Cabeza De Calabaza (1989)

A starkly original visual treat, this Halloween-themed exercise in terror is uncommonly well made, seeking to add yet another creature to horror film lore. A group of teenagers camping in a remote mountain resort accidentally kill a boy and cover it up, and his aggrieved father (Lance Henriksen) vows revenge. Enlisting the help of a local witch, he conjures up a mythic demonic monster to kill those responsible for his son's death. The plot and dialogue are not very original, but the creepy mood and some fine work by director Stan Winston (the special effects whiz behind Jurassic Park) make Pumpkinhead an eerie gothic horror tale and great viewing for Halloween nights. --Robert Lane Amazon.com

CLASSIC

PUMPKINHEAD

I have to say that this is one of my all time favorite movies ever, classic in my eyes by far regardless of what other people think. Every time I have watched this film it has been with a least one of my friends or my brother, this is one of those that is just so awesome to watch with other people eating pizza and drinking what ever pleases you. I have nothing but fond memories of this movie and at least once a year we all sit down and watch this, a few other films share this distinction. I don't know if it is the pure 80's feel of this movie or maybe it is Lance Henriksen or even the excellent Pumpkinhead himself, but this is truly a fun movie.

The story is all about a loving father out in the country who owns and runs a little general store and leaves his son to watch the shop for a little bit. It is during this time he is away that the little boy runs out into a field were some city kids are racing around on their dirt bikes, when he tries to catch his dog one of the riders collides with the boy. This of course is what sets the father out on a quest for vengeance and that quest brings him to a witch in the woods that shows him the way to his vengeful choice. It is here that Pumpkinhead is called upon to bring justice to these woods and kill all of those who were involved with the killing of his kid. Of course this starts a night full of terror for these young people who really in my mind deserve what they get, well maybe not all but one in particular.

Lance Henriksen really brings this film to life with his brilliant performance, the rage of the character really comes through in a silent way. Lance's facial expressions alone make his character come to life, a very powerful performance especially for a low budget b movie. He seems haunted and tormented throughout the entire film even after he helps take out the monster. Florence Schauffler is perfect has Haggis the witch in the woods and the keeper of the demon. Much like Lance you can really feel her performance and never disbelieve the character. I remember when I was younger she kinda scared me a little because of not only the look of the character but also because of how she talked, her voice for this character is great. Of course not every performance is what I would call award winning but there is not really a bad one in the bunch. All of the people who played the helpless victims while not great did well enough to make it seem believable. The one guy in particular who was the one who actually hit the kid is really believable as a jerk, I couldn't wait for Pumpkinhead to get him.

Special effects wizard Stan Winston really crafted a wonderful directorial debut, no wonder Pumpkinhead looked so cool with this guy at the helm. Gary Gerani, and Mark Patrick Carducci did a nice job with screenplay off of producer Richard Weinman, director Stan Winston, and Mark's original screenplay. Of course this film would never have been with out Ed Justin's poem. So all of these people together brought us this wonderful viewing experience. Of course without an excellent movie monster this would just be another movie, enter Pumpkinhead. This has got to be one of the coolest monsters I have ever seen in cinematic history, and he also has a cool purpose in this movie. He is just the demon of vengeance who takes the soul of who ever called him back to hell with him after he carries out their mission. This thing actually looks like a demon to me, some of these other movies about demons really don't feel right to me.

I really believe that this is one of the most entertaining movies I have ever seen, the sequels that followed never really were up to par with this one in my opinion but those are reviews for another day.
October 1, 2008

The leading cause of death among hillbillies: not heart disease or cancer, but Cityfolk

We went back to the B well once again this week with 1988's Pumpkinhead. The film was actually completed in 1987, putting it right in the middle of the Golden Era of horror B. We vaguely remember this one from our youth, and upon learning that it's original production company went belly-up before the film's release, we were absolutely excited about the project. We reviewed the sequel, Pumpkinhead 2 - Blood Wings, a few weeks ago. While the sequel failed miserably as a legitamate horror flick, it excelled in the world of unintentional comedy that Sid appreciates so much. So going into the Pumpkinhead viewing, we were hopeful that the movie would be good enough to satisfy a horror jones, and bad enough to satisfy an unquenchable B/unintentional comedy jones. This is not an easy task, but Pumpkinhead delivered.

The movie starts off with a farmer/country store owner named Ed Harley being a doting dad to his young son, Billy, who is a dead ringer for the the kid in Jerry Maguire. Later, the father and son go to their store for their day's work. Some young hotshots from the city(cityfolk) stop at the store on their way to a Crystal Lake ripoff for the weekend. At the same time, a hick family consisting of a middle-aged man named Mr. Wallace and his 85 kids and grandkids stop at the store as well. Ed Harley forgets to bring Mr. Wallace's feed to the store from home, so he has to go back to the house and leaves his 7 year old in charge of the store with a bunch of rednecks and rowdy 20-somethings roaming around. Great judgment there. For some reason, the out-of-towners decide to ride the hills near the store on their dirt bikes. The noise sends the Harleys' dog chasing after the bikes in a frenzy, with the kid following. Naturally, the kid gets killed after being barely brushed by a dirt bike. The dirt bikers flee the scene immediately. You could see that coming from a mile away. Ed is obviously crushed by the loss of his son and he wants revenge and his boy back. So he attempts to employ the help of an old nearby witch via Mr. Wallace. Upon seeing the dead boy in Ed's truck, Mr. Wallace asks, "What killed him?" To this, Ed replied, naturally, "Cityfolk." Just priceless. One of the highlights of the film, really.

