Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings
THE STORY: Whenever a horror/slasher movie character starts going into sequels, its almost inevitable that the origin of the monster will change to suit each movie. It doesn't make much sense, but thats what happens in this movie. The way Pumpkinhead comes back in this sequel doesn't make a lot of sense if you've seen the original.
In 1958 a gang of teenagers called the Red Wings brutally torture a disfigured orphan named Tommy. Tommy is looked after by Miss Osie, a hillbilly woman in the mountains of somewhere. Its not clear on where all this is taking place, just that its somewhere that has a lot of hillbillies and mountain folk, just like the first movie. The Red Wings drop Tommy's body in an old abandoned iron mine shaft.
In the present (which means the late 80's or early 90's I'm not sure when this movie was made) Sheriff John Braddock is just assuming his duties as County sheriff. Braddock used to a New York city cop, but he grew up in these here parts. He brings with him his wife and his daughter, Jenny. Jenny's a troubled teenager. (at least thats what they say...she seems ok to me) She seems to like hanging out with the wrong crowd.
It doesn't take Jenny too long to start hanging out with the wrong crowd either. She starts dating Danny Dixon, the son of Judge Dixon. Even though his father is a judge, Danny is bad news. He's the official Big Dumb Jerk of this flick. He has his own group of flunkies, Peter, Marcie and Paul. One night while driving around joyriding the gang accidentally hits Miss Osie as she crosses the road. When they go back to the spot they hit her at there's no one there. Danny is willing to just ignore the fact that he did hit her with his car and leave, but the others coerce him into going to Miss Osie's cabin to see if she's alright.
When they get there no one is home. Miss Osie is known as a witch and she's got her backwoods magic stuff laid out on a table. Naturally the gang starts [unwrite]ing with it. Miss Osie comes in behind them and asks them to leave. After a quick apology, they do, except for Danny. He has a bottle of some mojo potion and won't give it back. Although blind, Miss Osie knows he has it and when he refuses to hand it over he kicks her ass. (What a guy! beating up an old blind woman) Leaving Osie on the floor, Danny rejoins his friends. Here's where it really gets goofy....
While in the cabin, Marcie remarked on how Miss Osie had spells that can raise the dead. Just outside her cabin is an unusual graveyard and the gang thinks it would be pretty cool to see if her mojo potion works. Why? Well, they're really stupid! They dig up the grave, find an old desiccated body (Which is actually Tommy's body) and sprinkle some mojo juice on it. But just then Jenny notices that Miss Osie's cabin is on fire. Seems the injured old woman knocked over a lamp or candle or something, but being injured from Danny's beating she can't get out. The flames are pretty hot so the gang can't get her out either. They do like all ne'er-do-wells would and split before they get blamed. After they beat a hasty retreat Pumpkinhead arises from the grave and pulls Osie out. She's badly burned and ends up in a hospital.
Now, if you didn't see the first movie, I'll tell you this...Pumpkinhead is some backwoods demon that legend says can be evoked to wreak vengeance for those that have been wronged. In this movie like in the first one, most of the folk in those parts know of the legend and fear it.
Sheriff Braddock and the coroner, Delilah become very busy when Pumpkinhead starts killing guys. He kills Ernst, a farmer, some fat guy and two brothers that appear to be chicken farmers. Each time he leaves a blood spatter on the wall that looks like birds wings. Braddock can't figure it out and at first scoffs at the notion that Pumpkinhead may be responsible. Judge Dixon wants to form a posse and go after the monster, but the sheriff won't allow it. But after clues begin to mount up, he recounts the nursery rhyme about Pumpkinhead and remembers a day in his youth when he met the deformed Tommy in the 50's. Tommy almost fell into the mine shaft and he saved him. Meanwhile Danny's gang is afraid that Pumpkinhead will come after them. Danny orders them to keep their yaps shut about ever being at Miss Osie's. He doesn't want to get caught for the fire and her injuries. (Why do they listen to this guy? its not like he can really do anything to stop them from going to the law...heck, they could team up and kick his ass.) Osie lies in the hospital, comatose, even though she can see Pumpkinhead's kills through a psychic bond. Even Jenny goes along with not saying anything. Yeah, every so often she tells Danny they should go to her father, but he won't.
Braddock and Delilah go to see Miss Osie in the hospital, but arrive just after she has died. Alone in the room with her body, the door magically shuts by itself and Miss Osie sits up! Though dead she tells them what they need to know. Tommy was an orphan, but Osie looked after him. She knew his father was Pumpkinhead!! I know,I know, that doesn't make any sense and has nothing to do with the first movie, but hey, that's what she says. I didn't write the [unwrite]ing screenplay, I just watched the movie. She tells them that Pumpkinhead will not stop killing until he gets the Red Wings and the kids who burnt her. But she gives Braddock a talisman that she says will help. With this information Braddock discovers that the men who have died thus far were part of the Red Wings in 1958 and that the last one of them alive still is judge Dixon! He's Pumpkinhead's next victim...and to make this even suckier, Jenny has gone to a party that Danny is having at the judge's cabin!
