Pumpkinead II: Blood Wings (1994)- Scream Factory Blu-ray






Revenge Never Dies! And with that tagline, we all bear witness to yet another film that seems completely clueless as to what made its predecessor so memorable. No, in Pumpkinhead II, we get Punky Brewster (Soleil Moon Frye), the dude from ROTLD 3 (I refuse to learn his name), Amy Dolenz, and, inexplicably, Andrew Robinson of Hellraiser and Dirty Harry fame.

The first Pumpkinhead was a moral tale, an allegory if you will, about the cost of vengeance. In that film, the bereaved father goes to a witch to help him exact vengeance on the kids he think murdered his son. In this film, well, I still really have no idea why the teens decided to perform a cult ritual to bring back the aforementioned vengeance demon, other than the fact they were bored. Needless to say, the old hag from the first film is back in this one, but she is really just a needless prop who is injured within the first five minutes of her appearance. Instead, she flails around in a hospital bed  whenever Pumpkinhead kills a victim. So, again, a really good use of a pivotal character from the first film... My biggest problem with this film isn't the cast- it's actually the horrible makeup effects, sets, and general look of the film. I was really confused when I noticed that KNB effects were behind recreating the monster here because it really resembles a giant Boglen. More so than the look of the creature is the way it is filmed. Whereas in the original Stan Winston was sparse and calculated with what he showed of the creature, it's clear that director Jeff Burr was told that Pumpkinhead must chew up the scenery. In showcasing the monster here, the audience also sees, in detail, all of it's clumsy, disjointed flaws. Instead of appearing menacing and dangerous, Pumpkinhead just appears goofy.

So, in summation, no real story here to speak. The film has the basic set up of a slasher with the role of Jason going to Pumpkinhead. No vision, no interesting kills, no budget, and nothing that adds even a little comedic insight.

Scream Factory has brought this classic to us all in an amazing transfer that would be worthy of a film like, oh I don't know- Phantasm or Suspiria. Instead we now all have an amazing edition of Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings complete with special features including:

Interview with director Jeff Burr
Recreating the Monster Featurette with Greg Nicotero, Gino Crognale, and Actor Mark McCracken.