An unjustly overlooked classic. A strange film that manages to be a creature feature, revenge flick, and supernatural horror picture all in one. My mom’s favorite horror movie. These are all apt descriptions for Pumpkinhead, Stan Winston’s 1988 movie starring Lance Henrickson.
It’s funny — I know I saw this movie over and over when I was younger, but I might as well have never seen it, for as vague as the plot was in my memory. I don’t remember it being as hallucinatory and freaky-looking as it is. There are angles and elements of Pumpkinhead‘s shooting that make it look like Sam Raimi had control of the camera. They contrast nicely with the almost pastoral scenes early on, before everything goes violent and revenge-y.
In addition to the crazy camera movement and light streaming through backlit fog for its nighttime shots, Pumpkinhead looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre during its daylight scenes. I watched this on a full-screen, untouched DVD from 2000, and it still managed to look frickin’ great, despite the fact that Scream Factory put out a pretty excellent reissue of this on Blu-ray earlier this year. Honestly, though, the grainy, slightly blown-out look of the release I have only lent to the terrifying, awful aspect of everything.
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