The Most Underrated ’80s Horror Movie With A Killer Monster, Stream Without Netflix
Streaming services have quickly become the go-to source for horror movie fans to reabsorb the classics from their childhoods, as well as a great well for younger fans to prime for genre films that were from before their time. Streaming has also given underappreciated movies new life and have helped propel them to cult status. Pumpkinhead, one of the most underrated movies from decades past, is now among the streaming options fans have at their fingertips.
A Modernized Twist On Old Folklore
Pumpkinhead takes an old Ozark mountain folk tale into the modern era, as a grieving and enraged father conjures up a spirit to avenge the tragic death of his young son. The movie opens in the year 1957 as a young Ed Harley is shut inside his farm house with his father and mother. After his father turns away a neighbor man who was pleading for his life, Ed looks out the window and sees a monster rip the poor man apart.
The film fast forwards 30 years into the future where an adult Ed (Lance Henriksen) lives with his young son, Billy. A widowed father, Ed runs a small grocery store near the rural Arkansas community where he grew up in Pumpkinhead. One afternoon, tragedy strikes when a young man accidentally strikes and kills Billy with his dirt bike.
Witchcraft Induced Revenge
Distraught and angry, Ed visits a local witch named Haggis (Florence Schauffer). She tells Ed that her powers cannot raise his son from the dead, but he surprises her when he instead asks for a special type of revenge on those responsible for Billy’s death. At her instruction, Ed steals a body from the local graveyard and takes it to Haggis.
Haggis uses Ed and Billy’s blood to conjure up a monstrous spirit inside of the corpse that Ed stole. Pumpkinhead, as the demon is referred to by the locals, rises from the dead body as a tall, sinewy, beast with razor-sharp claws and long, pointed fangs.
A Rampage For The Ages
Pumpkinhead hunts down Billy’s killer and his friends one at a time, each kill being able to be viewed by Ed via a psychic link the spell established between himself and the monster. Eventually, Ed begins to understand that the connection is so powerful that it will begin to consume him entirely unless he finds a way to stop it.
How Far Is Too Far?
Pumpkinhead served as the directorial debut of Stan Winston, the multi-Academy Award winning special effects artist. The film was as masterfully created as any of Winston’s on-screen monsters and serves as one of the greatest monster movies of the 1980s.
The film weaves together a heart wrenching combination of a child’s untimely death with a father’s realization that his revenge has been taken too far. Lance Henriksen gives his all in one of his best roles of his career. He plays a believable father whose better judgment has been blinded by grief and revenge, and gives viewers an elevated performance.
Streaming Pumpkinhead On Tubi
GFR SCORE
Pumpkinhead saw Winston’s special effects experience utilized through his team of artists in a way that saved the studio valuable production dollars with bringing the creature to life. The monster was well-made and quite realistic, and its kills were some of the best in the genre for its era.
You can catch Pumpkinhead streaming for free on Tubi.
