Watch Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings For Free

So much average

Pretty Good

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Virtually everything about director Jeff Burr's creature-feature "Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings" is abysmal aside from some of its cast. This uninspired straight-to-video sequel generates only a tenth of the atmosphere of its predecessor. Furthermore, the production design and set decoration are far more superficial, and the creature looks like a big rubber monster. Indeed, a man stomps around in that monster suit. Anybody who loved the original will have a tough time tangling with this exercise in tedium. Andy Robinson, Steve Kanaly, Gloria Hendry, Hill Harper, and Joe Unger deliver solid performances, while the remainder of the cast is strictly amateurish. The slipshod screenplay by Constantine Chachornia and Ivan Chachornia unfolds with a rural black & white sequence set in the 1950s. A bunch of despicable, well-to-do teens wearing jackets with a Red Wings logo on the back slash up a harmless deformed kid and dump him into a bottomless well. This scene sets up the half-baked monster melodrama/police procedural that occurs some twenty years later. Afterward, the action shifts to the present day as a former NYPD cop, Sean Braddock (Andrew Robinson of "Hellraiser"), relocates his wife and wayward daughter Jenny (Ami Dolenz) to his old hometown. Jenny falls in with the wrong crowd of low-lifers led by the mayor's son, Danny Dixon (J. Trevor Edmond), who skip school openly, smoke dope, and get drunk. Naturally, Sheriff Braddock doesn't approve of Jenny's new friends or their miscreant behavior. Several murders take place after a carload of kids smash into a blind woman and later burn her up at her spooky residence. The idiotic kids resurrect Pumpkinhead, and monster attacks six of the obnoxious characters from the 1950s. Ultimately, another group of rednecks catch Pumpkinhead in a cross-fire and kill him. The creature's point-of-view shots are good, but little else merits mention except Gloria Hendry who is cast as a medical technician. Jeff Burr has acknowledged the many shortcomings of the film, and he has made better movies like "Stepfather 2" and "Straight into Darkness." Don't waste your time on this offal unless you want to get first-hand advice from Burr on his director's commentary track.

After accidentally killing an innocent woman, a group of teens learn the truth about a terrifying legend as they release a voracious monster that begins stalking residents around the town and must try to stop it before it completes it's rampage.This is such an underrated effort with a lot to like about it. One of the best features here is that it manages to keep the creature relevant here as it come out quite early on here so the creature has a fairly substantial amount of screen time. Being able to see it for all that time as a full-scale suit and prop does have some advantages where it actually looks like a tangible force in the moment, so whether you see it wounded or even just stalking around there's a lot to like with this one as it continually gets on-screen and active throughout here. The actual resurrection sequence, as the glaring fires from below the ground as the rolling fog from the woods hides the creature coming up from the grave, starts this off nicely with a chillingly Gothic- styled sequence, and from there it gets plenty of fun encounters all throughout here as the creature manages two separate rampages that's quite fun by using the revenge theme on the original gang, there's a strong series of attacks as the short attacks in the barn mangling the victim and attacking the couple at the shack where it scares the terrified witness, as well as longer, more involved ambushes as the chicken farmers attack taking out the whole gang there and the encounter at the house where it brawls around the house before the frantic foot-chase through the woods finishing off the secondary group with some fine graphic kills mixed in amongst the fine chasing an thrilling stalking. That the whole finale comes off with a hint of melancholy and sadness is a nice feat as well, and along with the great creature makeup in the gore here gives this one enough positives to be really enjoyable over it's few negatives. The main problem here is the fact that the main group of friends here are such a despicable group that it's really hard to believe they're friends, mostly due to how he treats them as the bullying, yelling and posturing them simply to save himself, and by pushing them into the proceedings in the first place which makes it really hard to care what happens to him and the group in general. The other real flaw to this one is the fact that this features such an easy-to-guess mystery about the gang getting killed off yet why it goes so long to put the flimsy clues together makes little sense as a supposed big shot detective would see them and put together in order to figure, lending this to a rather troubling plot-line. Otherwise this one has a lot to like.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

Mean-spirited and ugly direct-to-video sequel to a great '80s horror film. Starts off with a flashback to some kids taunting a boy with some kind of disfiguring disease. The taunting turns to murder. This is an especially bleak way to start the film. Back in the present day, Sheriff Braddock (Andrew Robinson) moves his family from New York to the small Southern town where he grew up. His daughter (Ami Dolenz) starts hanging out with the wrong crowd. The wrong crowd in this case looks like three Saved By the Bell rejects and a kid dressed up like Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club.Wrong crowd kids run down the mother of flashback victim. They take her home, where they discover she is preparing to do the ritual to resurrect her son. Why she waited decades to do this is never explained. Then, the leader of the wrong crowd kids (J. Trevor Edmonds) steals a vial of blood and the spell from her house. He and his friends then go do the spell and raise Pumpkinhead. Why they do this makes no sense. Just being morons I guess. From here, you can pretty much guess what happens. Pumpkinhead starts killing people off right and left. A couple of these scenes are fairly amusing. Obviously an inferior sequel in every regard. The performances of the cast range from bad to bored. Roger Clinton was obviously cast for publicity purposes. I refuse to call what he does here acting. He speaks his lines, let's put it that way. Special effects are cheap and don't compare to Stan Winston's first film. Makeup effects for the old lady are far less impressive and Pumpkinhead design is unimaginative. Suspense and atmosphere is non-existent. Directed by Jeff Burr. He's just a terrible director who has made some really awful films his entire career. I guess he knew the right people because talent did not keep getting him work. It's a crap sequel, to be sure, but sadly better than the mess that would follow in the 2000s.

A group of kids in the 1950s torture and kill a deformed boy. Years later, another group of kids bring him back from the dead. Unknown to them, the people he now wants revenge on happen to be their city elders.This film is so completely poorly rated, and I'm not sure why. Compared to the sequels, it's pretty decent, and in many ways is just as good or better than the original. I thought the film quality and gore, for example, were much improved. As were the cast.I can't knock Lance Henriksen, but Andrew Robinson ("Hellraiser") as Sheriff Sean Braddock? Soleil Moon Frye ("Punky Brewster") as Marcie? And genre favorites Linnea Quigley and Kane Hodder making cameo appearances? Very sweet.The biggest problem with this film is its plot holes, incongruities or just simple confusion when trying to compare it to the first film. At one point they claim the boy is the son of Pumpkinhead. What? And the years seem to line up funny, and the towns may be different. The demons have different motives. How exactly are the two films connected?