In spite of what you may think from the title, this movie has nothing to do with pumpkins. There is never even a good shot of a pumpkin in this film. I mentioned the late Stan Winston in my Predator review, and he is considered a legend of creature special effects. Pumpkinhead is his directorial debut and features his creepiest creation in the title roll. The story takes place in what can only be called the back woods of the Appalachians. Here is where Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) lives with his son Billy. (Matthew Hurley) One day, Ed must leave his son at his general store when a group of teenagers on vacation (this sounds familiar) stop for a while on their long trip. The guys of the group decide to mount up on their dirt bikes for a little mid-afternoon motocross, but Joel (John D'Aquino) who has been drinking, runs over little Billy and kills him, then freaks out about it and takes off with most of his friends. Steve (Joel Hoffman) stays behind with Billy's body until Ed returns. Needless to say, Ed is destroyed by the loss of his son, and when Steve tries to explain that it was all just an accident, Ed shoots him a death-look that would make your blood freeze. The rest of the gang, all of whom are still freaking out from the earlier vehicular manslaughter, make it to the cabin. Joel is in a panic as he has a previous criminal record, and believes he will go to jail if he is caught. He rips the phone out from the wall and incapacitates his friends, either locking them up or knocking them out, to make sure no one informs the police about what he did.
Ed, still a twisted ball of grief and rage, tries to figure out the whereabouts of an old woman in the woods. Some say she has powers to control unnatural things. When he is led there, Ed asks the old witch named Haggis (Florence Schauffler) to bring his son back, but she is unable to do any such thing. Ed then recalls the memory of a strange creature he say as a child, and the legend that the witch can control that creature to take horrible revenge on those that have done wrong. She warns Ed that there is a terrible price to pay for summoning such a demon, but he doesn't care and follows her orders to retrieve the monster's withered husk from a pumpkin patch (one of only two mentions of pumpkins in the entire film) and return it to her. She uses the blood of Ed and his son to revive the beast, and Pumpkinhead sets off to kill the offending teens one by one. This movie is horribly campy, but I like it anyway. Pumpkinhead design is somewhat simple, but he's big, ugly, and frightening in most of his scenes. The acting is mostly dreadful, but Lance Hendrikson, who's usually relegated to playing very muted roles, steals the show as the wrathful and sorrowful father. All in all, it's above the curve of standard rubber monster movies.
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