“Pumpkinhead” is a cheesy monster movie with a great monster and not a lot else. This is not a long film but it seems to take forever for the monster to be let loose and then the movie seems to draw to a rather abrupt close. It’s a shame that it doesn’t really work because a lot of work seemed to go into the aesthetics of this film.

After his son is killed in a tragic accident, a man (Lance Henriksen “Hard Target”, “Aliens”) seeks the help of a witch to summon a demonic creature to get revenge. A group of teenagers are then marked for death and they are mercilessly hunted by the beast known as ‘Pumpkinhead’.

Lance Henriksen is pretty good as Ed Harley and he really seems to nail the country accent. The teenagers are city folks and they are not even vaguely interesting. You actually do not know who you want to win in this film because Harley has lost his son but then again, it was an accident that killed his boy. The Pumpkinhead creature looks terrific; that’s not at all surprising when considering the film was directed by Stan Winston, who worked on the special effects for “The Terminator”, “Aliens” and “Predator”. The dog in the film is the same one from “Gremlins”.

Fans of monster movies might have some fun with “Pumpkinhead” but I think most people are going to be disappointed. The film is visually very pleasing and the special effects are impressive but the plot is a little too simplistic and the dialog is weak. Stan Winston knows how to do special effects but he does not seem quite up to the task of directing a movie. I recommend watching one of the many Stan Winston films where he just did the special effects. I imagine most people will have seen the ones I mentioned earlier so why not try “Leviathan”, “Lake Placid” or “Galaxy Quest” instead of “Pumpkinhead”.