Pumpkinhead: Ashes To Ashes (Horror)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Feature: D

 

 

Pumpkinhead is a product of the slasher cycle of Horror, a creature that slashes without wisecracking and does not need weapons to do it.  After a few films that were not the biggest of their genre, we get Pumpkinhead: Ashes To Ashes (2006) nearly two decades later (Stan Winston’s original was 1989) and except for the return of Lance Henriksen (for which he appeared) this tale of a deformed witch and the title creature was weak to start with and this is just plain bad.

 

This time, we get an organ-harvesting doctor/quack (Doug Bradley), some eccentric criminal goofs and a script that is very uneven and forgettable.  I was surprised how boring this was despite the gore and yelling all over the place, but it is a tired third (did I miscount?) installment too many years too late and Henriksen was even better off with Alien vs. Predator.  Let’s hope the subtitle of this release means the franchise gets buried for good.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft, looks like it was shot in HD and is color limited, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 has surprisingly limited dialogue fidelity and surrounds are as inconsistent as the sound design.  That makes the 5.1 seem like an afterthought, much like the production itself.  There are no extras save a few trailers for other Sony product.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo