We have discussed the pros and cons of rebooting Hollywood movies enormous times. The filmmakers have run out of ideas and to overcome that defect, they are rebooting old classic and blockbusters. The reason why we are saying all these things again is that another Hollywood reboot of an iconic horror is going to happen soon. Yes, the horror classic Pumpkinhead, which was released in the year 1998, is finally getting a reboot.
The news has been officially confirmed and the ‘Saw’ producer Peter Block has bagged the remake rights of the movie. He has also attained the rights of its sequel movies which are Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1994) which was directly released to video, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes (2006) and Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud (2007) which both had a direct TV release. But all the three sequels were heavily panned by both the critics and normal viewers. Peter Block said: “Pumpkinhead is one of my favorite horror films of the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. Stan Winston sits on that Mount Rushmore of iconic filmmakers because of his creature designs, and that was his first directing effort. The creature’s great but the emotional story is wonderful as well. I got the rights to Pumpkinhead, and hooked up with a great young writer called Nate Atkins, and we developed our script, which is really solid.”
Pumpkinhead is the directorial debut of special effects creator Stan Winston, who has done many noticeable works, including the Aliens (1986) before his directorial debut. He won his first Oscar under Best Visual Effects category in the year 1987 for the film Aliens. After 5 years, he bagged 2 Oscars (Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup) for the film Terminator 2: Judgement Day. He has one more Oscar (Best Visual Effects) under his name for the film Jurassic Park.
Pumpkinhead told the story of a grieving father (Ed Harley) who wants to seek revenge against his son’s murderers (a group of bikers). He hopefully visits a witch to bring back his son to life. But the witch told Ed that it was not possible and the only thing that she could help him with now was to seek revenge. Under her orders, he goes to a graveyard and brings back a disfigured corpse. The witch with her magical powers brings the corpse back to life and it gets transformed into a huge horrifying monster, the Pumpkinhead. The appearance of the Pumpkinhead was the main highlight of the movie. All credit goes to Stan Winston. The movie was well received by both the critics and normal viewers. The movie has a cult fan following ever since its release and is considered as one of the finest horror movies ever made. But it’s more like a Boogeymen type of movie.
Peter Block said that the shooting would most probably start in 2017 and they are looking for the right director who could bring back the Pumpkinhead to life once again in full glory. The theme and the story of the reboot will follow the original, but some changes will be made as the sequels failed miserably to make a mark. We all very well know that there are always risks in rebooting classic films and Pumpkinhead is no different. Let’s hope that the movie won’t spoil the brand name of the original. Stay tuned for more updates regarding the movie.
