B Movie Bonanza

Pumpkinhead (1988) is the movie for this Sunday's "monsterdon" watch party over on Mastodon, our fediverse sibling!

• Just start watching that movie this Sunday, Oct 19 at 9pm ET / 8pm CT / 6pm PT which is 1am Monday UTC
• and follow #monsterdon over on mastodon for live text commentary. For example, you can follow that hashtag here: https://mastodon.social/tags/monsterdon
• I usually open two web browser windows side-by-side on a computer. But you could follow the mastodon commentary on a phone app while watching the movie on TV or something.

How to watch the movie:

• tubi (availability varies by country): https://tubitv.com/movies/306943/pumpkinhead
• uBlock Origin adblocker on Firefox should work for that tubi link
• dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9pm9xg
• dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9gaghi
• archive: https://archive.org/details/pumpkinhead-1989
• someone usually streams it on https://miru.miyaku.media/ at that time.
• if you want to pay and/or watch ads, look here: https://nobraincellsleft.github.io/JustWatch-Search/title/tm49887

After a tragic accident, a man conjures up a towering, vengeful demon called Pumpkinhead to destroy a group of unsuspecting teenagers.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095925/

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Pumpkinhead holds an approval rating of 50%, based on 54 reviews, and an average rating of 5.5/10. Its consensus reads: "With effects work and solid direction from Stan Winston—and Lance Henriksen adding welcome gravitas—Pumpkinhead is a creature feature that stands a cut above".[13]

Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "As a technician, Winston clearly knows how to make a monster, but as a director he's yet to learn how to bring one to life".[14] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote that the film has poor writing and acting, but it is surprisingly polished for a B movie.[5] Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times wrote that, despite its poor writing, the premise is interesting, but it's not executed as well as Forbidden Planet.[15] Empire rated it 2/5 stars and called it a Friday the 13th clone with "little atmosphere and no surprises".[16] TV Guide rated it 2/5 stars and wrote that the film's second half becomes tedious because of its overdone slasher formula.[17]

In a 1992 retrospective, Jon Nalick of the Los Angeles Times described it as "a well-executed film in a genre that is littered with dimwitted slasher flicks".[18] Bloody Disgusting rated the film 4/5 stars and called it "a gothic story of love, loss, vengeance, and redemption".[19] Joshua Siebalt of Dread Central rated the film 4/5 stars and wrote that film "stands as a timeless, dark fairy tale".[20] Reviewing the 2000 DVD release, G. Noel Gross of DVD Talk rated it 3.5/5 stars and wrote that the film is "too good to pass over", despite its lackluster presentation.[9] Nick Nunziata also criticized the 2000 DVD release and wrote that the film does not hold up.[21] Nick Schager of The A.V. Club called it an endearing pulp film that lacks subtlety.[22] Reviewing the film on Blu-ray, Ken Hanley of Starlog said it is "one hell of an impressive directorial debut".[23] Writing in Horror Films of the 1980s, critic John Kenneth Muir called it "a meditation on vengeance" that is "surprising and rewarding" for its rejection of vigilante justice, a popular theme in the 1980s.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkinhead_(film)