All Hail To The 'head!!
In the late Eighties, special effects wizard Stan Winston (Aliens, the Predator movies, the Terminator trilogy, plus many others) made his movie directing debut with a backwoods horror film called Pumpkinhead. Based on a legend that's existed in rural farmland America for the last couple of centuries, Pumpkinhead told the story of a fearsome, unstoppable demon that can be raised from Hell by those who have been seriously wronged, to wreak out unrelenting vengeance on their behalf (and when I say seriously wronged, I mean seriously. Somebody nicking your parking space or refusing to pay their half of the restaurant bill doesn't cut it).Unfortunately the movie suffered from distribution problems, never had a wide release in America and went straight to video in the UK. However, due to it's eerie atmosphere, good performances from it's cast, and the title creature being one of the best and most convincing monsters to ever appear on film, Pumpkinhead became a respected cult movie. So much so that there was a comic book mini-series about the monster published by Dark Horse in the early Nineties, several differently designed models and action figures of Pumpkinhead are still readily available (I own one of them) and in 1994 came the direct-to-video Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, directed by sequel specialist Jeff Burr.
The sequel was never released on either VHS or DVD in the UK (although the tie-in computer game was) and to the best of my knowledge it had never been shown on British TV either... until the Sci-Fi channel (UK version, obviously) screened it on 30th December 2006.
The general consensus on the internet regarding the sequel is that it is - quite simply - complete rubbish. But having finally seen it for myself, I have to disagree. Yes, it's nowhere near as good as the original Pumpkinhead, but Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is still an entertaining and highly enjoyable monster movie in it's own right. Although the special effects this time were supplied by KNB FX instead of Winston, Pumpkinhead himself is still one cool-looking creature, and his attacks are even more brutal than in the first film: limbs are ripped off, backs broken, a pair of young lovers are both run through with the same metal pole and left pinned to a tree, and one particularly unlikeable character has his head casually plucked off. In a gruesome example of poetic justice, a backwoods hick who's been organising illegal cock fights has his head rammed into a chicken coop, whereupon the terrified birds peck his eyes out and slash his face to ribbons.
The movie also boasts a great B-list cast. There's a rare heroic leading role for Andrew Robinson (who normally gets typecast as villains) as a small town sheriff, an even rarer speaking role for Kane Hodder (who played Jason Vorhees in four Friday the 13th movies), a cameo appearance by Eighties scream queen supreme Linnea Quigley, a bit part played by R.A. Mihailoff (who'd previously portrayed the title role in Burr's Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3), and early Nineties starlets Ami Dolenz and Soleil Moon Frye are among the potential Pumpkinhead fodder.
score 7/10
misbegotten 19 April 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1640377/35279
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