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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: November 18th, 2014.
Director: Jeff Burr
Cast: Amy Dolenz, Andrew Robinson, Soleil Moon Frye, Hill Harper, J. Trevor Edmond, Linnea Quigley
Year: 1994
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The Movie:
This straight to video sequel to Stan Winston's excellent Pumpkinhead was directed by Jeff Burr in 1994 and it introduces us to a pretty high school student named Jenny Braddock (Amy Dolenz), the new girl in town who has arrived with her father, Sheriff Sean Braddock (Andrew Robinson), in tow. She falls in with a bad crowd right away and before you know it pot smoking Danny Dixon (J. Trevor Edmund) and his pals Peter (Hill Harper), Paul (Alexander Polinsky) and Marcie (Soleil Moon Frye) are taking her for a joyride. They wind up out near a cabin in the woods, the same place we know (from an opening flashback scene) that a young deformed man named Tommy (J.P. Manoux) was killed by a bunch of stupid hunks back in the fifties. His mom, understandably upset about this, somehow used her witchery to turn him into Pumpkinhead and get revenge.
When our teenage hooligan characters set fire to mom's rundown old shack, they unwittingly bring the demon back for revenge once more and as the monsters goes about killing people off with varying degrees of effectiveness, it's up to the sheriff to save his daughter and her friends before it's too late! But Pumpkinhead might be after more than just those pesky teenagers… could this current bout of revenge driven slaughter tie into that opening flashback?
This sequel completely does away with pretty much all of the backwoods atmosphere and spooky southern gothic trappings that gave the original Pumpkinhead such an effective tone of both horror and tragedy. Instead we get a standard by-the-numbers creature feature that is pretty much completely devoid of any actual character development or depth of story. That's not to say that the movie can't entertain, because it does offer plenty of monster-mash action that is admittedly pretty fun to watch, but you need to go into this one with your expectations firmly in check to avoid disappointment.
There are also some novel casting choices here that add to the fun. Andrew Robinson isn't the least bit intimidating as the sheriff but he's likeable in a goofy, folksy sort of way. Do we believe he'd make a formidable foe for Pumpkinhead? Not for a second but he seems like he'd be a nice guy to hang out with. Amy Dolenz, daughter of Monkee Mickie Dolenz, is cute in the lead and hey, check out Punky Brewster as Marcie, drinking beer and smoking smokes, like a bad girl should. Key your eyes open for a small (and noticeably topless) cameo from Linnea Quigley too, cast here as a local floozy who hops into bed with a redneck. J. Trevor Edmund will be recognizable to nineties horror fans for his appearances in Lord Of Illusions and Return Of The Living Dead Part III. His character here is a typical 'bad boy' stereotype but he plays it well enough. Also be on the lookout for none other than Roger Clinton, half-brother of a certain President, cast as 'Mayor Bubba,' a hillbilly with a mullet who puzzlingly stores his guitar at the doctor's office.
The KNB Effects team take responsibility for the monster effects featured some prominently in the movie. Our titular creature is a bit too rubbery looking this time around but he moves well even if he's never as intimidating running around in the daylight here as he was in the smoky, dark woods of the original film. The movie isn't particularly stylish, in fact it's kind of flat looking, but it's reasonably well paced. Ultimately this is a pretty disposable follow up made fast and cheap, but there's entertainment value here if you want to look for it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Shout! Factory's AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer of Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and it looks really good. Detail is pretty impressive throughout, to the point where you can tell just how rubbery looking the titular monster is in some scenes and easily spot a few wires on the beastie during his big finale. Colors are great, black levels are nice and deep and skin tones look natural. There are no obvious issues with any noise reduction while the image stays quite clean, crisp and clear.
Likewise, the English language DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo mix, which comes with optional closed captioning, is also of good quality. Levels are nicely balanced and the track is free of any audible defects. Dialogue stays clean and clear and there are a few moments where some nice directional effects hit you from the front channels.
Extras are surprisingly plentiful for a straight to video sequel, starting with an audio Commentary with director Jeff Burr. His pretty blunt about what he thinks works and doesn't work in regards to the quality of the film and he offers of some pretty interesting observations in this regard as the talk plays out. He notes how he came onboard to work on the film after development had already started, the contributions of the effects team hired to bring Pumpkinhead to life, working with some of the younger cast members in the lead roles as well as some of the original casting choices for some of the parts and various studio/budget related problems that occurred throughout the making of the film.
Up next is a new featurette called Re-Creating The Beast, which is made up of interviews with special effects artists Greg Nicotero, Gino Crognale and actor Mark McCracken (who actually played Pumpkinead in that suit). It's a thirty-two minute piece that spends as much time talking about their goofing around on set during early morning shoots but we do get to hear their thoughts on the effects work in the original movie, some of the changes that they had to make to the monster in order to make him more mobile for some of the scenes in this movie and a fair bit more. The disc also includes an hour long interview with director Burr entitled Making Movies in which he talks about how he got into the film industry and discusses many of the same aspects of Pumpkinhead II that he previously covered in the commentary. He talks about some other projects too but it is fairly repetitive.
Last but not least, Shout! have included seventeen minutes or so of Behind-The-Scenes footage shot on a camcorder during the time that principal photography was underway. A lot of this material is used in the other two featurettes but there's enough here that wasn't seen to make this worth skimming through, particularly for those viewers who are interested in seeing some of the more effects heavy scenes being shot. Menus and chapter stops are also included on the disc.
The Final Word:
Pumpkinhead II isn't a particularly good movie but it is fun in its own goofy sort of way. Some interesting casting choices help here and a whole lot of rubber suited monster action is also a plus. It lacks the atmosphere and depth of the first movie but it's not a bad popcorn film. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray release is a very good one, offering up the movie in excellent condition and with some choice supplements too.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
