Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1995)

So much average

Memorable, crazy movie

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

After five minutes of watching this movie I realized what I had gotten myself into. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who has to watch a movie they've started to the end, no matter how much it sucks. And this movie is the king amongst vacuum cleaners. All characters are unhappy souls, surviving in a grim world, unable to improve their lot, with violent dogs barking everywhere. A gritty, hard movie about gritty hard people. This film is dark, brooding, intense; it is hard to watch at times and difficult to call enjoyable. For all practical purposes, this is a bad film. There really isn't much more to say about this movie. 7/10.

Pumpkinhead II (1994) * (out of 4) Horrid sequel to the 1989 cult favorite has a new sheriff (Andrew Robinson) moving to town where his teenage daughter (Ami Dolenz) gets mixed up with four bad apples and soon the five of them bring back the evil demon Pumpkinhead who of course goes on a killing spree. It seems the demon is avenging the death of a deformed boy but the sheriff and daughter must try to find a way to stop him. This "sequel" really doesn't have any connection to the first film so in many ways one really could look at this as a standalone entry. No matter how you want to look at it it's hard to argue that this is a horrid little film that has very little going for it. I think the worst thing is without question the screenplay, which seems to confuse itself from time to time. As with many low-grade horror movies, the screenplay here forgets to write any interesting characters and instead we just get a bunch of stupid stereotypes and all of them are fighting to see which one can be the most annoying. The five teenagers are all extremely annoying and it's impossible to care for any of them and that includes the so-called good ones. Even worse is that the screenplay throws in this stupid backstory that never really goes anywhere and you can't help but roll your eyes as the evil demon tries to be shown as a "good" guy just trying to avenge something bad. One of the most annoying things about this film is that for the life of me I couldn't figure out why the teens wanted to mess with this demon. I mean, they're shown as simple, pot-smoking idiots but why go after a demon? Oh, that's right, so that people would rent this sucker from their video stores. The performances are pretty bland with some of the actors delivering their lines so poorly that you'd think they were just making fun of the actual film. Robinson comes off the best in his part and there's some good eye candy but this here can't save an otherwise worthless film.

After the well-crafted production and stylish production of the first "Pumpkinhead", I have to say that this one was extremely disappointing. I can understand its appeal with the gore and violence that far exceeds the first one. Not to mention that it's also more fun than the original, I guess. But I can't say that it's even all that great of a film, much less a sequel.The story has absolutely no continuity to the original. In fact, this is not even the same creature that was in the original film. Rather, it's the spirit of a dead boy who was rejected for being seriously deformed- think Rocky from "Mask" (1985). He is evoked from the dead by some teenagers screwing around for a good time.What's insulting to me about the movie is that these are just the typical, sex drugs and rock'n'roll kids in all the slasher movies. Whereas in the first Pumpkinhead, there were kids, but they were smart, down-to-earth kids that were looking for a wholesome, good time.There were also undying clichés in this film- the busty blonde standing motionless and screaming at the monster's advance, running and tripping repeatedly in the woods and the unavoidable "reasoning with the beast" formula. And they weren't really done with any interesting twists of any kind that might have allowed us to forgive them, either.The creature effects, themselves, should have been filmed more sparingly for how much of a step down they were from the original. Granted, this was a made-for-TV movie, but it shows weak cinematography.In short, it's a sequel that makes absolutely no sense. It feels rushed and obviously shows itself as far less of a labor of love than the original. Its gratuitous nature can make it fun at times and that's undeniable, but it's missing the real genuine touch that made the original so worthy of being cherished by aficionados of the genre of dark fantasy.

Yes, the monster is most definitely from the original Pumpkinhead movie. There is even an old lady that resembles the old lady from the first movie as well. Of course, our old friend revenge is also along for the ride, however the parts where one gets revenge by unburying Pumpkinhead and such is gone. It is a new world with new rules and such for our monster to abide by. It also features lots of obvious stuff as there are no startling revelations to be had here, just all the stuff one expects from this type of movie. So yes, the plot here is pretty basic, some wrong has been committed and the Pumpkinhead monster is going to kill those directly and indirectly responsible for said wrong. I would go into more details, but I would not want to spoil the movie for you. However, if you hated Punky Brewster as a child or even if you were an adult there is a scene in this movie that is sure to delight you! So all in all not a boring movie, it is watchable, just do not expect to much. Basically, anything that was good about the first Pumpkinhead movie is now taken out so you can be amazed out how simple the plot is and how uninspired.