Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud

In spite of the long feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys because of a car accident, Jodie Hatfield (Amy Manson) and her boyfriend Ricky McCoy (Bradley Taylor) love each other and are planning to leave their families and move to another place. During the night, after the Hatfields having trashed a McCoy wedding, Jodie sneaks out from her house to meet Ricky, while his young sister Sara (Maria Roman) looks out for them. However, Jodie is followed and they are found together in the woods by Jodie's brothers Bobby Joe (Ovidiu Niculescu) and Billy Bob (Elias Ferkin) that accidentally kill Sara. Ricky seeks revenge, going to the house of the witch of the woods Haggis (Lynne Verrall) that summons Pumpkinhead to kill all the Hatfields except Jodie. When his vengeance is set in motion, the Hatfields are attacked by the demon in a bloodshed night.

"Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud" uses the forbidden romance between a young couple of two families in permanent feud and a tragic love story like in Romeo and Juliet to bring back the powerful demon Pumpkinhead in another bloodshed. This television movie is not as bad as indicated in many reviews; actually I liked the enjoyable story and I found it underrated with the 4.5 IMDb Rating. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Pumpkinhead 4: Maldição Sangrenta" ("Pumpkinhead 4: Bloody Curse")

I first saw this in 2007 on a dvd which I own.

Revisited it recently.

The gore n the body count is the highlight along with the towering creature.

But again there is zero atmosphere n no tension or suspense.

Few amazing stuff: Head crushing via the monster's foot.

Head smashing in a bear trap.

Head being decapitated via the monster's hands as if the monster picking up some football.

A man gets impaled by the monster's hand.

A man's intestine gets crushed by the monster's foot.

Some wtf moments: The sheriff is well aware that the monster cant be killed via bullets or any other means and he is well aware how to kill the monster but like a stupid fella he shoots the monster n faces the monster rather than hide or rather than kill Ricky (the person who brought the monster).

The stupid sheriff somehow survives the huge blow after being thrown in the air by the monster. Yet the sheriff doesn't shoot Ricky.

Suddenly the two elders (Old Man Hatfield n Papa McCoy) from the two rival families disappear as if they never existed.

Amy Manson is a hot babe but the movie has zero nudity.

The appeal of the original "Pumpkinhead" (1988) was its creepy atmosphere, serious vibe, malevolent monster and the always reliable Lance Henriksen, but other than these factors it wasn't anything noteworthy. As far as overall entertainment goes, practically every Friday the 13th sequel was/is superior.

"Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud" (2007) is the third sequel and -- although it was shot in Romania rather than California -- it stays true to the original concept by having a similar revenge plot and features the three main characters of the original: Ed Harley (Henriksen), albeit now a ghost; the ugly, old witch; and, of course, Pumpkinhead itself. Although Henriksen is 18 years older he's just fine; the witch looks almost exactly the same; as does Pumpkinhead. Speaking of which, some complain about the appearance of Pumpkinhead, but he (it) looks great to me; I know it's probably done via CGI, unlike the original, but it works and I couldn't discern any strings, so to speak.

The unique thing here is that the story involves a modern-day take on the Hatfield/McCoy feud crossed with Romeo & Juliet, which I found interesting.

The creature is featured prominently throughout, as are Henriksen and the witch, and there's loads of gore, but I didn't find the story or the characters all that compelling. It's not bad, but it's not good either; it's somewhere in between. The story needed more drawing power. Still, it's a decent sequel.

GRADE: C

True to the original classic, this installment is a classic in its own right, and the second best in the series (next to the original). The McCoys and Hatfield's family feud resulted in the death Ricky McCoy's young sister. When Pumpkinhead is called for revenge, the families must stand together to survive. With a good script and solid acting, this fourth installment almost lives up to the original.

It was a bit surprising to note that this fourth movie from the Pumpkinhead franchise was the best of the sequels to watch. Not that that means that it was a great movie though but it featured a decent enough story, that stays true to the Pumpkinhead-franchise but is not as predictable and clichéd as its predecessors. The characters are all better and the movie also features a decent enough amount of gore to pleasure the genre-fans.

The movie has the same look and feels as the third movie "Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes" and also seems to be shot at the same locations. This isn't a very positive thing though. It got shot in Romania, which is of course nothing like the South of the USA, which made the first Pumpkinhead movie such an atmospheric one.

The movie features some pretty good effects, which also provides the movie with some nice gory moments. It also uses the monster at the right moments and it doesn't make the mistake of featuring it as prominently as any of the other earlier sequels.

Yet again the movie features Lance Henriksen, who had played the main character almost 20 years prior to this movie, in the first Pumpkinhead movie from 1988, directed by Stan Winston. He also reappeared in "Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes" but his role in that movie was rather small and pointless. In this movie his character doesn't make a totally redundant impression and it's a pleasure to watch him in this movie. It still gives the movie a certain bit of more overall professionality over it, despite its overall obvious low-budget look and feel.

A decent enough movie and certainly the best out of the so far three sequels made.

5/10

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