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Pumpkinhead (1988) Directed by Stan Winston

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 5:25 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 12 June 2009)

Literally halve of this movie is build up. It builds up to the moment of the first killing by the movie its monstrous character. Thing is that the build up is actually way better than the disappointing second halve of the movie. It makes "Pumpkinhead" a very uneven genre movie, that still has got a good reputation due to Stan Winston's involvement.

The movie proofs though that directing is an craft on its own. Sure you can be Stan Winston and have created some of the worlds best known and best looking monsters and creatures but that doesn't mean you can direct a good genre movie as well.

The movie itself basically has all of the right required genre ingredients in it. A monster, a revenge plot, a couple of teenagers, some other odd creepy looking folks, dark settings and whatever more you can expect from a genre movie such as this one. The movie handles all of its ingredients well in its first halve, when the movie is still more of a moody and mysterious one but in the second halve it just relies too much on its monster, the killings and its gore. It was real disappointing and I literally lost interest in this movie during its second halve.

This is also due to the fact that you just don't care much for the teenagers within this movie and you can't even tell who is who, not even after a while, since the characters remain mostly cardboard ones and they are not being handled and develop properly within the movie.

Still the movie has Lance Lance Henriksen in it though, even from the time when he was still a quite big actor and didn't had the reputation for starring mostly in B-junk. His presence adds quite a lot and the movie truly benefits from it.

Like you would expect from a movie to which Stan Winston was involved with, it's a good looking movie, with good effects and make-up. Also a problem perhaps though is that it features its effects and monster too prominently. Due to this the horror of the movie simply doesn't work out effectively at all.

Not completely unwatchable but the second halve of the movie still ruins a lot.

5/10

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Ghoulies II (1988) Directed by Albert Band

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 10:05 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 3 January 2009)

Well, at least this movie was better than the first. This is because of the simple reason that this movie is so entertaining to watch. It doesn't try to impress but it just brings some simple and good B-movie horror fun!

It must be also due to the movie its settings that this movie is such a fun one to watch. The entire movie is set at an amusement park.

The Ghoulies are more like Gremlins in this movie. In the first movie they were only walking around without serving a real purpose. In this movie they are the heart and soul of the entire picture. They are causing some mayhem and each and every Ghoulie has a distinctive character of its own.

It's a good thing the movie doesn't take itself too serious. It gives the movie a good campy feel and look over it. The movie is often being plain silly and it doesn't try to make sense or create a believable story. Something that the first "Ghoulies" movie didn't do. So really, this movie is surprisingly better and much more watchable than its predecessor.

Perhaps the movie is being a bit too silly and not serious enough at times. This really goes at the expense of the movie its horror. I feel that as if this movie would had been more effective with its horror as well, this movie would had been an even better one to watch. The movie doesn't really have any scares or gore in it.

Of course nothing of this movie really impresses. The acting and story-line are all weak and kept thin. Perhaps you have to be really into the genre to appreciate and enjoy this movie simply for what it is; some simple, fun entertainment!

5/10

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