Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings

Director: Jeff Burr
Script: Juan Constantine Chachorina
Cast: Ami Dolenz, Andrew Robinson, Steve Kennedy, J. Trevor Edmund, Caren Kaye, Linnea Quigley, Roger Clinton
Running time: 89 minutes
Year: 1993
Certificate: 15

Five years after 1988’s cult film Pumpkinhead, came this belated sequel Pumpkinhead  II: Blood Wings. In the first film, Lance Henrickson, wracked with grief due to the sudden death of his son, visits a witch to conjure up a vengeful demon, called Pumpkinhead, in order to kill off the group of teenagers who accidentally caused the death of his son. However, unlike the first film, which keeps the demon in the shadows for the most part and relies heavily on the excellent performance of its lead actor to elevate it. Pumpkinhead II is played very much as a B-movie monster film, and almost winks at the audience, seemingly aware of the amount of cheesiness it’s dishing out.

This time out a bunch of thrill-seeking teenagers manage to resurrect a demon, which has taken residence in the body of a deformed young man, who was murdered some years previously by a bunch of spiteful jocks. The old lady, who was the murdered boy’s mother, curses the teens after they steal a magical artefact from her and this sets the demon off to dispatch those who wronged the deformed boy years before, but also the group of teens from the modern age, who wrong the victim’s mother.

This chain of events obviously leads to various kills as the demon works its way down it vengeful list. Most of the kills are resulting from the teens being shredded by long claws, but there’s some variety on offer as one couple get skewered by a pole and the leader of the latter day teens is decapitated. The recently returned town sheriff (Robinson) turns out to have a personal connection to the murdered man, who was buried in the woods, and therefore plays a crucial role in the final act as he tries to protect his daughter, who is one of the teens that the demon has etched into its blood soaked ‘to do’ list.

Jeff Burr clearly did his best to direct what sounds like a very much rushed project as, in order to keep the rights to the Pumpkinhead IP, the studio had to get the film made by a certain date, resulting in what feels like a rushed and compromised film. The mostly capable cast do their best with some pretty risible dialogue and there’s little time for proper characterisation. However, the story, as it is, just gets the job done and places the proverbial ‘cannon fodder’ in Pumpkinhead’s way at the right time so the audience can enjoy a substantial amount of monster action, which is what films like this one are ultimately all about.

Probably the most horrific part of the film is the film’s mean-spirited prologue, which is shot in black and white and set in 1958. The jocks who hunt the deformed teenager are like a wolf-pack, out for blood and uncompromising. And when the leader stabs the poor lad multiple times, when he’s hanging from a rope suspended above an old mine shaft, it’s a moment of pure human evil, demonstrating that mankind can be more horrific than any supernatural demon.

In summary, 88 Films have done a great job of polishing up a rather underwhelming horror sequel from the 1990s. The excellent picture and sound quality elevates the ho-hum plot somewhat, but what really sells the film are the excellent man-in-a-suit visual effects for the monster, which is still a great creation, re-birthed by the KNB guys, based on FX Maestro, Stan Winston’s original designs.

Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings won’t win any ‘lost classic’ plaudits, but it’s a solid enough creature feature, especially if you can ignore the dodgy dialogue and some very mediocre performances.

As per usual for 88 Films they’ve put together some decent special features:

Audio commentary with Matty Buorwitz and Dave Wien – A solid commentary, which has our two amiable commentators talking at some depth about the career of director Jeff Burr, who tragically died at too young an age (62) of a stroke. Both make cases for their own favourite Burr films and rate Pumpkinhead II accordingly – i.e. somewhere in the middle. They also remind us that the lead actress, Ami, was Mickey Dolenz’s daughter, hence her being known as ‘the monkey baby’!

Audio commentary with Jeff Burr – Jeff is full of interesting anecdotes about the making of the film and about his career in general. Apparently it was a 22 day shoot, during the summer of 1993 and Jeff had just come off filming Puppetmaster 4 and 5 for Charles Band. The ranch they used was the same one that used in the film Motel Hell. Burr also reveals that the script had not been a Pimpkinhead script originally but was adapted to include the demon, which may explain some of the more awkward aspects on the plot-line.

Monster Mash (22 mins) – An interview with Mark McCracken, who actually played Pumpkinhead. Mark talks about his career as an actor and, more significantly, about his time as the demon, Pumpkinhead. Apparently, they had a good time making the film, although he wasn’t popular some of the time, when he (and the VFX guys) kept laughing at the end of a number of takes.  He sees the demon as being a cross between a zombie and a demon and thinks the original idea for it came from Eastern European folklore.

The Creature wore tennis shoes – Creating Pumpkinhead II (12 mins) – The SFX guys from KNB talk about creating the demon and about some of the issues they had on the shoot. Apparently, it took about three months to build the creature, and, like Mark, they comment on one of the VHS covers accidentally showing the creature in tennis shoes, running after a damsel in distress!

Behind the scenes footage (17 mins) – Some interesting, if rather poor quality, footage from the shoot itself. This includes the attack in the barn and on the ranch, plus a short fun snippet of Pumpkinhead sitting in a chair with sunglasses on.

Original trailer (1.41 mins) – The trailer cutter has clearly been influenced by The Evil Dead seeing as the prowling camera shot is used extensively here.

Stills – Just one; although admittedly of a cool poster.