Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead

Pumpkinhead is a demonic monster from the Pumpkinhead Franchise. An evil dark revenge demon that is summoned to murder. First appearing in Pumpkinhead, the demon has been featured in 3 further sequels.

Although not the same monster throughout the series, the Demon is manifested by different summoners who become one with them. The second sequel is also none canonical with parts 1, 3 and 4. Pumpkinhead is however a memorable Monster in the Halls of Horror.

Invoking Pumpkinhead can seemingly only be invoked by those who are truly pressed to take revenge (Or at least that's been the case before), at the cost of a small amount of blood delivered to the witch in a cup, who is able to awaken him. Part of the reason for Pumpkinhead's name is the fact he is kept buried in a large mound in a pumpkin patch. Pumpkinhead usually must be unearthed  by the witch, and at that point needs a bit of blood from the summoner (Plus magic words from the witch) to awaken, from that point the demon carries out whatever task he was invoked for. As this task goes on, the summoner takes on more Pumpkinhead-like qualities, and the demon likewise. None of the films have shown what happens when Pumpkinhead fully completes his task, as the films' summoners have all died before the revenge is complete. Only the willing death of the summoner will stop the demon in this case, causing the Pumpkinhead to die, and the summoner to become a new demon, having his/her soul stuck in limbo. If the summoner is killed by someone else, the Pumpkinhead will come after remaining victims the next time it is summoned.

Pumpkinhead at work

The Pumpkinhead can be brought forth by multiple summoners, in such cases the Pumpkinhead will be stronger and larger unless some of the  summoners are killed, in which case it will shrink, until one is left, leaving the monster at the normal size. If all but one summoner is killed, the final one is able to sacrifice themself, which will bring about normal circumstances.

As seen in Pumpkinhead 2, the demon can take revenge for itself if the summoning witch is killed, going after the ones who did so (In said case, also those who wronged it as a human, as it seemingly became Pumpkinhead by methods other than invoking the demon). In such cases, it seems the monster is more independant, seemingly able to die by simple gunshots if it deems its own work done.

In the third installment of the series the main characters attempt to stop Pumpkinhead through simply righting wrong that prompted it to be summoned in the first place, a task which involved cremating the corpses Doc Fraser and the Wallace family were supposed to burn, but instead stole organs from and dumped in the swamp. This ploy fails to work, not affecting Pumpkinhead in any visible way.

As a revenge demon, Pumpkinhead's priority is to make its victims have painful deaths. Pumpkinhead is sadistic and will in fact go out of its way to make its killings more horrible. Pumpkinhead cannot be distracted from its task, though usually only kills at night (For unknown reasons), thus taking breaks in its mission. The demon will not kill random people in its way (Often seeming to resent this fact when coming across non-targeted humans), unless they try to stop it, in which case he has no qualms with murdering them too.

Pumpkinheads

Since summoners take the form of Pumpkinhead if they kill themself to stop the demon, there are a few Pumpkinheads throughout the franchise.

The first Pumpkinhead is unknown, and may simply be the incarnation of a demon (Seeing as it does things later "Pumpkinhead"s have not done, such as speak). When its summoner, Ed Harley, killed himself to stop the thing, the man shriveled into a new creature.

Ed Harley was, and still is stuck in limbo thanks to this. The Pumpkinhead version of Ed was employed in Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes, when it eventually died, and became an untouched corpse. The girl who killed herself to stop the monster became the new Pumpkinhead.

A similar situation occurs in Pumpkinhead 4, though in that case, both Pumpkinhead and the summoner were lost down a well.

In Pumpkinhead 2, an installment presumably occurring in the near future, if it can be considered canon at all, the Pumpkinhead is actually a child of the demon and a woman, inhabited with the spirit of Pumpkinhead after his guardian, the witch, is killed.

Pumpkinhead taking on traits from it's host

Ed Harley's Pumpkinhead

Haggis retrieving the Pumpkinhead Corpse to be summoned.

In the original movie Pumpkinhead was summoned by Harley, the bereaved father of a young boy who was accidentally killed by a group of youths - unable to forgive them for what had happened Harley brought Pumpkinhead to life to exact vengeance on his behalf: however as the film progressed Harley couldn't live with the brutality he had unleashed (sharing a psychic link with Pumpkinhead - which was violently killing anything it came across).

Tracking down Pumpkinhead Harley attempted several unsuccessful attacks on the beast, only to realise that it was now a part of himself (a manifestation of his own rage and hate, perhaps) - in order to stop the demon once and for all, Harley decided to kill himself with a shotgun to the head - as he died Pumpkinhead perished with him.

The Townspeople's Pumpkinhead

The third movie was more loyal to the first movie in terms of story and focused on how the townspeople became enraged at a local mortician stealing and selling the organs of their loved ones before disposing of their bodies in the swamp rather than cremating them: seeking vengeance they have Haggis (a witch who appears in many of the movies) summon Pumpkinhead once more via reviving the mummified remains of Harley - the reanimated Pumpkinhead then proceeds to exact a brutal revenge on all responsible for the desecration.

At the same time a character by the name of Doc Fraiser rushes to kill those who summoned Pumpkinhead so as to kill the demon before things get totally out of hand.

The McCoy Pumpkinhead

The film begins with two men on their motorcycles driving away from Pumpkinhead. One of the men hits a tree branch in their path, falling from his motorcycle and allowing Pumpkinhead to catch up to him. As the man is being killed, the film cuts to a man in a log cabin who seems to share the pain inflicted by Pumpkinhead on the fallen man. The surviving man, named Dallas, rides to the log cabin, and the man who conjured Pumpkinhead, begging him to call the demon off. Pumpkinhead smashes through the window and Dallas attempts to fend him off by shooting him with a small pistol with little effect, and is clawed in the chest by the demon. When Dallas realizes that his bullets have no effect on Pumpkinhead, he swears to take the summoner with him, shooting the man and killing him, causing Pumpkinhead to vanish. Ed Harley then appears telling Dallas that Pumpkinhead will return and there will be no place to hide.

Five years later we are shown the family of the Hatfields and McCoys ongoing feud started because of a car in the 30's. The Hatfields then trash the McCoy wedding. Jody Hatfield sneaks out to see her true love, Ricky McCoy. Ricky brings his sister, Sarah, to look out for him and Jody. The two then start to make out.

Jody's brothers find and kill Sarah by accident and try to kill Ricky. Ricky then finds his sister's body and goes to Haggis for help. Haggis tells him of the price it costs to summon Pumpkinhead and Haggis is shown talking to Ed Harley's spirit. Haggis states that her choice does not matter in the end; only the summoner may make the decision to kill Pumpkinhead. The two invoke Pumpkinhead to kill the Hatfields.

At the end of the film most of the Hatfields are killed, as well as some of the McCoy family. Ricky realizes what he has done and takes Pumpkinhead with him to fall down a well. This is the first film in the franchise that does not imply that Pumpkinhead is still alive

Blood Wings

Although the first sequel to Pumpkinhead the story of Blood Wings has little to do with any of the other films and focuses instead on the tragic murder of a deformed child named Tommy and how 35 years later a gang of rebellious youths summon him from the dead as a new Pumpkinhead, this Pumpkinhead sought to avenge the death of himself and his adoptive mother and utilised similar violent tactics as the original Pumpkinhead: however at the end of the film Pumpkinhead relents and shows mercy towards one of his victims - the film ends with the now humanised Pumpkinhead being blasted into the same well he had been dumped in 35 years earlier.

Filmography

• Pumpkinhead
• Pumpkinhead II, Blood Wings
• Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes
• Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud