Review of Pumpkinhead (aka Vengeance Of The Demon)

Introduction

Pumpkinhead represents Stan Winston’s directorial debut. You may be familiar with Winston’s work: he is the special effects guru who was responsible for the movie monsters in classics like Alien, The Terminator and Predator. And I think it’s fair to say the highlight of this movie is the first appearance of the monster, which more than lives up to standards his previous work would lead you to expect.

Ed Harley has lived with his young son at his general store in the middle of the American desert ever since his wife has died. They have a simple but happy life, with the easy routine only enlivened by the occasional customers passing along the way. One dusty afternoon a bunch of teens – the typical horror movie fodder – arrive with a truckload full of dirtbikes. Through a terrible accident, one of them manages to run over his son, leaving him with a terrible lust for revenge. Recalling a monster that he saw when he was young, one that could be called upon to right a man’s wrongs, he visits the old witch on the hill to raise this ‘Pumpkinhead’ to avenge his son’s death. Full of evil intent, this monster goes after the six teens one by one – but Ed Harley soon sees his own sin when his first flush of anger at them passes, and vows to stop Pumpkinhead with or without the witch’s help.

Video

The picture quality is pretty bad - in fact ‘awful’ would be the best word for it in some scenes. Although it is watchable, it represents such a lack of improvement over the VHS version – and an improvement is what I’d expect when reviewing a back catalogue release – that it’s almost sad! The print has dust and scratch defects, and the colours are washed out most of the way through. The picture definition is soft, and the night scenes – especially when there is fog involved – are particularly bad offenders. The case for is that it is an anamorphic widescreen presentation, but overall the picture quality is disappointing.

Audio

The 2.0 Dolby surround track is a little better than the picture quality, but still below par. I found the dialogue to be less than clear, and struggled to hear some of the conversations. However, the sound effects and music are sharp, and whilst the surrounds don’t get much attention, apart from a minor problem with dialogue clarity the track sounds quite sweet.

Features

No substantial extras, but we are treated to six trailers from the Tartan Terror collection, of which my favourite was Bride of the Re-animator – looks fantastically kitsch and gory! And of course the theatrical trailer for Pumpkinhead is also included. The menus are nicely done, they have a kitsch-cartoony feel to them and accessibility is fine.

Conclusion

Pumpkinhead the movie monster stands up there with Winston’s very best creations – extremely realistic-looking and menacing, even though it bears more than a slight resemblance to the Alien creature he is famous for. However, Pumpkinhead the movie falls a little short in a few key areas. Whilst the premise is excitingly novel, and opens up a nice quandary about the morality of revenge, it is never really followed through. Lance Henriksen acts well enough, and has enough chemistry with his son for the audience to truly sympathise with him after his death, but the character of Ed Harley is never fleshed out enough. The main problem with the film is that the monster is not scary enough – or rather, the scenes in which the monster attacks the teenagers aren’t scary. Pumpkinhead attacks each of them in the same manner, and a little more gore would also raise the fear factor. I’m well aware of this film’s cult status and almost revered reputation amongst the Horror fans, but for me the film is mediocre, and the DVD poor.