After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers. For a first time director the late and great Stan Winston did a terrific job with this low budget horror flick but also created a new and original monster. The special effects in this movie were outstanding and the terror quite believable, the acting was very good especially from Lance Henrisken who gives probably his 2nd best perfomance next to Aliens. Pumpkinhead is an underrated horror classic in my opinion! (A+)

Let's face it, it's incredibly difficult to make a good horror movie. Pumpkinhead is not only a good horror flick, it actually excels! With a good concept, a great script, and with wizard effect specialist Stan Winston in the corner, what can possibly go wrong? From my perspective, very little. This was put together quite intelligently. The violence and gore is just enough to satisfy its target audience, and yet is certainly tame enough to not abuse its authority. When a fathers son is accidentally killed by a group of young bikers, a father is left craving some pretty strong vengeance. One of the bikers claimed it was an accident. Not good enough, boys. It's just not good enough. A trip to a witch leads daddy to an interesting relic called Pumpkinhead, a tall, beastly creature that has a long history of settling some uneven scores with many of its "clients". Okay, so he's got his revenge, the question is...how do you put this monster back in its box? Heh heh heh, my friend...let me explain something to you. See, Pumpkinhead doesn't work like that. Your revenge came with a price, a very HIGH price, and he learns all too late, how Pumpkinhead works. With a unique sacrifice, Pumpkinhead will continue to please for years to come. My only complaint with the movie, is the night time scenes, when the action really gets intense, its kind of hard to see and make out what is going on...you mainly hear just a bunch of screaming, but its much too dark to make out what is going on ( Who knows? Maybe that was what was intended. Stan was very good at what he did for a living!) All in all, this movie was a treat, and I do not follow the sequels, I can't imagine any of them trying to live up or triumph the original, so I just simply won't waste my time. I recommend you don't waste yours.

I am guessing that 65% of people reading this have never heard of this film before, which, in my opinion, is not a good thing. I first saw Pumpkinhead in 2008-2009 when I picked up a VHS copy of the film from a dealer at my hometown's local yard sale. The title got me interested. The first thing that I noticed was, obviously, that the creature on the VHS cover didn't actually have a pumpkin for a head. Regardless, it terrified me. Prior to watching the film, I was constantly worried that the creature would be lurking behind me, preparing to do something awful. I popped in the VHS. When the film was over, my opinion and POV of monster/horror films changed forever.Pumpkinhead was the directorial debut of special effects master Stan Winston, who was also responsible for the creature effects in Aliens, Terminator, Jurassic Park, etc. Of all of Stan Winston's works, Pumpkinhead is unfortunately his least popular. Not only did Pumpkinhead feature beyond fantastic creature effects, it also had a real story to it. Ed Harley (played by Lance Henriksen, who was also involved in Aliens) is the owner of a small grocery store in a rural southern town. When a group of city teenagers come to visit for a little dirt biking, Ed's son, Billy, is accidentally hit and killed by one of the bikers, named Joel. The portrayal of Joel's character seems to have inspired the run-of-the-mill drunk jerk-type character from I Know What You Did Last Summer. In addition, you can actually feel sorry for the character's in this film who are killed off, even the jerk who killed Ed's son. The characters in this film aren't portrayed as pure annoyances as they are in most modern horror garbage, they are portrayed as real characters.Another thing that makes the story of this film superior to what we see in a lot of 80's horror movies (and most movies before and after the 80's) is that it does not involve sex. Absolutely no sex at all. Why? Because the brilliant writers of this film, such as Gary Gerani, were actually thinking when they wrote this. Unlike the gratuitous summer camp consular sex scene in Friday the 13th (1980) that set a very low bar for entertainment, Pumpkinhead has a story motivated by the love between father and son, and the desire for vengeance that lurks within Ed Harley. I am truly grateful to Gary Gerani (as well as any other writers of this film) for putting together such a masterpiece. Now for the creature effects. You have no idea how much my blood begins to boil when I see or hear people saying that the design of the Pumpkinhead demon is a ripoff on H.R. Giger's xenomorph. These creature effects are coming from the same person responsible for the design of the xenomorph queen, so you have to expect some degree of inspiration and stop looking for excuses to make everything look un-original. In my opinion, Pumpkinhead has to be one of the greatest monster designs of all time, and should be featured on one of the covers of Famous Monsters of Filmland. The creature's large head with white unseeing eyes, pointed teeth, and the spongy brain of the creature being exposed on either side of the head really make this look like a demon that could actually come from Hell. The creature's tail also reminds you that this is a demon, and was not added to the design with the intention of being a ripoff on the xenomorph. The blowing wind and dead fall leaves that follow the creature wherever it goes in this film are pure creative genius, and they really remind you of when this film is taking place. The additional flashing lights are also a very atmospheric touch. I could go on forever with the creature design, so I'll stop here.The interior of the cabin belonging to Haggis, the old witch of the woods, in this film has to have taken hours to set up. There's so much going on inside the cabin, I won't even begin trying to describe it all here.My blood begins to boil on the verge of exploding whenever I read Empire's biased review of this film: "a Friday the 13th clone with very little atmosphere." Are you kidding me? Everyone who I have talked to that didn't like this film has never denied the power of its atmosphere, and how can you even compare it to Friday the 13th? That would be comparing an insane mother with a knife who's enraged about idiotic teenagers having sex to a huge monster who has set out to avenge the death of someone's son. Keep in mind that Empire's "review" of this film is probably coming from the same uneducated idiot who thought Jason X was "clever". Empire, you should hire real film reviewers or stop trashing masterpieces altogether!I will always consider the original Pumpkinhead to be an extremely atmospheric and underrated masterpiece. Stan Winston, a true legend, died in 2008, and I miss him every day. Normally I would say that Halloween III: Season of the Witch is the most underrated horror movie on my list, but being that H3 has been rediscovered recently and finally gotten the reception it deserves from (some of) the public, and this film really hasn't, I will say it: Pumpkinhead (1988) is the most underrated monster/horror film of all time. Ignore the sequels to Pumpkinhead, they are mostly an insult to it, but I do think the stories had potential.So you can have your Michael Myers stalking Laurie, you can have your Jason Voorhees cutting up naked women and drugged teens for no reason, you can have your Freddy Krueger murdering children. But give me a film with fantastic creature effects, atmosphere, likable characters, and a bond between father and son.

