As a child, Ed Harley witnessed the slaying of 3 local men by a strange creature, one believed to be a demon from
local folklore called "Vengeance", or "Pumpkinhead" as it's also known as. Many years later and the images of that night are but a distant memory, and Ed, played by Horror B-movie regular
Lance Henricksen, earns a simple living running his family's store with his young son.
But Ed's life is shattered when a group of vacationing teens carelessly run over his son with their dirt bikes, then flee the scene leaving him to die. Blinded by rage and remembering what he saw on that fateful night many years ago, he visits one of the local's to see about summoning up the creature to exact his revenge upon them.
The hapless teens subsequently find themselves being preyed upon by a seemingly unstoppable large winged demon, who pops up periodically to dispense them one-by-one. In the meantime though, Ed realises not all the young teens were at fault and so having a change of heart, decides to try helping the surviving members. But stopping the unstoppable proves to be no easy task, and it seems that summoning up this demon has some severe long-term implications for Ed.
Directed by Stan Winston, who's probably better known for his special effects work in this field, this is one of those films you may have passed over in the video shop. Whilst it's no cinematic masterpiece, it proves to be a lot better than the old video box artwork would suggest. The only downside is the film is somewhat formulaic of the many 80's teen stalk and slash style of films of its time with elements of the old Universal horror films of the 40's worked into the mix. Also, the creature looked way too similar to the creatures from the "Aliens" movies for my liking, which incidentally Winston also worked on.
The film is definitely worth a watch though, even if it's just for Lance Henricksen.
