RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•It has been almost a hundred years since the McCoy and Hatfield families declared war over an accident and an unretrieved car. Ricky McCoy and Jodie Hatfield love each other, but due to the feud between their families, they cannot live peacefully their love. One night, Jodie and Ricky have a secret date in the forest, the only accomplice is Ricky's sister who keeps watch. Jodie's brothers, however, notice the girl's escapade and follow her, unleashing chaos: Ricky is injured, while his sister loses her life. Destroyed by grief, the boy goes to the witch who lives in the forest and asks for revenge against the entire Hatfield family, except Jodie. Pumpkinhead is thus awakened from his slumber and this time, the death toll will be very long!
Shot shortly after chapter 3, "Pumpkinhead 4 – Blood Feud" once again offers a story of revenge and the bloody spree of murders staged by the monster of the pumpkin field, without adding anything to the saga, but still providing a tasty spectacle.
The saga of "Pumpkinhead" was started by Stan Winston in 1989 and has been, unjustly, snubbed in our country. Fortunately, Sony Italia has distributed, for the home video market only, the last two chapters recently produced, introducing the successful boogeyman of revenge also in the Italian peninsula. Pumpkinhead is a monstrous demon who is periodically awakened from his slumber to serve as a vehicle for the revenge of a human being who has suffered a wrong. Those who invoke him damage their soul for eternity and only an old witch who has lived for centuries in the forest has the power to summon this monster.
The fascinating and undervalued saga of Pumpkinhead has the merit of building, chapter by chapter, stories very close to the universe of urban legends and popular traditions, tinged with connotations that annex each film almost to the fairy-tale dimension. The films take place in settings outside a precise geographical and temporal location, putting at the center of the narrative the anger and desire for revenge of the human being deprived of the things they are most attached to. Children, brothers and sisters, pious souls taken away by human meanness and eager to be avenged. And who better than a demon over 2 meters tall and with unstoppable strength to execute these revenge? This is Pumpkinhead; the bogeyman with whose stories children scare themselves and who lives buried in a pumpkin field.
"Pumpkinhead 4" settles at the quality level of "Pumpkinhead 3 – Ashes to Ashes," shifting the focus to the tormented love story of the new Romeo and Juliet (their names even echo those of the Shakespearean characters), separated by the stubbornness of their ancestors and forced not to be able to express their love. Just like the third chapter, in "Pumpkinhead 4" the monster has been slightly modified in appearance, resulting a bit more clumsy compared to Winston's creature and made in CGI for the more spectacular scenes. Fortunately, in this fourth film, digital effects are used sparingly and more attention is given to the splatter component, always neglected by the saga.
The direction of Michael Hurst (House of the Dead 2 – Zombie Hunters) is routine and the cast is mostly composed of little-known but sufficiently capable actors. The only familiar face is Lance Henriksen ("Aliens – Scontro finale"; "Il buio si avvicina"), the protagonist of the first film and forced to repeat the ghost of his character in every other chapter of the saga, in a formula that begins to seem a bit pathetic.
In short, "Pumpkinhead 4" is a good film, a fourth chapter of a saga that, although now repetitive, maintains medium-high quality levels; although it is a production destined for the home video market only, the staging is also respectable. Surely it is a product that can be more appreciated by those who already know the saga and its mythology; to newcomers, it might simply seem a decent monster movie.
It certainly deserves half a vote more.