What's a Special Edition? It's a new series where I review one of my favorites. These are films that would appear in my Top 50 or so (if I endeavored to compile such a list). My goal is to write a Special Edition Blood Capsule once every couple of months. We'll see how that goes!
PUMPKINHEAD (1988)
When I was a kid, Pumpkinhead was just a cool box at the video store. Now, thirty viewings later (that's a conservative estimate), it's my third or fourth favorite film of all time. Top five, easily. In maintaining this website, I have developed a reputation as a monster guy, especially amongst my friends. Well, Pumpkinhead is the monster movie. It's perfect cinema, as far as I'm concerned. The trick? The film's entertainment value doesn't begin and end with special effects that are now considered legendary. It has heart. There's a reason why I chose the image you see above these words. There is no shortage of killer visuals I could have went with, but they don't mean anything without the story of a father losing his son in a lamentable accident. Lance Henriksen was born to play the role of Ed Harley, and if Pumpkinhead is ever given the remake treatment (I'm surprised it hasn't already happened), I pity the fool burdened with the task of stepping into those shoes.
Of course, the rest of the cast is superb. No, splendiferous! It's hard to believe that this was little Matthew Hurley's only screen credit. Ed and Billy share, what, fifteen minutes of screen time? Less if you disregard Hurley's post-mortal bit of acting. And yet they hammer out a believable relationship, the kind that some of us remember from childhood through the silver-hued eyes of nostalgia. When Billy dies in his father's arms, it's a punch to the small intestines that you feel in your gums. But the film delivers in the "cool stuff" department as well. The death sequences are brusque and anguished, matched by a multi-pronged score that ratchets up the intensity at just the right moments. This may seem minor, but Pumpkinhead features one of the creepiest depictions of a witch in all of horrordom. See, it really does have everything. Stan Winston keeps the plot humming at a controlled pace. It seems wrong somehow that this was his sole gig as a director (in the horror field anyway...no, A Gnome Named Norm doesn't come up to scratch).
I may or may not cover the sequels. That's a...that's a situation. Watch Pumpkinhead if you haven't!
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