Pumpkinhead was a film I was always aware of with it's VHS cover staring at me every time I looked through the Horror section of the local video store (for the kiddies out there, it was like scrolling through Netflix, except you left the house and went to another building to rent an actual physical copy of the movie). But, for some reason it never really appealed to me until I finally saw it a few years back and I was kind of sorry I had waited so long.
Ed Harley (played by Lance Henriksen) lives a simple but peaceful life with his young son, Billy (played by Matthew Hurley). The two live in the rural countryside and Ed runs a small grocery store. One day, a group of campers stop by the shop on the way to a cabin to relax and do some dirt bike riding. One of the campers, Joel (played by John D'Aquino), decides to ride his dirt bike around the open hills around the store while he friends shop at the store. Tragedy strikes when Billy accidentally gets hit by Joel and is mortally wounded. Joel wants to flee the scene since he's on probation for a similar accident while fellow campers Chris (played by Jeff East) and Tracey (played by Cynthia Bain) want to go for help. When Ed discovers what has happened, he takes Billy's body to a local witch who lives in the backwoods, Haggis (played by Florence Schauffer), in hopes she can help. She tells him she cannot resurrect his son, but tells him she can give Ed what he really wants, but there is a price. She summons the vengeance demon known as Pumpkinhead, who sets out to deliver vengeance on the campers responsible for Billy's death. Ed soon realizes that the ritual has given him a direct connection to the demon and quickly regrets his actions, but it may already be too late as he sets out to stop the monster he unleashed.
Famed special effects wizard Stan Winston made his directorial debut with this film, working from a script he developed along with writers Gary Gerani and Mark Patrick Carducci. His approach to the film is one that feels largely timeless as he gives the film a strong dark fairy tale/fable quality that really helps set a certain tone to the film. He keeps the film tightly focused and doesn't focus on extraneous details, giving the film a lean run time that clocks in at barely an hour and thirty minutes. But the themes it touches on are what make the film stick, especially the theme of vengeance and how destructive it can be as explored through the film's main character. Vigilante justice was a popular trend for films of the 80's, when this film came out so it's interesting to see a film that really explores, through the medium of a horror film, what something like that could actually do to a person. He initially calls out for it but when he gets it he immediately regrets it and tries to stop it, in this case personified in the monstrosity that is Pumpkinhead. The film is also well designed with some fantastic production design and cinematography that adds a more classic horror movie feel to the proceedings, especially for a film made in an era when the genre was generally still in Slasher movie mode.
Lance Henriksen gives one of his better performances as Ed, conveying a lot in a short amount of time, especially for the affection his character has for his young son and the deep mourning he has with his son's sudden death. This is important for the rest of the film to work and Henriksen pulls it off wonderfully. He also does a good job at conveying his character's remorse when Pumpkinhead starts unleashing his vengeance. Florence Schauffer is memorably creepy as Haggis, the one who conjures up Pumpkinhead. Jeff East and Cynthia Bain do well as the "innocent" members of the group of campers, who spend the bulk of the movie trying to get away from the titular monster, but they do well with what material they have to make their characters suitably likable enough to want them to live.
Pumpkinhead is a film that has slowly grown in reputation over the years as audiences have discovered it. With a lean plot, a fantastic performance from Lance Henriksen and some genuinely creepy atmosphere, this makes for a decent horror offering for the Halloween season.
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