Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings

Incredibly contrived and overly convenient, with a truly awful title to boot, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is a massive step down from its predecessor. Works only as the sort of thing you have on in the background, only gracing with your attentions for the brief golden moments Pumpkinhead is doing his thing.

Final rating: - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.

Lower budget than the original, but better story & characters

A gang of partying teens stumble across an old witchs cabin in rural Southern Cal and foolishly unleash a vengeful demon linked to a dead feral boy.

"Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings" (1993) was released to video and therefore has noticeably inferior production values to its 1988 predecessor. It was shot in three weeks for less than $1 million and you can tell, but it has a more compelling script and arguably better characters with the exception of the absent Lance Hendriksen, who will return for the next two sequels as a ghost.

Without Hendriksen and any references to the original flick, this is more of a standalone reimagining containing all the staples of the first...

It would be much better with a minimally well done script.

I liked the first film, and the truth is that I feel that this follow-up was not far behind, although the story told has no connection with that of the first film. For me, that's its main problem, because the other problems that exist, honestly, I think they were already expected.

Directed by Jeff Burr, the film has a cast of unknown actors, but who does what can be asked of them. They aren't brilliant, but I felt that most were sincere and committed to their work, being seriously hampered by the director's ineptitude and the stupidity of much of the dialogue and material they were given. In fact, with better material and better character development, the actors would have...