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Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994)

DVD Cover (Lions Gate)
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Connections: Pumpkinhead

After a group of teenagers indirectly cause an old witch to be burned, they accidentally revive Pumpkinhead. This time Pumpkinhead is inhabited by the soul of a deformed orphan killed 30 years before. He goes on a bloody rampage after his tormentors and the teenagers. Meanwhile, a local sheriff tries to solve the mystery and stop the murders. --IMDb
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Review by Tristan
Added: October 18, 2008
Most people out there would agree that Pumpkinhead was one of the finest monster movies of the 80's. Stan Winston had already proved himself to be one of the best special effects and make up men in the industry, but he also had a hidden talent which was directing. He already knew how to make a monster look good in front of the camera, I guess it was just a matter of time before he tried his hand at making people look the same. Lord knows, they're probably easier to manage than a 6 foot puppet. So Pumpkinhead came and went, and 5 years later someone decided it would be a good idea to do a sequel. I thought they said everything they needed to say in the first one, but it wouldn't be a successful monster movie if it didn't have a whole string of sequels to go with it.

Our film starts off in 1958 in Hicktown, USA where a couple of high school jocks are tormenting a deformed boy named Tommy. After chasing him through the woods and beating him half to death, they string him on a chain where the group leader cuts him a few times then drops him down a well to his assumed death. Jump 35 years into the future and Sean Braddock (Andrew Robinson of Hellraiser fame) is about to become the sheriff for the same little town where these events took place. He's hoping to get his wife and daughter Jenny (Ami Dolenz) away from the city life and into a modest country home where noise, pollution and gangs are hundreds of miles away.

As fate would have it, Jenny immediately slips in with the local "bad asses" and starts skipping school and doing drugs. Since drunk teenagers and cars don't mix, the group manages to hit an old woman on a back road, and then seem to think the worst part is the damage to the car. The woman mysteriously disappears however, and the locals - with Jenny tagging along, of course - head off for her house to see if she's alright. They find several spell books, candles, vials of blood, the usual spell making paraphernalia, and come to the conclusion the old woman's a witch. What do young teens do to witches; accidentally burn their houses down of course. So far you've managed to run over an old lady and burn down her house, why stop there. Let's dig up Pumpkinhead's grave, and read a spell to raise the dead while pouring damned blood on his corpse. For a group of stoners and dropouts, they sure bone up on their witchcraft. Unfortunately for them, this is one thing they didn't want to get right.

In the first film, you could really identify with Lance Henriksen's character and sympathize with him while he grieved for his dead son. It made the killings seem just and planned out. In this film, the motivation for the creature's killings seem random and don't feel connected to anyone in the film. Scene after scene Pumpkinhead tears through people right and left, most of whom we know nothing about. Nothing that is, except for these are possibly the dumbest teenagers in the world. And it's not even the bad acting - which was pretty awful, let me say - which makes you feel sorry for none of these kids. The stupidity of the characters is astounding. Andrew Robinson, who I thought was great in Hellraiser, didn't even bring anything to his character. Sure, he was the sheriff. Anybody could have filled that role, and just as well. It's a shame he didn't have any of that energy he displayed in Hellraiser to add to this.

As far as Pumpkinhead himself, he quickly went from some fantastic puppetry / man in suit hybrid to just a man in a suit, who looked absolutely ridiculous. This looked like the Pumpkinhead you might have seen on the streets in October of '89. Some man wandering around in a costume he bought at Wal Mart, hissing at kids and carrying out the witches dirty work. Which brings me to a large flaw in this movie that really bugged me. The witch was constantly saying one thing, then shortly afterward doing something else. For someone who's supposed to be all knowing and have arcane wisdom, she certainly is a forgetful hypocrite. And since Pumpkinhead is seeking revenge for all those terrible things done to him all those decades ago, why wouldn't the witch have just raised him sooner. Why wait 35 years and hope he manages to get all the people who wronged him, even though most have left town ages ago.

Sure it was flawed, but the movie wasn't all bad. The music is quite good surprisingly, and the misty atmosphere adds a nice gothic tone to the film. The kills were generic, but there were a few standouts. Whoever came up with the idea of a man's face being pecked off by chickens deserves a medal. It's quite possibly the dumbest idea ever, but I loved it. That's pretty much the feel of this entire movie, some good cheesy fun. I wouldn't recommend a purchase unless you're a franchise purist. If you decide to give it a rent this Halloween, I guarantee you're in for a fun watch.

6/10.
Crispy #1: Crispy - added March 8, 2010 at 2:51am
I hated it up until the final act, which I really liked. Would have given it four stars instead of three if the first hour had been any good.
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