Coming out roughly six years after the first one, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings gets rid of the gothic, fairytale look of the original, removes any sort of reasonable quality of acting, much thanks to an awfully written script and gives us an extremely low quality sequel to the wonderful Pumpkinhead. However, not all is lost, as Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings instead gives us plenty to laugh about; this is meant to be a comedy right?
Product Information
DISCS: 1
RUN-TIME: 88 min
ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1
RESOLUTION: 1080p
AUDIO: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
LANGUAGE: English
REGION: A
RATING: R
PRODUCTION DATE: 1993
Short nitty-gritty plot description from Scream Factory is as follows: When five teenagers unwittingly resurrect a demon, nobody is safe from the creature’s bloody rampage. But this monster is different – inside its demonic form dwells the soul of a boy murdered years ago. Can the evil creature be killed without destroying the innocent boy trapped within?
Tatlock’s Quick ‘n Dirty Review: It truly is amazing how much more awful Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is to the first one. It doesn’t look the same as the original, probably due to the problem all early/mid-90s horror movies had, which was this weird, glossy made for TV look. The acting from pretty much everyone screams low rent, even with notable actors Andrew Robinson in the lead and Scream Queen Linnea Quigley in a small role. (Although, Quigley does do her normal thing and blast out her boobies for all to see. God bless her.) I will say, at least, the man in the suit, Mark McCracken (taking over from Tom Woodruff Jr.), did a wonderful job with making Pumpkinhead menacing.
Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings was troubled from the get-go. Originally meant to be directed by Hellbound: Hellraiser II director, Tony Randel, who left the project and Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III director Jeff Burr came in to pick up the pieces and managed to shoot the movie in only 24 days. That tells you right away this movie isn’t going to be great. Movies have been known to be shot quickly and still came out good, but this isn’t one. The script is awful, with stilted delivery from everyone involved. The basic plot isn’t too bad, with a vengeful old lady seeking revenge on some teens, but the evil Pumpkinhead has his own plan, as the soul trapped inside seeks a bigger revenge on the people who killed him years ago. That is a cool idea of a plot, but man, it did not come out correctly. Maybe if this brought back some of the original creators and shot it in the 80s, it might not have been so bad. I guess we will never know.
Blu-ray Opinion:
Scream Factory has gone above and beyond in delivering us a worthy Blu-ray. If you go by the back cover of the case, you will think there isn’t much for features, but you’ll be wrong. The disc actually has in addition to what’s listed: a director commentary and behind the scenes footage. I am not sure why those features are missing from the case, but it is a nice little surprise when you put the disc in.
The other features are an hour-long interview with director Jeff Burr. He discusses his career for a good portion and goes into the troubled history of the Pumpkinhead sequel. It’s pretty easy to see that he was brought in last minute and most of the issues were present beforehand. Next up is a fun interview with the creature designers KNB EFX Group (Greg Nicotero and Gino Crognale) and the man in the suit, Mark McCracken. This is a lot of fun to watch and you can tell all in involved had a wonderful time on set. I am sure they knew what they were shooting and just had fun anyway.
The actual video and sound for Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings looks great. The early 90s Vaseline quality that most 90s horror movies had is very much present and the sound is nice, loud and clear.
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| Hey look, it’s Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder). |
Blu-ray Features:
– Audio Commentary with director Jeff Burr
– RE-CREATING THE BEAST – featuring new interviews with special effects artists Greg Nicotero, Gino Crognale and actor Mark McCraken
– MAKING MOVIES – an interview with director Jeff Burr
– Behind-the-scenes footage
Verdict: Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is a bad movie and an even more awful sequel. Still, for some reason, I had fun watching it. I laughed a lot and yeah, you probably shouldn’t be laughing, but who cares. This one isn’t going to tarnish the original and thanks to Scream Factory, you got a wonderful Blu-ray that you can throw on for one of those nights where you want to watch something so bad, it’s good. Recommended!
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| This guy shows up in the movie too. Roger Clinton, Bill Clinton’s brother. Yeah, I don’t know why… |