Presumably due to a severe shortage of inspiration and creativity amongst the newer generation of filmmakers, quite a lot of 80's and early 90's horror film franchises were picked up during the 00's. Most of them simply got remade, but some franchises suddenly received two or more belated sequels that nobody ever asked for. Seemingly overnight, there came new entries in popular 80's horror franchises like "Sleepaway Camp", "Return of the Living Dead" and "Pumpkinhead". The latter film is a modest genre classic, directed by the late Stan Winston, and introducing a unique type of demon that extracts bloody vengeance in your place! Nearly twenty years after the original, there are two new installments entitled "Ashes to Ashes" and this "Blood Feud". "Blood Feud" is basically a reworking of William Shakespeare's famous tale of "Romeo & Juliet", but with a hideous demon thrown in. Jodie Hatfield and Ricky McCoy are two hopelessly-in-love teenagers, but their love is forbidden because of an ancient family feud. When a couple of Jodie's hillbilly brothers kill Ricky's younger sister, he takes her dead body to the local witch Haggis and demands the resurrection of Pumpkinhead. In spite of all warnings coming from Ed Harley, who's restless ghost is still dwelling around after all these years, the humongous demon comes to life and promptly goes on a devastating killing spree. Apart from the horribly clichéd and implausible family feud story, this is actually a rather enjoyable horror movie. The titular demon still looks impressive and there are a couple of truly engrossing massacres to behold, for example when one of the characters tries to amputate his own leg with a switchblade knife because he's stuck in a bear trap and Pumpkinhead is approaching. There's plenty of action and even suspense to make you forget the imbecilic plot and inferior acting performances. Lance Henriksen walks around the film purposelessly, but I guess it's good marketing to be able to display his name on the DVD box.
Review of Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud
