[Pumpkinhead 4]
Plot:Set in the midst of a feud between two familes in the American South, a man calls upon Pumpkinhead to avenge the death of his sister, and kill his lover's family who is keeping the two of them apart.

Cast: Lance Henriksen, Amy Manson, Bradley Taylor, Claire Lams, Rob Freeman, Ovidiu Niculescu, Peter Barnes, Elvin Dandel, Richard Durden, Alin Constantinescu, Razvan Oprea, Rudy Rosenfeld, Lynne Verrall, Calin Puia, Elias Ferkin.

My Thoughts:A step down from "Ashes to Ashes"

Review:"Pumpkinhead 4:Blood Feud" wasn't exactly the solid entry into the series I was expecting it to be. After a pretty awesome third film, "Pumpkinhead 3:Ashes to Ashes"...."Blood Feud" ranks quite high in gore factor, but storywise it's quite weak. The film plays off of the legendary Hatfield/McCoy family feud, with a female member of the Hatfield family and a male member of the McCoy family both in love with each other, and caught in the middle of their respective familes feuding ways. Both decide to meet up late one night, against both their families wishes. However, when the brothers of the Hatfield girl show up and spot Sarah, the sister of the McCoy boy who was acting as a look out for her brother and his true love, they viciously assault her and kill her in the process. This prompts Ricky McCoy to seek out the resident witch, to get her to summon the vengeful demon known as "pumpkinhead", to wipe out the Hatfield family as payback for Sarah's death. As well as so he and Jodie can be together. Unlike "Pumpkinhead 3", "Pumpkinhead 4" doesn't have the strong cast, or interesting characters to pull it through when Pumpkinhead isn't on screen. Lynne Verrall as the mysterious old woman, and Lance Henriksen as Ed Harley turn in solid performances in their respective roles as usual. But everyone else is pretty below average. Henriksen's character is given more to do in this film though. Unlike his role in part 3, where he simply acted as a warner to those who were marked...in this film he does alot of that, but also shares a connection to another character in the movie. A character who managed to escape the wrath of the vengeance demon Pumpkinhead many years ago, and is warned by Harley that his time to face Pumpkinhead for his sins is soon to come. Most of the film is spent showing the ever escalating war between these two families, which eventually culminates when Pumpkinhead starts killing off Hatfield family members left and right, and the Hatfields -- acting out of revenge, and suspicion that the McCoy's were responsible for the deaths of their kin...attack the McCoy house with Malatoff Cocktails. The war between the two families is a solid plot point at first but soon begins to weaken once it's revealed why the war started and why it's continued for all of these years up until now. The revelation is quite stupid, especially considering what could've been done to rectify the situation. Stuff other than petty tit for tat attacks on one another. "Pumpkinhead 4" drops the ball in particular at the end, when the warring families are all underneath one roof trying to come to a truce now that they've figured out the legend of Pumpkinhead is indeed true, and he's after the Hatfields and anyone who stands in his way. The deaths during the films climax don't stack up to the ones seen earlier in the film (including a nice one where a guy's insides are ripped from his body, and strolled all over the place), and the end resolution to everything plays out without any twists or turns. Instead it goes the "safe" route putting things to rest in a fashion anyone familiar with this series and it's ins and outs would expect them to. "Pumpkinhead 4:Blood Feud" wasn't terrible in a headache inducing kind of way, but it certainly wasn't a worthy sequel either. Watching this film kind of made me think they would've been better off picking up where part three left off, Instead of starting a whole new story.

Positives:Great gory death scenes early in the picture. Nice creature fx work on Pumpkinhead.

Negatives:Weak story, very low entertainment value for most of the film, lack of blood and gore during the films closing act, and bad acting by most of the cast.

Overall:A decent entry but pales in comparison to the third movie that came before it.





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