Imagine you’re a simple man with simple ways. A widower. You run a shop. You have a dog, and a son you love with all your heart. He’s the only thing that keeps you going, the only thing you have to look forward to waking up.
Now imagine coming home to find him dying. As you try to wash away the hurt like so many scrapes in the past but it doesn’t help. He dies in your arms. You know exactly who did this to your boy. So I ask, what would you do?
If you’re Ed Harley, you remember whispers from the folk around your parts. A blind witch tells you to dig up a demon for a pumpkin patch. With your blood, your wrath, the demon Pumpkinhead won’t stop till vengence is satisfied.
This is the set-up for the ’88 b-horror movie “Pumpkinhead”. Despite the name, the monster does not resemble a jack o’lantern, but does sport a bulbous, gourd-like head. No, the demon looks more akin to The Newborn from Alien: Resurrection if it didn’t look stupid.
Besides the teenager slashing monster, the highlight of the movie is Lance Henriksen’s Ed Harley. He plays the character naturally, charismaticly, and most important, sympathetically. Ed goes through an array of emotions and never do we once side against him.
Directed by master of special effects Stan Winston, “Pumpkinhead” is a timeless movie about our simplest base emotion, with realistic characters in a supernatural setting, featuring a monster who delights in inflicting pain to those it’s sent to punish.
Texan, y’all! Cinema glutton, horror enthusiast, sci-fi nerd, comic lover, and I like Japanese stuff too (the culture, kaiju, martial arts, samurai, some anime). Love me some Mario, Sonic, and Pokemon.
