Review for Pumpkinhead

(Originally posted on fight-evil.com)

Personally, I never thought that Pumpkinhead got the love it deserved. For whatever the sequels were, the first Pumpkinhead, overall, is a damn solid film, and Lance Henriksen, an actor I generally don't care for, put up a very good performance here. The set-up, showing a impoverished but loving father and son really allows us, as viewers, to understand why he wanted revenge after what happened to his son. And speaking of that, that scene in which he's digging up the bones of Pumpkinhead has long been a favorite of mine, as the setting, a mist-covered, decrepit graveyard is truly a place you'd think twice before entering.

The on-going drama between the kids was less interesting, but as most of them die by the end of the film, such is life. Also, the fact that unlike many, if not most, 80's horror films, Pumpkinhead is deadly serious has always struck me an interesting choice. There's no humor to be found in this movie, not really even with the scenes featuring the kids. In many ways, it feels more like a 70's movie than an 80's one. One last note - the setting as a whole deeply intrigues me. Those people really look as though they're living in 1920's West Virginia poor communities. And yet, communities like that still exist, and certainly did back in 1988. Exaggerated a bit? Sure, but on the whole, that setting, for some reason, appealed greatly to me. Pumpkinhead's a good film. Not perfect by any means, but a very solid title all the same. 8/10.