Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)

Watch Pumpkinhead battle the fat kid from Charles and Charge

We, Sid the Elf, made a great choice for this week's B extraveganza. We decided on a horror B from that golden age for the genre. Pumpkinhead 2 was made in 1994. Remember, this was after Freddy and Jason lost their appeal, before the awful Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer movies, and before the terrible The Ring ripoffs we're forced to deal with now. This was the era when you had to have a killer or monster, a cop or sherrif, and a group of rowdy teens who are the killer/monster's targets. Bing, bang, boom--instant horror movie. This might sound terrible, but it wasn't. These movies are the bedrock of horror B. Some of them are even incredibly enjoyable, like Pumpkinhead 2. Although, is it possible to not enjoy a movie when it features the fat kid from Charles in Charge, the guy who was obsessed with Donna Martin and took over the CU tv station in 90210, and Bill Clinton's brother? The answer of course is no it is impossible to not enjoy such a movie.

The plot of Pumpkinhead 2 is as simple as it is ridiculous. After being summoned through an evil spell by Punky Bruster(seriously), Pumpkinhead takes over the body of a freak who was killed 30 years prior. The freak was killed by an unfathomably fruity gang called The Red Wings. Perfect. The best part about these guys is that we think they were supposed to come off as tough. And let's just say that they fell short. The son of one of the Red Wings(it's making you chuckle a little everytime isn't it?)ended up being Danny, aka the guy from 90210. So now Pumpkinhead is after him and his freinds Punky Brewster, the fat kid from Charles in Charge, Booger from He Got Game, and the Sheriff's daughter. How could they have not casted Punky Brewster? She was one of the writers of the film and her outstanding performance in that Saved By the Bell episode put her right over the top. Just a tour-de-force cast. And it included a cameo by Roger Clinton. Yeah, the degenerate coke dealing DUI happy half-brother of President Bill Clinton. That adds a star right there. And how does this guy not have a reality show? It would be immensely entertaining to watch this guy call his agent to check for incoming scripts, call his brother to borrow money, then contimplate swallowing a bottle of pills everyday. Then what about the times when he has to interact with Hillary? See? The posibilities are endless.

So, Sid's theory on the reason for Pumpkinhead's barrage of killings is that everyone kept screaming at him. Yeah, he looked like a dinosaur of some sort, but yelling in his face really couldn't have helped the situation. The best was when that bald hillbilly screamed at Pumpkinhead, and they felt the need to show his ugly face for like 15 seconds. I think everyone watching was thinking "Damn, shut this old hick up." And you couldn't even finish the thought because Pumpkinhead backhanded the guy so freakin hard. The guy went right through a haystack or something. By far, the best moment of the movie. It was absolutely hysterical. It got rewound 3 times, a record bested only by the famous hicks being thrown off the truck scene in Halloween 4. Eventually, the sherrif figures out that the freak is Pumpkinhead because of the markings he leaves after he ices someone. They look like lesbian seagulls, but in red, or blood wings. Get it? Oh, boy! The sheriff actually met the freak when he was a nerdy kid himself, so I guess they had some kind of rapport. This led to the improbable scene in which the sherrif reasons with Pumpkinhead, a 7 1/2 foot creature that looks kind of like a dinosaur. But I'm sure he has wonderful communication skills.

If you're a fan of B horror, Pumpkinhead 2 was made for you. It has everything you could want, well almost. It has no story, terrible acting by d-list(at the height of their fame) actors and awful special effects. This is clearly illustrated when a certain character gets decapitated by Pumpkinhead. It's the worst fake head since Death Ring. Sid absolutely loved this movie. We saw it years back, loved it then and still do. The only thing that could have made it better was if Buddy and Charles joined the fat kid in the cast. You're telling me seeing Scott Baio getting torn apart by Pumpkinhead wouldn't make you happy?





July 23, 2008

average, but enjoyable horror

An aggressively average horror film, mildly enjoyable but forgettable, its few smallish rises matched by some minor dips. What distinguishes Pumpkinhead 2 is its journeyman cast of minor "names." No real stars, just the B-list and Z-list. But ... so many of them!

Click any cast member at the Internet Movie Database and a ream of credits follow. Part of the fun of watching Pumpkinhead 2 is trying to remember where you've seen this or that familiar face before. I knew I'd recognized the sheriff from somewhere. Turns out he appeared in Hellraiser -- though I confess, I probably recognized him from the ABC soap, Ryan's Hope, which I watched for about a year in the 1970s.

Most of Pumpkinhead 2's cast has soap credits, daytime and nighttime. Dallas fans will recognize Steve Kanaly, who plays a corrupt judge in Pumpkinhead 2. Soleil Moon Frye ("Punky Brewster") is a surly teen. Roger Clinton (brother of Bill) has a few lines as the mayor. Z-starlet Linnea Quigley (whose minor cult following baffles me) has a few lines during her topless cameo.

