The late 80s marks the waning days of the decade’s long lasting impact on the horror genre. With each title trying desperately to outdo the one before, it’s no shock that a movie like “Pumpkinhead” promises more than it ultimately delivers.
Its only 86 minutes in length, and even that seems to drag at times. We have very little in the way of depth or memorable characters. Even the titular monster is lackluster at best in comparison to other horror icons that preceded it. The plot is so simple, it’s as if they created a gruesome monster and then wrote a movie around it.
A group of bad acting college aged friends leave the “city” for an ominous camping trip to the “country” and the group of fools – led by Joel (John D’Aquino) – inadvertently cause tragedy with a local man (Lance Henriksen). Viewers will recognize Henriksen from various roles, and keen eyed observers may identify D’Aquino as Todd Gack from ‘Seinfeld’ fame. All others are no-names, though I was impressed with the performance of character actor Buck Flower as a random woodsman.
“Pumpkinhead” deals with revenge and has characteristics of stories like “Pet Semetary” and “The Monkeys Paw,” though comparing this slop to those classic tales is giving it far more respect than it deserves.
The effects are tame at best and the plot and pacing so weak that it’s nothing shy of disappointment. I have no idea how this so-called cult classic garnered 3 follow up films, but I won’t be watching past the first one, and you should stop even before that.