Ed Harley is eventually brought to the witch by a Wallace kid. She takes some blood from Billy and Ed and instructs Ed to dig up a body buried in a pumpkin patch. Ed brings the body back to the witch and she does some black magic, midnight, evil stuff. The result is Pumpkinhead. Even though the rest of the film is shot, like a true B horror, in daylight through a blue filter to make it look like nighttime, they did a great job with the Pumpkinhead creature. This thing was awesome looking, especially for more than 20 years ago. Pumpkinhead is a 10 foot tall skeleton with a tail and wing-like appendages. He also has a dinosaur shaped huge head. In short, if you saw this thing coming at you, you'd probably pee on yourself in hopes he would pass you by.

Pumpkinhead is set in motion by the witch to exact revenge on the cityfolk for Billy Harley's death. If you don't get in Pumpkinhead's way, you're all right. If you do decide to get in his way or attempt to help one of his potential victims--not good times. Bad times. He'll probably kill you in a really cool way, like when he ran the Fonz through with the barrel of the shotgun. Even if it was obviously a rubber prop shotgun, it was still awesome. Everytime Pumpkinhead rubbed someone out, Ed Harley would feel it. In fact, Pumpkinhead started to look like Ed as the film wore on and the killings piled up. Sid is going to give the ending away, so beware. At the end of the film, Ed had no hope of his son being brought back and he wanted the Pumpkinhead reign of terror to stop. So, he instructed one of the female cityfolk kill him after realizing that this will also kill Pumpkinhead. What he wasn't banking on, however, was that he would be buried in place of the old Pumpkinhead. So, this means that he would be the next incarnation of the terrifying creature. Personally, Sid thinks that's pretty cool.

Pumpkinhead was your typical 80's horror flick. It was part creature film rip-off, part Friday the 13th ripoff. In fact, the house that the kids stayed in was the same one used for Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Maybe we will review that one at some point. But, meanwhile, Pumpkinhead was a huge winner by our calculations. It had enough real horror elements(awesome creature, people you wanted to get iced getting iced in cool ways, sweet concept) to keep you interested, but enough unintentional comedy(the cityfolk line, the hicks, awful acting, poor quality) to keep you laughing. This one is highly recommended by us, Sid the Elf, it's right up our alley. Pick it up and enjoy, but be careful of those Cityfolk.
September 23, 2008

Great Treatment for an Underrated Classic

I've always been a fan of this movie ever since I first saw it years ago. Unfortuantely, it looked like it was a forgotten gem among the slasher craze of the 80's. This underrated gem didn't see any love for it's first DVD, so I was really excited to see that it was finally getting the special edition that it deserves.

The movie itself is a great atmospheric monster flick. Pumpkinhead looks incredibly life-like. The monster FX are amazing, especially considering its age. The cinematography is another plus. The colors used in specific parts really enhance the creepy mood Winston set out to create, as does the music. There is a little bad acting and writing, and the ending is a little anti-climatic, but overall it's a great horror flicks with a nice, creepy atmosphere that makes it perfect to watch around Halloween.

The extras were one of the main attractions here, and they deliver. The "Pumpkinhead Unearthed" 6 part documentary is what the fans are looking for. They run a little over an hour together and have some nice interviews with the cast and crew on specific parts of production. It would have been nice to get more them in the interviews, but it was good enough. The "demonic toys" featurette is just a little interview with the guy who sculpted the Pumpkinhead figures. Nothing real exciting there. The "BTS footage" is pretty cool, but way too short. The "still gallery" has some really nice BTS set pics. Also, I don't know if this is a new film transfer or not, but it looks gorgeous playing on my Sony Upconverting DVD player and Bravia HDTV. The only real problem I have is the audio, which is barely enhanced for surround sound.

Overall, it's a great release for a real forgotten gem. The features are a little lacking, but it's good enough and great to see Pumpkinhead get the treatment he deserves. September 18, 2008

Finally an edition truly for collector's!

It has been a long time coming but I finally got to watch the Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition. I am very glad I ordered early from Amazon because I have not seen it in any stores and now see it is out of stock. If you are a Pumpkinhead fanatic like me I suggest you try to track down a copy of this DVD, it truly does satisfy us collector's who have been longing for such an edition for many years.
The special features go into alot of detail on the making of the film starting with the writers and producers and going through the cast, monster crew and even a nice bit on the production designer. Most of the cast show up in recent interviews talking fondly about thier memories of the shoot. There is also some cool footage shot behind the scenes of the construction of the monster suit, for me this alone was worth the price of the DVD.
The part on the SOTA Toys figure seems kinda out of place because there are many other figures and model kits that could have been mentioned as well. The still gallery has some very cool images but uses alot that are easily found on the web, some story board artwork would have been nice. The Stan Winston tribute is good but seems somewhat tacked on at the last minute, obviously due to his passing while this edition was being produced.
And that is really the only problem I have with this Collector's Edition that they waited until it was too late to include a Stan Winston interview and commentary track. A commentary track with Stan and Lance Henriksen is such an obvious demand from a Pumpkinhead Collector's Edition that to not have one is very hard to ignore. September 16, 2008

A Classic

So far as I know, this is the only movie the late Stan Winston ever directed. If that's so, it is a real shame because he was good at it -- as good as the fantastic mechanicals he built for some of the greatest sf & fantasy films of the 20th century. This little gem I came across many years ago on VHS and later when it was released on DVD. Hopefully the special edition will be in WIDESCREEN!!!! Really first-rate performances from Lance Henrikson (ALIENS) and Jeff East (SUPERMAN THE MOVIE) in a tale of revenge and supernatural retribution. A pity Winston passed away before he could participate on this release. August 27, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...