The Five Greatest Horror Movies You Have Never Seen, #4
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
4 – Pumpkinhead (1989)
Pumpkinhead has something in common with the #5 film, Dead and Buried; it was directed by Stan Winston, the legendary make-up wizard responsible for Dead and Buried's special effects. The first film he ever directed, Pumkinhead introduced Stan Winston as a promising new director. Unfortunately, that promise never panned out. As of now Stan Winston has only directed two feature length films, including Pumkinhead. The other film is a forgettable piece of crap called, 'A Gnome Named Gnorm.'
Pumkinhead however, is a gem of a movie that plays out like a classic American folk tale. The story is simple enough: Ed Harley is a simple man living a simple existence in small backwoods town with his son, Billy. One day a group of teenagers from the city come into town. While riding their dirt bikes they accidentally kill Billy. Harley pays a visit to a reclusive local witch to invoke Pumpkinhead, a demon of vengeance, to exact justice on the city kids.
Now, I don't know about you, but every time I'm in the video store reading the description of a horror movie on the back of the DVD case and I come across the phrase, 'a group of teenagers,' I put the video down and move on. There is only so many times I can watch a group of ignorant teenagers bungle into some life threatening situation and behave in mind numbingly stupid ways. I'm not sure how many times that is, but I know I passed it many years ago. That being said, don't let the group of teenagers frighten you away from Pumpkinhead. While a bit annoying at first, the teens in this movie eventually develop a depth of character not seen in most conventional horror movies.
Lance Henrickson as Ed Harley is remarkable, perhaps giving one of his best performances. But the real star of the movie is Pumpkinhead himself. An emaciated yet hulking brute of a creature, Pumpkinhead is, to my mind, easily the most impressive creature design Stan Winston Studios ever created (and remember, this is the studio responsible for Aliens, the Predator and
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