FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

adonis98-743-186503 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+)

Fella_shibby I first saw this on a VHS in the early 90s. Revisited this recently on a blu ray. Plot - Lance Henriksen is a country man who owns a small grocery and is raising his small boy on his own. As a kid, he had witnessed Pumpkinhead (demon/monster) in action. City kids come into town with their motorbikes, and cause an accident killing Henriksen's small kid.... The movie is shot in the remote backwoods (myself a fan of backwoods, badlands n road movies). This film is the directorial debut of the FX genius Stan Winston. Pumpkinhead easily ranks among the best monster movie. It is one of my fav monster movie. The design of the demon/creature is astounding. The movie also features some good cinematography. The swamp scenes are bathed in an eerie blue light. The murky, foggy woods where the witch lives is just fantastic. The hill where the creature is dug up is spooky. The design of the witch's cottage is the true visual highlight. Its an old and dilapidated one, full of old relics and even some living animals. The flickering candle create heavy shadows n make the witch herself much scarier. Henriksens character and performance r excellent.

Anonymous Andy (Minus_The_Beer) Country bumpkin gets his revenge in "Pumpkinhead." In creature/special-effects wizard Stan Winston's directorial debut, Lance Henriksen ("Aliens," "The Terminator") plays a loving father in the backwoods of rural America. When some city folk disturb his way of life and accidentally strip away his reason for being away from him, he sells his soul and summons the legendary demon, Pumpkinhead to do his bidding. Ah, the sacrifices parents make for their children.Being that Winston's prior experience was in the background, crafting and perfecting all manner of special effects and the sort things that go bump in the night, it's no surprise that his film focuses more on the monster than it does its characters. Aside from Henriksen, who colors his character as much as he can with a good, stern grimace, the victims of Pumpkinhead himself as about as cardboard as '80s horror movie characters get. Even the teens Jason mowed down in many a "Friday The 13th" had a little more dimension to the ones here. All we know about these kids is that the jerk leading the pack is really good at riding a dirt bike, so his sins are forgiven by his friends. But not by Pumpkinhead, who wastes no time laying them to waste in the film's tight 88 minute run-time.What the film lacks in character development, it more than makes up for in the visual department. Not only is Pumpkinhead himself a glorious chunk of animatronic genius, but the film itself has an ominous, almost Gothic atmosphere, which meshes surprisingly well with the dusty, old-timey setting it's couched in. Winston sure knew how to make things look and function well and "Pumpkinhead" is a testament to that. If you can forgive a little predictability and lack of character development, you'll find "Pumpkinhead" to be worth summoning time and time again.

cls0680 I pretty much only watch horror movie (I don't know why) and this has always been one of my personal favorites. Though it does follow the old formula of a stalker slashing screaming teens, there is more to it than JUST that.Start with Lance Henriksen, who is an amazing actor and so much better than he is given credit. He is natural and emotional and he makes you feel sadness and regret and things you don't normally get out of B horror.Of course, Stan Winston, who was a genius in special effects and creature design and did not disappoint with the Pumpkinhead creature. It is not your typical rubber hand puppet. It IS a character in the movie with facial expressions, body gestures, and a quality that is not typically found in movies of this level. It is easy to forget it is an actor inside, and that is hard to come by.Story / Characters - some are great. I wish the movie would have steered clear of the stereotypical snotty teenagers on a party weekend, because it has more potential than that. I'm not sure if that was the only group of people that it was OK to kill in movies at the time - partying teenagers...? It makes it difficult to illicit any kind of emotion for them either positive or negative, because it tries so hard to make you hate them that by the time it wants you to feel bad for them, its too late. The whole movie is about regretting your wrath and vengeance, so I always felt like I should feel worse for these people, and never really did. Regardless, the locals are pretty great and remind me of some actual people I know, or have known. Mr. Wallace is a classic to me.The biggest issue for me, and this is stupid, was the setting and the lighting! After you have watched a movie 100s of times, you notice when there are two moons, and they are both neon blue. Or that backwoods West Virginia seems to look a lot like Barstow, California. Or random lightning with no source and no thunder. I understand the lighting (and lightning) is for effect, and it is a pretty strong visual effect combined with the awesome Pumpkinhead creature, if you're not thinking about it. I started to think about it...