Pure as venom

Stan Winston was the greatest special effects artist in the film industry...ever. He has created some of the greatest creatures ever to grace the big screen including Aliens, predator, Leviathan, The Monster Squad, Ironman and many more. He also helped out on John Carpenters amazing film The Thing when Rob Botin needed a break due to exhaustion. In 1988 Stan took the directors chair for what has become a cult favorite...Pumpkinhead. Lance Hendriksen stars as Ed Harley, a store owner who lives the simple life with his son Billy in the country. At the beginning of the movie there is a flashback to when Ed was a young boy living with his family and they are terrorized by some creature in the shadows, we never really get a good look at the beast. Flash forward to present day, a group of city kids show up at Ed's store for some dirt biking, things take a turn for the worse when one of the bikers catches some air and lands on Billy. The city kids freak out and instead of leaving they decide to stay couped up in an abandoned house. When Ed finds his son Billy he rushes him to a local family living deep in the woods for advise. The advise He is given by the father is not what he wants to hear, "You go home and bury your boy!" As Ed is leaving one of the boys who lives there tells him of an old woman who may be able to help him. He guides Ed deep into the woods to the house of the old woman who is known locally as a witch. The setting of the witch's home is fantastic, as Ed arrives the film literally darkens and the fog rolls in, very creepy. Inside the witch's home is an array of trinkets, an owl and many other unrecognizable obgects. The woman is decrepit and looks dead. Ed is determined to get revenge on the people who took his son's life, and does everything the old witch tells him to soon realizing he has resurrected the demon of revenge, and unleashes total hell upon the city kids. As the kids get killed off one by one by Pumpkinhead in very inventive ways, Ed does get his revenge and much more than he bargained for. Soon it becomes a battle between Ed and the demon Pumpkinhead to the end.

Lance Hendriksen has been in a lot of genre films including Teminator, Near Dark, Aliens and over 150 others, and he is absolutely great in the role as Ed Harley, he is thoroughly convincing with the range of emotions he has to portray. Pumpkinhead himself is a pretty cool looking monster, director Stan Winston did not have a hand in creating the monster and focused all of his attention on directing. Tom Woodruff jr played Pumpkinhead and had to walk on stilts to achieve the size of the monster Stan wanted, on the special edition DVD there is some behind the scenes footage including the making of the monster which is fascinating, a must see for any fan of the film. The alternate title for the film is Vengance-The Demon.

MGM released a collector's edition DVD of Pumpkinhead with some excellent features including commentary with co-screenwriter Gary Gerani and creature creatures Tom Woodruff jr and Alec Gillis, seven featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage and more. This DVD is a must own for any type of horror fan.

Pumkinhead is a great film that is completely unique and atmospheric in it's own way. This is a great first directing effort from Stan Winston and probably my favorite in his career as a director. Although it can be a bit slow at the beginning it really picks up steam by the second half of the film and never lets up. The monster that is Pumpkinhead is really creepy and brutal with his vengeance. This is one of my true favorites and I would be surprised if any fan of the horror genre did not love this movie. Recommended as a late night viewing with the lights off to get the right effect.

Review by Jason

Rating: B