Review of Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes

I did enjoy the 1988 Pumpkinhead, without it being one of my absolute favourite horror films. While I didn't care for Ashes to Ashes all that much, it is at least better than Blood Wings. It does have some good points, Lance Henrikssen has a rather small role but he does do a great job with what he's given, the score is suitably eerie,the Romanian scenery is beautiful and atmospheric, Doug Bradley also gives a good performance with at least some charisma and there are a few nice surprising turns in the story. On the other hand, the rest of the acting is an uneven mix of over-acting and under-acting, some of the camera work is rather frenzied which further cheapens the already slapdash effects, the dialogue felt stilted and the characters I never felt anything for. The story does have some surprising turns, but of any effective scenes and such the only one to leave any lasting impression was the Ed Harley's Ghost sequence. The rest, not helped by some sometimes tedious pacing, lacked any true horror or suspense, and has lapses in logic. The titular character has his moments, but perhaps here too generic and ruthless, which was the opposite effect in the original. Overall, not as good as the original and has a lot of problems, but it also has redeeming values and is at least better than Blood Wings(then again a lot of movies are). 5/10 Bethany Cox