Film Review: Pumpkinhead

Since I watched Phase IV, I’ve been a sucker for film, particularly horror films, where someone who isn’t normally in the director’s chair gets to step in and take their shot at making a movie. Such is the case with Pumpkinhead, with Stan Winston going from just designing creatures to directing a movie around one of his creations.

Pumpkinhead starts, at first glance, as a “Fifteen Minutes With Jerks” kind of horror film. Ed Harley (Lance Henriksen) is a widower running a roadside store in Appalachia, while also trying to take care of his young son, Billy. When a group of city-folk out to go 4-Wheeling come through, and through one of their number’s their lack of inattention (and driving while intoxicated), Billy is killed, Ed decides to cut a deal with an old witch to summon the demonic spirit of Pumpkinhead to get his revenge, even at the cost of his own soul.

What makes Pumpkinhead work as a story and distinguishes it from other works in the genre, beyond Winston’s creature designs, is that Harley very soon comes to realize that this was a disproportionate response (aggravated by the fact that only one of these young city-folk was actually responsible for the death, and everyone else made the best efforts they could to render aid), and tries to call off the demon, only to find out things don’t work that way with Pumpkinhead.

I came to really appreciate over the course of the film that while this was still a slasher film with creative and clever kills, carried out by a well-designed monster, it was also a film that felt like it was important for the audience not to want these characters to die. It wasn’t always successful at pulling it off, but it did a better job than over 75% of the films in the genre.

That said, there are some issues with the lack of budget undermining the film. The film is clearly trying to double Appalachia with California. The Appalachian locals we see in the film look like they effectively only exist as subsistence dirt farmers. This isn’t to say that in the 1980s there weren’t settled parts of Appalachia that didn’t have phone service or electricity. However, it feels like the visual language of the film, particularly since they couldn’t shoot in actual Appalachia, deferred to imagery from around the turn of the 20th Century. That’s not a great look, and it really could have been handled better.

In all, Pumpkinhead is an enjoyable horror film, and definitely something worth having around to bust out next October – especially if you’re looking for some horror films that are cheesy but sincere to watch among friends.

Physical copies of Pumpkinhead are available from Amazon (Affiliate Link).

Pumpkinhead is also available through streaming from: