Movie Info
Movie Name: Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes
Studio: Sony Picture Home Entertainment
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie
Release Date(s): October 28, 2006
MPAA Rating: R
A town finds an atrocity has occurred. The organs and bodies of their loved ones have been exhumed and used for sale without their knowledge. When a group of those wronged summon Pumpkinhead to avenge their loved one, a race is on for the group’s leader Doc Frasier (Doug Bradley) to kill the people who summoned Pumpkinhead before Pumpkinhead kills him.
Directed by Jake West, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes is a made-for-TV movie released on Syfy. The film is a follow-up to Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings in 1993 and generally was panned by critics.
Pumpkinhead was a rather original monster movie with a great creature. Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings was a confused, but decent looking horror film. Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes is a tired take on a franchise that never really had much traction. The movie is low budget and feels low budget…bringing back Lance Henriksen isn’t enough to save it.
The story of the film is something you’d see in the news. A morgue illegally begins dumping bodies and it is revealed. I don’t mind the basic plot set-up but the movie just begins to collapse into a mess. Like the other Pumpkinhead films, the killer is tied to those who summoned it and goes after those responsible. It becomes a race to stop Pumpkinhead before the “innocent” of the group is killed…here, there are no innocents and the killer is trying to stop those who summoned Pumpkinhead before he’s killed.
The movie features the return of Lance Henriksen who starred in the first film. Here he is the sidelined (and cursed…for unexplained reasons since others have summoned Pumpkinhead as well) and he reportedly said the making of this film was a horrible experience. The other “star” of the film is Doug Bradley as Doc Fraser (and one of those responsible for atrocity). The Hellraiser vet like Henriksen doesn’ t have much to do in the film.
The Pumpkinhead creature is still cool. This version of the creature is a little more computerized than previous versions. As a result, the creature isn’t as real feeling as the previous Pumpkinhead creatures.
Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes is a weak follow-up to a weak sequel. I like that the film kind of gets back to the basics of the original story, but I don’t like how it was implemented. The horror is quite weak and the story is even weaker. Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes was followed by Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud in 2008 (which was shot back to back with this film).
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