Pumpkinhead

I can't help you...you folks is marked.

I love a good monster. More often than not, a monster movie doesn't necessarily produce a good monster. I think part of the endurance of Pumpkinhead derives from the artistry of Stan Winston's creature effects shop. But, I think a solid performance from a sincere Lance Henriksen (who shows what he can do when given something to work with) and the ambiance of some thick Southern Gothic atmosphere also lift this film past what looks like, on its face, just a revenge film. The loss of a loved one, especially a child, isn't glossed over in this film; we see a true father-son bond, a love that exists, shattered in what is an unfortunate accident. But the aching that can cloud a typically clear mind, such pain that overwhelms Henriksen, is palpable and universal. The creature is merely a tool to exact a vengeance that eats away at every fabric of Henriksen, his sole reason for living is ripped from him by a bunch of reckless kids. This is steeped in tragedy because there are no winners, and the film doesn't condone Henriksen's actions after the death of his son. This is unusual considering that the era of the slasher often embraces the killer as he/it mows down victims much to the celebration of viewers who wish for the murdered to die in the most horrible way possible. It is the oft-told scenario of "wrong place, wrong time", everyone involved in a wrongful death, including Henriksen who pays a heavy price of his own for "calling the Pumpkinhead", not escaping unscathed.

Henriksen and his son leave a modest, meager existence, but there's happiness and that's what most important. This is interrupted forever when twenty-somethings, having rented a cabin for the summer, ride into town, one stupid jerk (..in a flashy car ) irresponsibly hits the kid (with a motorized race bike often used to fly up and down hilly terrain), setting in motion Henriksen's trip to a witch who gives him the keys to summoning a gargantuan creature of titanic height and unstoppable ferocity. Among the group from "the big city" are two brothers who skillfully ride motocross bikes, one of them a talented but cocky jerk eventually responsible for running over little Billy while papa was off getting feed for farmer Buck Flower. Henriksen runs a small store that sits where trucks track in a lot of rock and dust winds. He is probably accustomed to the poor regulars who live off the land not "kids from the burbs". I think Winston intentionally has this culture clash, Buck Flower's kids are filthy in tattered clothes, riding up in the back of their pa's pick-up while the out-of-towners arrive in fancier vehicles, wearing the latest fashions. Henriksen lets it show that he has a quiet contempt for them, unamused of their presence at his store. It is the same as if you saw farm kids entering an Abercrombie & Fitch, those in the store would certainly be hardly able to hide their discontent.

Joel is the prick on the motorbike who hits Billy while he's chasing after his dog, Gypsy. The dog is the catalyst for all that unfolds. Joel freaks, believes he will be "fried" for hitting Billy, and drives off his sweet ride, girlfriend in tow, leaving the others in the dust. Only Joel's brother remains with the slain child while the others (well, except for Joel and his girl) go to call for help. Henriksen arrives, sending off a look of intensity(No one tosses a look of warning quite like Lance), his eyes/expression saying, "Get back or I'll maul your ass!" There's no doubt that Joel is the lone character (except maybe his squeeze who does seem shaken, but seemingly unable to do anything, rather muted...) established as perfectly killable. He's vermin with a handsome visage, the guy who shows up on MOTO-X magazines, riding in Corvettes. When Pumpkinhead comes to fetch him, I imagine it is anticipated by all watching for this joker to get a merciless demise.

