Pumpkinhead: A Movie of Two Halves

Pumpkinhead (1988) is a movie of two halves. The first is a touching tragedy where we feel close to a father's grief, and the second feels like a by-the-numbers creature feature. When Ed (Lance Henrikson)'s son is accidentally killed by a group of teenagers, he gets revenge on them by summoning the demon 'Pumpkinhead.' (Who's actually a lot more alien-esque than his name implies – and that's a good thing. Whilst The Haunting Hour's not bad, this monster is decidedly more threatening than Stein's pumpkinheads.)

The first half of the movie focuses entirely on Ed and his relationship to his son. It's endearing and empathetic and we warm to both of them, which makes us grieve with Ed when the tragedy strikes. This is one of the strengths of the film, we are on our protagonist (antagonist?)'s side. As a character piece, slow and quiet, its powerful.

Unfortunately, Ed's half of the story does include a witchy mountain woman that borderlines on the offensive today. She adds to the pantheon of outdated fortune teller tropes, such as in Drag me to Hell, and Thinner. If you can look past that, the scene is tense and has a strong atmosphere, leading to the resurrection of Pumpkinhead himself.

And more unfortunately, from there, the narrative changes to the teen's perspective. They have little substance and are run of the mill fodder for our creature to hunt. From here, it treads some old ground, though Ed's regret and desire to slay the beast does make it compelling.

Really, the draw of Pumpkinhead is the special affects. The monster himself is all practical and he is glorious. He's creepy and a definite rival to the Xenomorth. The movement is smooth and it knows when and just how much of him at the perfect times. He's most enjoyable on his rampage, sticking to the shadows before his kills.

And yet, with how much Ed's inner world is set up, it would be more powerful to see his reaction to the chaos he's brought about. This would keep that deep emotional thread of the first half and show his journey from revenge to forgiveness, since the wrap-up of the movie feels forced. It all ends a little too neatly, but at least bloodily.

Overall, Pumpkinhead is definitely a movie easily divided in two: one skews to the left of what we expect of horror, before we're firmly on the well-known creature feature path. This second half only feels tedious because of the interesting set-up. It's definitely worth checking out, especially for the special effects fan.