Back in the era of practical effects, a few creature creators became celebrities. That doesn’t happen often today, now that it takes an army of VFX professionals to make a movie monster lift its arm. Artists like Tom Savini still work but remain few and far between. Looking back at the career of Stan Winston, his impact is inarguable. Between all the groundbreaking special effects wizardry, his directorial debut is a bizarre little horror movie calledPumpkinhead.
The eighties were a different, in many ways better, era for horror cinema. The first eightFriday the 13th movies came out across the decade. The first fiveNightmare on Elm Streetmovies did as well. It was a time of franchises, knock-offs, and endless schlock. A massive chunk of the genre was deliberately campy. Most of these movies are terrible, but at least they’re fun.
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Pumpkinheadfollows aging widower Ed Harley. When Ed was young, he saw a man torn apart by a mysterious monster. The memory sticks with him, even if he can’t recall why. A group of teenagers on dirt bikes accidentally kill Ed’s young son. One teen stays behind while another does everything he can to avoid blame. Ed tracks down a witch and pays her in gold. She tells him to dig up a corpse and give up some blood in exchange for his revenge. He does the deed, and the corpse isreanimated as a spindly monsterwith an evocative head. The locals call it Pumpkinhead. The beast attacks the teens who killed Ed’s son. Ed discovers a strange psychic link to Pumpkinhead. He determines that only he can stop the nightmare he unleashed before it threatens the world. It’sa monster/slasher movie withthe typical teenage victims and a decent supernatural premise.
Who is Stan Winston?
Stan Winston is one of cinema’s most celebratedspecial make-up effects artists. He entered the film industry in the late 60s, initially intending to become an actor. When he couldn’t find roles, he happened upon an apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios. Stan’s first project was the 1972 made-for-TV horror filmGargoyles. He won an Emmy for his effects. He won another two years later forThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Winston was seen as a prodigy almost immediately after he entered the field, but it took him a decade to break through. Winston and his team created the titular robotic assassin from James Cameron’sThe Terminator. He designed the iconic Yautja fromPredator. He helped craft the Xenomorph Queen inAliens. Perhaps most notably, he and his team brought dinosaurs to life with theanimatronics inJurassic Park. He won three Oscars for visual effects and one for make-up. Stan Winston was an unquestioned legend and one of the most prominent artists in his field. He was less impressive as a director.
Pumpkinheadwas inspired by an Ed Justin poem by the same name. Dino de Laurentiis' team sent Winston the script, expecting him to sign on to do special effects. Stan instead saw an opportunity to direct for the first time. While he was busy working out story details, his team designed the titular creature. Tom Woodruff Jr., the man in the Pumpkinhead suit, had a hand in creating it. He was also Goro in the 1995Mortal Kombatmovie and the lead Xenomorph inAlien 3. The fact that most of the crew on the film also worked onAliensand its sequels raised some concerns. Pumpkinhead looksunmistakably like a Xenomorph. The shape is almost identical. It resembles one of Giger’s babies wearing a costume to get by unnoticed. It’s one of many things that make this film hilarious.
Pumpkinheadhad three sequels, but the franchise never saw the inside of a theater after 1988.Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wingswas released straight-to-video in 1994. Jeff Burr, creator of many unloved horror sequels, helmed the project, which received a 13%positive score on Rotten Tomatoes.Pumpkinhead: Ashes to AshesandPumpkinhead: Blood Feudwere filmed back-to-back in Bucharest and released on the Sci-Fi Channel, now known as SYFY. None come close to the moderate standard of quality of the original. In 2021,Sawproducer Peter Block was actively pursuing a reboot. Paramount Players is supposedly handling the production, but the project has gone silent.
Pumpkinheadis a goofy slasher that has a lot of fun with its supernatural premise. The film features some fascinatingkills but lacks character, and the writing is expectedly terrible. The sequels were a waste of time and the reboot may never happen, but it’s still worth checking out the silly camp of the original. Stan Winston spent most of his career imagining and creating monsters for other people’s stories. His first attempt to take more control, to direct someone else’s story, is a thing of campy beauty.
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