Pumpkinhead III : Les Condamnés

I am not hampered by the memory of the original Pumpkinhead, so I have only Pumpkinhead II as comparison. It excels tremendously over this one.

The Doctor (Doug Bradley) and his family are selling body parts and have a barn full of uncremated bodies. It reminds me of the 339 bodies found at Tri-State Crematory in New York.

When the town finds out, and sees that the law will probably not do anything, they go looking for the local Marie Laveau, a witch that lives in the wood and can bring back Pumkinhead. There are serious consequences to doing that, but they have a taste for blood. They must be from Texas because they like killing people so much. Actually, it was filmed in Romania.

There just wasn't as good a story as Pumkinhead II, but the killing were a lot gorier. There was less eye-candy, too.

OK....I'm having a Halloween party, everyone is dressed to the max, having fun and I say,"Guess what? There's a NEW Pumpkinhead movie and it's on tonight! Not only is Lance Henriksen in it, but Doug Bradley from Hellraiser!" (oohs and ahhhs follow) I have NEVER been so embarrassed in my life. I was a complete fan of the original. It was a classic that I've watched time and time again. The first sequel (Bloodwings) didn't have the mood of the original, and turned into another "monster kills the idiotic teens" movie. This one appeared to have an interesting beginning and premise...oops, my bad! When I saw the first CGI Pumpkinhead sequence I was almost too embarrassed to laugh. Almost. All my pals gawked at the cartoon images that made Jimmy Neutron look as real as yer next door neighbor. Needless to say, this spoiled the whole movie for me, and if they have indeed made another sequel...I hope they can look back on this as a serious mistake. Dudes, go talk to the guys that made Jurassic Park. I'm sure they can give you a few low budget pointers.

Yes, the first 'Pumpkinhead' film was actually pretty cool - largely helped by Lance Henriksen in the leading role. Then came the sequels - horror sequels. And, true to form, each one seemed to get progressively worse. This one, although by no means horrendous, is simply just trying to cash in on the first film's success.

Yes, Lance Henriksen comes back, but his scenes are fleeting and you really get the feel he's only doing it for an easy paycheque.

However, you do have Doug Brady (or 'Pinhead' if you've seen 'Hellraiser') and he does his best to lift this film out of the doldrums. However, no matter how good the cast is, you just can't escape the fact that it's a retread of the original which isn't as good.

Yes, there are some decent 'monster moments.' The monster himself has always been pretty cool, but then there are also equally some pretty ropey CGI moments, too. It's just a pity they seemed to use all their budget up on the cast and a few good effects and left little room to pay a good writer to come up with something a little more fresh.

I watched this last night and it is practically a remake of the original. However, I will give the filmmakers credit for actually retaining several characters from the original (the siblings are all the kids of George "Buck" Flower's Wallace character in the first film). Director Jake West - who made the absolutely inept EVIL ALIENS - handles the filming well. Sadly, he doesn't capture Pumpkinhead's towering stance well though, shooting it mostly in close up. On the downside, the actors seem to have never stepped foot in the South. We're talking Gomer Pyle hysterics here. If you look closely, you can actually see Lance Henriksen cashing his check for this one. And there are a few wonky CGI bits.

For fans of the original Pumpkinhead, it was hoped that this second sequel, which picked up from the first film would be a return to form after the disastrous second film. While director Jake West keeps the tone and mood similar to the first film, he is hampered by things out of his control. First off, this is a TV movie. As such it is low budget. The thing that makes a creature feature like this sink or swim is its monster effects. Our Pumpkinhead is on screen a lot of the time in this film, so why did more money not get put into the suit? Its a pale imitation of Stan Winston's original. Add in some of the worst CGI in a horror film ever and you get a monster that doesn't scare like it should.Next up is the fact that this was filmed in Romania. I'm sorry, I'm sure Romania is a nice place and I know its cheap to shoot there, but it doesn't really look like America like it is so often called upon to do. Doug Bradley is fine as a doctor without a conscience, but Lance Henriksen is wasted in his return to his character from the first film. Could have been a lot better than it is.