| United Artists | Release Date: October 14, 1988 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
3
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
|
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Critic Reviews
Lance Henriksen's gaunt, anguished features have rarely been put to better use than in this superior horror story...Pumpkinhead would give the Predator nightmares. [23 July 1999]
Stan Winston steps in as director (and co-scenarist) here after many years leading one of Hollywood's top special makeup effects units. Ironically, Winston shows a surer directorial touch with the early, more human scenes (especially those between Henriksen and son) than he does later with the spooks and scares, which are never even faintly frightening. He doesn't win any more points for having his creature followed by artsy mood lighting wherever it goes in the supposedly black night.
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Typically hollow and patchy, the script is low par for the course, the acting close behind. Where it's a cut above the rest is in the work of Yugoslavian cinematographer Bojan Bazelli: His outdoor shots, both day and night, are superbly lit and cleanly shot, as if this were an A film. And with Marcus Manton's crisp editing, Pumpkinhead looks three times as good as it is.
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It's a by-the-numbers variation on "The Monkey's Paw" coupled with a revenge flick. What makes the film worth seeing is not the story, the production values, or even the work of a truly underappreciated character actors like Henrickson. It's an eight foot tall demon ripping people to spare parts.
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A horror picture very nearly as mushbrained as its title character-a terrible demon that rises from a pumpkin patch to seek vengeance...As a technician, Winston clearly knows how to make a monster, but as a director he's yet to learn how to bring one to life. [28 Oct 1988, p.C]
It'll have you wishing the villain was just another maniac with a machete or a chain saw. [30 Jan 1989, p.C6]
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