Because the world clearly needs more reboots, we’re going to be getting a fresh take on the 1988 cult classic ‘Pumpkinhead‘ which we initially heard about 2 years ago. A wonderful little B-Movie horror franchise was created around these films and now ‘Saw’ executive producer Peter Block is lined up to helm the new take on the series. No word if they are eyeing a stand alone or ongoing series but if ‘Saw‘ taught us anything, we’re about to be getting a slew of these monster films.
At the very least we know that Block was a huge fan of the original:
“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.”
The new take on Winston’s iconic monster is being filmed in 2017 for an unannounced release date. The original movie starred Lance Henriksen in his prime and in it, we see Ed Harley’s younger son lose his life in a tragedy. Harley curses those responsible for his loss and thus ‘Pumpkinhead’ is born into the world.
While Block is attached to the movie, he won’t be directing. Block did worked with Nate Atkins to pen the script and stated:
“There is a similarity of theme and a similarity of story. There’s a lot of Easter eggs for people who know the original — iconic shots and iconic lines that we’re going to use. But we’ve enhanced the setting, and we’ve expanded the characters somewhat, to give it a different kind of experience.”
When looking for a director Block has a key idea of how he wants the film to look and feel:
“I am a big proponent of practical effects. That was the great thing about the original. A lot of the films I still respond to most today, it’s because of the practical effects. We think that it’s going to be a nice slow reveal, lots of scares and lots of action in the beginning, and a great creature in the end, which everybody should be able to look at and say, ‘Oh, that’s Pumpkinhead!’ It’s not like you’re all of a sudden going to find that it’s some amorphous, nebulous, CGI wispy thing. You’re going to know it came from the Pumpkinhead family lineage.”
With the 2 official follow-ups and Syfy’s take both falling short for the series, it is at least good to hear that he wants practical effects front and center. While I like the direction he wants to go, I don’t understand or feel a need that this particular brand of horror is rebooted. I feel that the more remakes we get of horror franchises the cheaper they have all been feeling in recent years.
Are you looking forward to a remake of ‘Pumpkinhead’ or are you wondering why they are even bothering at this point? Share your thoughts below!
Source: EW
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
