Pumpkinhead [1988]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

 

Tonight marked the epic return of Randy. Not Pumpkinhead. We've actually never watched it on Bad Movie Night before. But original BMN member, Randy, decided that if he was going to come back, he was going to need to bring something especially awful and he definitely succeeded. Directed by special effects master Stan Winston, this film had a guarantee of quality . . . in the field of special effects. The rubber suit was quality. The rest of the film was not. How this film became a cult classic that spawned many sequels (and a comic book?!) is kind of a mystery. Most of the time a good horror movie is made and then shoddy sequels follow. It should also be noted that Randy bought this movie at Walmart and that it was the "Special Collector's Edition." Why someone would want to collect a special edition of this movie is beyond any of our comprehensions.

In an American South filled with redneck gypsies and where the outside is very blue and the inside is very orange, there lives a man and his tiny son. The son gets killed in a tragic dirt bike accident and the father decides to foolishly take revenge on the yuppies who ran him over.He does this by visiting a scary demon in the words who tells him to dig up the grave of a slightly less scary demon that will take revenge for him. Some magic is done and now the fates of Pumpkinhead (the lesser demon) and the man are entwined. All this backstory feels like it takes up a full hour of the film. Pumpkinhead goes on a killing massacre of the yuppies that takes him through the hollowed out remains of a church ad up trees. There's a comical amount of head grabbing in this movie: from the dad grabbing his son's head, to the yuppie boys grabbing the yuppie girls' heads to try to comfort them, to Pumpkinhead grabbing heads as a means of stealing people (maybe he wants a normal one). Ultimately the man realizes that revenge is bad and allows himself to be killed so that Pumpkinhead can die as well. The end shows the demon lady burying the corpse of the man in Pumpkinhead's pedestal-shaped grave in the pumpkin patch, setting up for an infinite amount of sequels.

Quotes:

"We have to go back to look for Steve!"

"We don't know what's out there!"

"STEVE IS OUT THERE!"

Spoon Rating: 3.5