Ed's reaction is totally understandable. We too feel vindictive such is the way Henriksen has let us feel the love.

On to the second half where the magnificent creature makes its appearance and the blood starts to flow. Here the film is only let down by its relatively low budget and the fact that Winston has nowhere to go other than formula. The youths are the usual array of cocky, bickering shriekers, tho in fairness a couple of the girls here are at least scripted as being intelligent and capable of reasoning. But thankfully in amongst the carnage is Henriksen peeling off another emotional layer, as he starts to get conflicted about what he has done. A fine performance from an actor who is far better than his king of schlock reputation. Tho still rated averagely on some internet movie sites, Pumpkinhead (dreadful name in truth) has garnered, and earned, a big cult fan base. Popular enough to warrant a solid 20th Anniversary DVD release, there's a chance that it will find more fans along the way. It deserves it, if only for Henriksen, the creature, and the attention to art design and detail. And of course if you like the stalk and slash formula anyway? Well it delivers there too. 7/10

This film stands as one of the most underrated I have seen. It has a compelling story of a father's love and the powerful grip of vengeful desires. It is well acted, has amazing creature affects, and takes the road less traveled by most horror films. It takes no easy ways out. The plot prefers to turn slowly into a gnarled tale of battling with an inner demon. The lighting in the fog and the mere visual presence of the witch, Haggis, with her wispy hairs in the fire light, are genuinely creepy. I think Lance Henriksen gives one of his best performances in this film. Definitely give it a look if you haven't yet.

In the countryside, the quiet hick Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) raises his beloved son Billy alone, working in his grocery on the side of the road. When three couples from the big city stop off at his store to buy some supplies, their leader Joel (John D'Aquino) accidentally kills Billy with his motorcycle and he does not allow his friends to call for assistance. In his hatred, Ed visits the evil witch Haggis (Florence Schauffler) that conjures the demon avenger Pumpkinhead to destroy the teenagers. Later Ed regrets and tries to call off the deal but he finds the price to be paid.

"Pumpkinhead" is a great slash movie of a demon called Pumpkinhead that is summoned by someone to revenge the death of another person. It is interesting to note that the boy is accidentally killed and five teenagers try to do the right thing, but the question is not to be fair or not: the boy's father is blind by his feeling of revenge, and only after calming down, he unsuccessfully tries to call off the deal, but it is too late. Therefore there is a good message about the danger of a revenge in the end. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Sangue Demoníaco" ("Demoniac Blood")

Pumpkinhead is a criminally overlooked 80's horror movie that stands up there as one of my favorites of the entire decade. It is exceptionally well made by first time director Stan Winston who shows more skill behind the camera than one might expect from someone primarily known for special effects. Most of the lead actors do a very good job, with a few exceptions, however Lance Henriksen brings an enormous amount of credibility to the whole thing. I have great respect for character actors such as Lance and this is some of his best work. The creature itself is well conceived however it is hidden in shadows throughout most the picture which allows the actors and the story to take center stage, much to the film's benefit. Overall this is one of the best Halloween movies ever made as that is the perfect time of year to watch this movie. It's dark, it's Gothic, and it's damn cool.

The Good: I remember visiting the Canadian side of Niagara Falls as a kid, and going through Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and every single time, being utterly terrified of the "horror section" of the museum. Of all the wax figures, Pumpkinhead always scared me the most.

Since then, I guess childhood fear and literally thousands of other options meant I never ended up watching Pumpkinhead. Now that I have, I can say this movie really surprised me. I really liked the folksy, dark fantasy aesthetic, I think it begs for the movie's universe and lore to be expanded on. I left the movie wondering about how many other human dramas Pumpkinhead intervened in. I wonder about where he came from and how the townsfolk knew about him. That's the sign of a great horror concept.

Lance Eriksson is phenomenal here; he grounds the movie in a sort of realism and pathos that you don't often get with these types of movies. The relationship between his character, Ed, and his son, Billy is sweet and effective; you understand the man from the first 5 minutes, and can immediately understand the depth of his pain. Which, makes his summoning of the demonic avenger Pumpkinhead at least seem...understandable.

I also liked the tension generated by the tragic incident, where a group of (mostly) insufferable teens accidentally kill Billy. I like how there's another layer of the story, namely, how these people are going to figure it out and what they're going to do to fix the situation. Maybe I expected them to be a bunch of bodies for Pumpkinhead to kill or something, but I found the film way more interesting because of how their story develops.

But of course, Pumpkinhead himself. He has such screen presence, viewed so terrifying by everyone around him, there's no way you don't buy into him and get a little spooked yourself. He's treated as all powerful, unstoppable, and I can totally see why he's a key figure in the horror pantheon.

The Bad: Stan Winston's weaknesses as a director do kind of show here. There's some truly baffling acting at times, a lot of bad editing, and the first portion of this movie just feels...off. There are moments that end unexpectedly, where the music is too loud and inappropriate...just little aesthetic things that annoyed me throughout the movie. It definitely gets better as the movie goes on though.

I also felt the music needed a more ethereal and fantastical than it ultimately was. I couldn't help but feel the Hellraiser music would work super well here.

I also hate to say this, but as cool as Pumpkinhead is, the technical limitations the filmmakers had in 1988 means that we often can't or don't see Pumpkinhead kill anyone. He often seems like he's standing above or around people, but clearly not interacting with them, if that makes sense? I know it's not really fair, but being so used to contemporary CG, where you see fantastical creatures interact with regular people all the time, it's just kind of distracting.

This movie has the longest opening credit sequence I've seen in a long time. It's not only long, but it's really bad too.

The Ugly: Pumpkinhead, as I mentioned before, should've been a bigger and better franchise than it ended up being. The studio, MPCA, did not have confidence in the film and literally released it the same weekend as another film THEY PRODUCED, called...Child's Play. One became a major horror franchise that continues today, and the other never really got a chance to be.

Instead, Pumpkinhead has a direct-to-video sequel and two TV movies. All, i have been told, are pretty trash. It sucks because there's a lot of potential with this franchise and I wish there was more to it, honestly.

But it's also a testament to this film's quality that despite having ONE good (if imperfect) film to its name, Pumpkinhead is still considered by horror nerds to be one of the most iconic movie monsters ever.