Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1995)

(Credit to Parca Mortem on IMDb) After a group of teenagers indirectly cause an old witch to be burned, they accidentally revive Pumpkinhead. This time Pumpkinhead is inhabited by the soul of a deformed orphan killed 30 years before. He goes on a bloody rampage after his tormentors and the teenagers. Meanwhile, a local sheriff tries to solve the mystery and stop the murders.I know Pumpkinhead has a lot of fans, but I'm not one of them. I wasn't looking forward to this sequel. With how awful this sequel is, I'll watch the original over this one any day of the week. Not only is it very stupid, but rather dull as well. There were too many random killings as well. We get severed limbs, blood splashes, and more. The monster is really rubbery looking. He wasn't very threatening at all. Amazingly enough, we get a great horror cast. The performances are OK, but almost everyone is unlikable. Ami Dolenz is cute and makes a decent female lead. J. Trevor Edmond annoyed me. It's always fun to see Andrew Robinson in a role, but I disliked his character. I can't forget about the gorgeous, Soleil Moon Frye either.If you're gonna watch any of the Pumpkinhead movies, stick with the original. This is followed by two crappy straight to video sequels. 3.4/10

While not quite as satisfying as its predecessor, you can't help but have a level of respect for screenwriters Ivan and Constantine Chachornia for trying to change things up a bit when it comes to the storyline of sequel "Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings." We get the same premise, but with a little detective work and two intertwining motivations for the title creature to go on its killing spree to mix it up. The acting is a bit cheesy, but what can be expected from a movie made in the mid-1990s that obviously would feel more at home in the 1980s.A group of teen troublemakers resurrect the spirit of vengeance known as Pumpkinhead (Mark McCracken). Trapped inside the monster is the tormented soul of a young boy named Tommy (J.P. Manoux). First, pieces of the bodies of the gang who murdered him begin to pile up. After that, the creature's focus changes to the high schoolers who mortally wounded his caretaker. Pumpkinhead will stop at nothing until those who have wronged him are served bloody justice."Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings" will please fans of the franchise and horror movie buffs. Special appearances by genre regulars like Linnea Quigley and Kane Hodder add to the fun.

Pumpkinhead II (1994) * (out of 4) Horrid sequel to the 1989 cult favorite has a new sheriff (Andrew Robinson) moving to town where his teenage daughter (Ami Dolenz) gets mixed up with four bad apples and soon the five of them bring back the evil demon Pumpkinhead who of course goes on a killing spree. It seems the demon is avenging the death of a deformed boy but the sheriff and daughter must try to find a way to stop him. This "sequel" really doesn't have any connection to the first film so in many ways one really could look at this as a standalone entry. No matter how you want to look at it it's hard to argue that this is a horrid little film that has very little going for it. I think the worst thing is without question the screenplay, which seems to confuse itself from time to time. As with many low-grade horror movies, the screenplay here forgets to write any interesting characters and instead we just get a bunch of stupid stereotypes and all of them are fighting to see which one can be the most annoying. The five teenagers are all extremely annoying and it's impossible to care for any of them and that includes the so-called good ones. Even worse is that the screenplay throws in this stupid backstory that never really goes anywhere and you can't help but roll your eyes as the evil demon tries to be shown as a "good" guy just trying to avenge something bad. One of the most annoying things about this film is that for the life of me I couldn't figure out why the teens wanted to mess with this demon. I mean, they're shown as simple, pot-smoking idiots but why go after a demon? Oh, that's right, so that people would rent this sucker from their video stores. The performances are pretty bland with some of the actors delivering their lines so poorly that you'd think they were just making fun of the actual film. Robinson comes off the best in his part and there's some good eye candy but this here can't save an otherwise worthless film.

While I have to admit that Pumpkinhead is one of my favorite demonic creatures from the movies and I have to add that Jeff Burr is an underrated director, "Pumpkinhead II" is far from a great cinematic accomplishment. As a stand-alone film about a vengeance demon, it still might be a bag of silly horror-fun, but unfortunately it has to carry the burden of being an inferior sequel to a much cooler & better original. One of the biggest faults, was showing the creature too much (each time using dizziness-inducing strobe-effects to light it, for some reason). Then again, thankfully there's enough creature-action in this flick. Still, Stan Winston managed to make the monster look much more menacing in the first film, by not showing too much of it - some well-crafted shots aside - until the very end of the movie. In "Pumpkinhead II", it's all to evident too many times that we're dealing with an actor in a rubber monster suit. The story in this sequel is mildly amusing and moves at a decent pace, but it's full of clichés and highly predictable. The fact that most characters are spelling everything out for the viewer - who's always a couple steps ahead of the plot anyway - gets annoying enough really fast. For a lower budget production it's fairly well made and the KNB Effects Group did the best with what limited means they had (the creature also got a little bit re-styled; I liked the look of Stan Winston's design better). Sure, this sequel might have its heart at the right place (they even got Linnea Quigley to do a sex-scene and Kane Hodder to do a cameo), but in the end it's not a winner. It's got all the elements it needs to entertain, but the whole film just doesn't work too well. Nevertheless, I can't help having some love for this B-movie quickie. Just be sure to watch the original movie from 1988 first before you contemplate picking up a copy of this first sequel.