| 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
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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