Much of this "name cast" only has a few lines. Just enough to grant some bragging rights. The video box brags: "Featuring Cameos From Horror's Hottest Cult Faves! KANE HOLDER as Hockeymask in Friday The 13th Part VIII. R.A. MIHAILOFF as Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre III."

I didn't even know that Kane played "Hockeymask" in Friday The 13th Part VIII, much less that he was one of "Horror's Hottest Cult Faves!"

But, peruse this cast and you may discover some of your own personal favorites. Mine is Caren Kaye. Back when I was a teen in the 1970s, I'd predicted Kaye would soon be big. It was the Age Of Farrah, and Kaye had that layered blond "look." She appeared in several TV pilots but, defying all odds, they all flopped. Her longest regular gig (as best I recall) was on Celebrity Charades, a syndicated game show, sort of a cross between The Gong Show and The Hollywood Squares. That lasted a few months. Kaye was a recurring TV guest star in the 1980s (Fantasy Island, Love Boat, New Love American Style). She is probably best known as the "older woman" in My Tutor, although horror fans might know her from 1990's Satan's Princess.

But aside from its cast from Memory Lane, what's Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings about?

As the title implies, the film is an (unnecessary) sequel to the respectable but unremarkable Pumpkinhead (the object of another minor cult following that baffles me). Both films feature a demon named Pumpkinhead, the stuff of mountain lore (Appalachian, I suppose). If someone wrongs you, you can summon Pumpkinhead to take vengeance. But afterwards, Pumpkinhead goes on a killing spree, attacking innocents, and you'll be damned for eternity. Something like that.

The plot is jerrybuilt from the flotsam and jetsam of a hundred mediocre horror films. There is the shunned freak living in the woods. There are fratboy bullies. The "prank that goes wrong." The mountain witch in a cabin. The small town legend. The respectable town elders "with a dark secret in their past." The "bad girl" daughter who rebels against her straight-laced folks. The drunken teens. The sex in inappropriate public places. The redneck vigilantes in pickup trucks. And against this rustic tableau, there is Pumpkinhead, trouncing about and ripping off everyone's heads.

I'll give the film points for this: not all its gun-crazed redneck vigilantes are white. And director Jeff Burr does create a few nice visuals. Atmospheric sepia shots to evoke the 1950s. Colorfully glowing mist to convey demonic magic. The gore is generous and well-done. Pumpkinhead's hands and feet are stiff and rubbery, but one can live with it. Horror films have a long tradition of "rubber suit monsters."

More problematic is the witch's pointless makeup. One wonders ... why? I'm guessing Burr wanted the witch to appear old. Well, why not just cast an old woman? Maybe he did, but we can't see it. The actress playing the witch is heavily layered with "age makeup," making her indiscernible. Her face looks like a plaster mask. Maybe Burr wanted the witch to look really, really old. She doesn't. She looks really, really weird.

Pumpkinhead 2 is an enjoyable but unremarkable gorefest, as watchable as a hundred other horror films out there. And if you get bored between killings, there are plenty of minor "names" to keep you playing "Where have I seen him before?" June 18, 2008

The descrption is wrong

This isn't really a review. The description of the plot is wrong. Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings is the one Pumpkinhead sequel that is not connected to Pumkinhead Canon. In the description provided by Amazon it said it was the boy from the first film. This is wrong as the boy from this movie is actually a deformed boy who was murdered by a highschool motor club because of his looks. Over thirty years later a group of teen inadvetantly summon the boy back as pumpkinhead where he targets the men who murdered him years before, then the teens for leaving the old woman(also not from the first one) who took care of him in fire to die. The only real connection between this and the other movies is the Pumkinhead poem. The story line is good for not being apart of the original canon like the other sequels. Some bad acting here and there, but that can be expected with most sequels. This movie later featured a computer game where you fought the Pumkinhead and featured cut scenes from the movie. March 5, 2008

Pumpkinhead 2

This movie was not as good as the first, but it was decent for what it's worth.The actors did a good job, & the storyline was good. The movie would have been better if the director had more time to create the movie, as he explained that he only had a few months to complete the movie. Overall, I do recommend this movie to any hardcore horror fan out there. January 20, 2008

Better Sequel

This is the rare sequel better than the original. It got rid of anything supernatural from the original Pumpkinhead. It wasn't s cary. The scenes with the title monster were like the Alien movies. They should make DVD discs out of hard plastic and put the techknology inside a plastic shell so they don't scratch or skip and it reads it that way. I didn't cry at the end of this he was Amish blah because in the BC era they didn't want people to feel bad for them and no one was homeless. Pilgrim Lutheran church is about this old lady who was homeless. It's not bad, not a classic either. I would watch it again. December 31, 2007

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