Braddock and Delilah race there. Danny, Jenny and their friends are in the cabin discussing the fact that they should come clean about burning Miss Osie. Paul, the wimpy guy in the group tells Danny he saw him hit Osie. Danny loses it and pulls a gun on them. I guess he figures if he kills them no one will tell on him. (This guy's pop is a judge?) Meanwhile in the main house Judge Dixon calls a few good ol' boys to come to the house. He knows the secret of Pumpkinhead and that he'll be next. Sho' nuff, Pumpkinhead shows up and turns him into a pile of grade-a jerkweed burgers. Pumpkinhead then turns his rage onto the kids in the cabin.
Well, if you've ever seen a monster flick you'll know who is going to die. As it ends up, Jenny is the last one alive and she's been cornered by Pumpkinhead at the abandoned mine. (how close is all of this stuff to each other...the mine, Osie's house, the graveyard and the judge's place are all within walking distance of each other?) Braddock and Delilah show up just then. Braddock appeals to Tommy's spirit (which is Pumpkinhead's) and gets the monster to spare his daughter.. but the judge's posse shows up and starts filling Pumpkinhead fulla holes. Pumpkinhead (you guessed it) falls into the mine shaft, ending the terror...at least until the next movie.
There are times when the formula of horror movies made in the 80's work and times when it doesn't. This formaula could used a few more ingredients. No one really expects deep characterization in a flick like this, but all of the characters were basically just caricatures. You know who's gonna buy it, but you really can't expect plot twists in a movie named [unwrite]in' Pumpkinhead can you? Jenny was acted by Ami Dolenz, and Dolenz also played Paige in the movie Witchboard II. (She has a thing about sequels I guess) Sheriff Braddock, I thought would nullify any threat easily since he's really a member of the Cardassian Obsidian Order...yep, Braddock was really actor Andrew Robinson. Star Trek fans know him as Garak, the wily cardassian on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also was in the movie Dirty Harry and Hellraiser.
BEST LINES: "Bolted doors and windows barred, guard dogs prowling in the yard, won't protect you in your bed...nothing will, from Pumpkinhead."- Sheriff Braddock repeats a nursery rhyme he heard about our monster.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:
1.) I've done some reckless and ridiculous things when I was a teenager, like the kids in this movie. The driving on the country roads at night and turning the headlights off thing? I did that once or twice...but the "Lets take the old witch ladies potion and go dig up a corpse in a strange grave to bring it back to life" thing? Funk Dat! It takes a really sick person or a really really stupid person to do that. Well, these kids don't seem really sick so I'm leaning towards really, really stupid.
2.) Hey, that woman still has her panties on during her sex scene with the fat guy! What gives? She's either faking all of those moans or this guy has got the most magical dick in all of the [unwrite]in' county!
3.) Does the doctor LIVE with the Sheriff? He's talking to his wife at home and the doctor just walks in to tell him she's got the coroner's report! I don't care if you come to tell me the secret of perpetual motion, knock before you come into my house, dammit!
4.) Sheriff Braddock has got ice water in his veins and balls of steel! When the old woman's body sits up and starts speaking he barely flinches! Man, if a dead body started speaking to me I'd empty the entire contents of my bladder in 2 seconds!
5.) I'll admit I'm a little suprised at one thing. Peter and Marcie are obviously dating. When we first meet them they're making out hard and you know the only extra thing they need is a mattress...I'm impressed a little because they're an interracial couple. Kudos for this movie for showing that. Yeah, they die, but we knew Peter was dead meat, being the only black male in the gang. Its a monster pic, the brothers always get it! ( Killed, you perverts) Marcie died because she followed another staple in these kind of flicks...she fell down while running from Pumpkinhead. Peter naturally went back to try and save her. So actually Peter is double-dead. He's a minority so he's gonna get killed anyway, but he went back for his girlfriend that fell down (and in horror movies women always fall down when running from a monster!) so he had a toe tag on him before the movie started. Well, I'm, glad the flick had the guts to at least show us that they were a couple even though the followed standard formula in killing them.
6.) What the [unwrite]? Tommy's father was Pumpkinhead? How in the name of Ozzie Osborne did that happen? Does Pumpkinhead have other kids running around the hills? I can see it now: "Next on Oprah, Single mothers and the backwoods hellspawned demons that abandoned them!"
NUDITY AND SEX: The fat postal worker guy is seen having sex with some bimbo. Her prominent bust is seen.
HUH?: Not that good looking girls don't ever fall for complete dickheads, but what does Jenny see in Danny? He's gone above the call of duty to prove that he's callous, a liar and willing to cover up his crimes...yet she's making out with this guy like he was the prom king! If Jenny was portrayed as a hard case troublemaker I'd understand, but she's portrayed as a somewhat ditzy but normal blonde teenager. Why date a total jerk like Danny?
Why didn't Sheriff Braddock just call Judge Dixon before rushing to his house to save him from Pumpkinhead? Dixon believed in Pumpkinhead so its not like he would have scoffed...as a matter of fact Dixon knew he was the next victim!
Pumpkinhead is invulnerable to gunshots until the end when the posse shoots him. Several of his victims shot him and the bullets barely made him flinch. Danny fired at him at point blank range and it had no effect? So why do the posse's bullets kill him?
THE TALLY: I hate to admit it, but the first movie is probably a better view than this one. The end is kind of lame, and you won't find any suprises but come on...its named Pumpkinhead, for Christ's sake!! What did you expect?