Pumpkinhead

When people know you as the creator of such classic screen icons as Edward’s Scissor-Hands, The Terminator from Terminator and the Alien Queen from Aliens, it may be hard to convince them you were once a director. Pumpkinhead was Stan Winston’s directorial debut into horror and as a film it’s not much on plot, but it does look good at least. The ghastly figure of the title stands at around eight feet tall - all bony armatures, swollen head and rather imposing - though we only see its strength without often seeing it. The strange thing here is that Stan had nothing to do with building it – perhaps more intent directing this average 83 minute horror thriller.

"Keep away from Pumpkinhead Unless you’re tired of livin’ His enemies are mostly dead And he’s mean and unforgivin’ "

When average dirt-shirted denizen of a small rural community loses his only child in a terrible motorcycle accident, he is naturally pissed at the city-bred denim clad doers. Unfortunately for them, he invokes the spirit of a dead guy who comes to life in the form of Pumpkinhead, a menacing claw farm on long limbs who wreaks his own brand of grisly justice upon the unwary bikers.

Sure, it’s nothing new. In fact, as a horror movie it’s crawling with clichés, but one thing it has above other generic horror films is its particularly nice cinematography. Shot in deep hued warm colours and stark blue light, the film breeds a peculiar atmosphere that sets the scene slightly differently to other films of the genre. There are also some nice images borrowed lovingly from American gothic folklore that have been combined with more recent images that have become substandard horror clichés themselves. The cabin full of reckless teenagers; a rogue teen and his easily led gang who want to give themselves up and get help; the sole survivor who learns a valuable lesson at the cost of his or her friends’ lives. We’ve seen them all over time, but they nevertheless work alright in this film as it never really offers much more than what it gives us; a pursuit horror formula.

Just looking at the case would be enough to tell anyone what they’re in for, so it’s doubtful anyone could mistake what the contents will be and Mr Winston as director, delivers just that.

Presented in the spectacular arena of 4:3, there’s certainly no big screen feeling here. Whilst the film looks fairly rich, this is still a disappointing feature of the presentation. However, the colours all look great, with the moody reds and creepy oranges creating a delightfully resonant screen. Most of the rest of the colours are washed out browns and earth tones that suit the backwoods setting and accent the significance of the moodier colours when they appear.

The film makes a lot of use of night shots and darks, as is the norm for a horror feature, but the blacks are more a dark grey unfortunately. Shadows give away nothing in the way of details, but this also helps funnel us toward the action on screen. The dark is well lit, however, and what we need to see we see.

There are an average amount of artefacts, but nothing too disruptive, and all the flesh tones are fairly even although the clear DVD picture brings out the obviousness of some makeup. Being made in 1987, stonewash is a major offender here as well - not to mention the headbands and white leather boots with tassels. The '80s would make anyone angry enough to pursue people through the woods at night.

The dialogue of this film is unbalanced alongside the music. Whilst the talking is a little low, the music comes in quite strongly, which is always unnerving and annoying. That being said, the dialogue is all fairly well spoken and clear. The film contains an original score by Richard Stone that has been well sculpted to suit the film and is necessarily menacing or melodic as needs be and is well placed throughout. It also comes across clearly without any background noise or static. Sound effects are a tad canned at times (in motorbike sounds, gunshots and wet thunks) but being a cheesy horror vehicle, this can be overlooked.

Sorry, Pumpkin. Nuthin’.

Being nothing but a horror film with no real message behind it and nothing to say but ‘don’t hit kids with your motorsickle and run away’, what you see is what you get. It will no doubt have its supporters and fans of horror films could do worse than rent this one, but I would recommend that before buying. Being auto-starting with no menu detracts from its value significantly, but as far as horror films go, this one at least looks better than average.