What resonates with me is the agony of loss and anger that washes over a father, so full of hate that he will sell his soul in order to get a measure of revenge. There's no joy in the deaths of those at the claws of Pumpkinhead, and the rub of such a desire for revenge is that Henriksen sees through the monster's eyes, is as much an active participant in the killings as the boogey-creature, actually complicit because he had to dig it up from its grave in Razorback Hollow, bring it to witch *with special powers*, Haggis, and agree to certain stipulations in order to get what he so longs for.
Boy, is Razorback Hollow a dandy in regards to its brooding sense of otherworldly dark fairytale spookiness, the fog spread thick as it is rests low to the ground, the trees like dead men's bones splintering off in all directions, and moss hanging off branches like patches of clumped seaweed. As Henriksen follows the path, he sees a vulture, the skeletal remains of the dead left by relatives to rot away unceremoniously, and to the well-like hill where Pumpkinhead lies buried. Shovel in hand, Ed Harley digs up the supposed answer for the theft of his son's young life. The busy jibber-jabber of the cicadas in the background, the pumpkins cluttering the ground all around, and the uncovered body of the weapon of Ed Harley's vengeance. Here is the beginning of the end. From his blood gave the demon life, and when it kills he feels.

Can I tell you what the made the movie for me? What sweetened the pot? The skeleton of a church, basically just the skin with the innards practically gutted, rests within the woods (the woods of the film are slightly different than Razorback Hollow, in that the dark trees and fog, while something at home in Brothers Grimm, are slightly less ugly, less decadent, giving off a feeling of "Oh, shit, where are we?" yet not quite, "This is the darkened abyss where escape is beyond hope.") that serve as home to many of the locals, keeping ramshackle shacks and fenced-barb wire containing  livestock, candle-lit lanterns the source of light for the families. You'd think this was the Great Depression, something out of The Grapes of Wrath, where living off the land and wearing overalls and unclean shirts, only drying on clotheslines (even then kept dirtied by all the dust stirred up) remains the only option just about. It's a whole other world. That's the point, I think. These kids, through a nightmarish sequence of events, are trapped in this world alien to their own.

There's a lightning storm--emitting that kind of blue light you'd see in a movie like Poltergeist--that often flashes, visually an eye full when accompanying the fog or streaking through the cracks and damaged plankboards of buildings where the Pumpkinhead pops in and out of normally when dragging or hurling a victim's carcass. Oh, and Winston's gang really shows out when Pumpkinhead and Harley begin to mirror each other, a bit of human face starting to emerge on the beast while Henriksen's eyes take the creature's color. The two are becoming one in the same as the creature kills, and Ed knows that in order to end this reign of terror he'll have to take matters into his own hands. This whole ordeal was an accident, the hunger for revenge a mistake. Even Joel, who was at first willing to run away from his part in the death of the kid, decides to own up to his responsibility, but it is all for naught. This tragedy comments on the way a death can pollute anyone even remotely associated with the incident.

Haggis is quite a wicked sight. The wrinkled flesh, cancer-throat voice, barely-there mop of thinning gray hair, and decaying robe, a witch if ever was one, her cabin only to be found deep in the wilderness of isolation, a reputation used by older siblings to scare the youngest of their kin. We even see Bunt, the son of Buck Flower's Mr. Wallace, scare his brother with Pumpkinhead and   find his way to the witch's abode. Bunt even lends a hand to the remaining principles not yet worm-food trying to help them hide and keep away from Pumpkinhead. Haggis knows the cost Harley will suffer, nudging him to ask for her assistance, acknowledging that her place in hell is secured.

The wide-screen presentation was just a worthwhile experience, the first time I've seen it in such a format. I think this movie was shown on IFC's Grindhouse Friday night a few years back, but I missed it. I had only seen it on VHS and cable in a cut form. It is violent, but nothing too gratuitous or graphic, the worst scene probably when a girl gets her face pressed through a window. Another victim's body/flesh is mangled. Joel is lifted off his feet after being impaled on a shot gun by Pumpkinhead. Winston cares about the characters and was hellbent on directing a stylish film capturing a certain kind of place that is of the unreal on the outskirts of an impoverished podunk hamlet where the nearly destitute carve out as decent a living as they can under the circumstances. Buck Flower eschews the usual good ole boy hick routine for a more serious tone, his posture and mood straight and to the point, set in his ways and authoritative (he commands and those in his family listen and obey with little-to-no remark).