Oozing With Atmosphere and Lensed Photogenically Dark and Creepy, This Minor Cult Film is Dripping with Style. Directed by Legendary SFX Man Stan Winston, it Remains One of the 1980's Best and Different Teenagers in Peril Movies.What Sets it Apart from the Others is the Way it Looks and its Emphasis on Story and its De-Emphasis on the Gory. Winston Seems to Pull Back on the Creatures Slaughter of the Aforementioned, City Teens Traveling on Roads Less Traveled and Encountering Fate's Formidable Reckoning. The Monster, the Set-Up, and the Folklore are All Handled with Attention to Detail and Presented with Scary Scenes in the Backwoods Inhabited by Hillbilly's and Haunted by a Hag who Conjures Up Creatures from the Undergrowth, but Only by Request.Lance Henrikson, One of the Best B-Actors Ever, Who Seems to Never Give a Bad Performance and Enhances Every Project He Appears, is a Grieving Father that Calls on the Witch and Immediately Regrets It.It's a Near Perfect Horror Show, but it Does a Few Things that Keeps it From Elevated Status Beyond its Loyal Following in the "Famous Monsters of Filmland" Crowd. The Aforementioned, Obvious Reluctance to Go for the Gore and Splatter Relying on Tone, Tells the Scary Tale with a Reverence and Refuses to Capitulate to the Prurient Blood-Letting.That Makes Some of the Avenging Demon's Horrific Slaughter Seem a Bit Tame in Terms of What is Shown Anyhow. Seen Today, That and the Pacing Appear Somewhat Slow. Still, the Movie Makes Up for it in the Way it is Framed and All the Sets and Design are as Eerie as They Come.Overall, its a Way Better Than Average Film of its Type and Along with the Cinematographer, Stan Winston's Monster Makers and Hendrickson Deliver a Better Than it Should be Entry in the Glut of 80's Horror (for example at the time of its release Halloween 4 was about to hit theaters). Nuff Said.