Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings starts in the isolated 'Ferren Woods 1958' where a deformed boy named Tommy (J.P. Manoux) is happily eating his slop that his guardian Miss Osie (Lilyan Chauvin) has left for him when a group of six teenagers come along, capture him, beat him & eventually murder him... Jump forward to the present day & New York City cop Sean Braddock (Andrew Robinson) is returning to his childhood town to become the local Sheriff together with his wife Beth (Caren Kaye) & teenage daughter Jenny (Ami Dolenz), at first things seem perfect but while trying to make friends Jenny becomes involved with Danny (J. Trevor Edmond) & his gang. While out driving around & messing about Danny hits an old woman known locally as the 'Witch', they go back to check to see if she's OK but she's not there so they all decide to go to the log cabin where she lives to check on her. Once there they steal some magic potion & Danny hits her which causes a fire to start, as she lays there about to be burnt alive she swears vengeance against them all & calls upon the legend of Pumpkinhead to dish it out...<br /><br />Directed by Jeff Burr I have little fondness for Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings either as a sequel to the rather good original Pumpkinhead (1989) or a stand alone horror film in it's own right. The script by Constantine & Ivan Chachornia along with 'additional material' by an uncredited Will Huston is rubbish, it starts out as it means to go on as for no reason whatsoever a group of kids murder Tommy who despite taking ugly pills didn't seem like such a bad kid, did he? Why murder him? Why so openly in front of other people & in the middle of the daytime? I must admit those questions kept bothering me right throughout the rest of the film & annoyingly they were never answered... The rest of this silly film isn't much better as why would a group of friends suddenly decide it would be 'fun' to dig a dead body up & perform a magical ritual intended to bring it back to life? Why? Does that sound like fun to you? When was the last time you said to yourself 'I'm bored so I'm going to dig a dead body up & try to bring it back to life'? People just don't behave like this & yes I accept the 'it's only a film' argument but this was meant to be a serious credible horror film set in reality with 'real' people, don't make me laugh because Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is anything but. The film has an OK pace, there are one or two half decent scenes but the character's & dialogue are poor & overall it's very predictable.<br /><br />Director Burr ruins what could have been a decent sequel, the special effects are a step down from the original. Pumpkinhead himself looks worse than the original, he doesn't seem to have any colour or texture almost as if he was unfinished & the guy in the rubber monster suit doesn't help. I though Pumpkinhead was poorly shot & didn't work. It tries to create some atmosphere but it's all so silly & whats with the constant flashing lights when Pumpkinhead appears? There is one hilarious bit when a dead woman comes back to life & she sits up in bed & all these lights suddenly shine on her & she starts speaking in a daft voice to the local Sheriff who begins to interrogate her! Not a good creative decision, one amongst many I might add. The gore is OK, there are some severed limbs, someone has their head torn off, two lovers are impaled on a fence railing (Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) anyone?), someone has their face pecked by chickens & there are some gory gunshot wounds.<br /><br />Technically the film is OK but nothing stands out, it's well made apart from some lacklustre unfinished looking creature effects. The cast don't distinguish themselves, did you know that Roger Clinton who played Mayor Bubba is in actual fact ex US president Bill Clinton's brother? Well, now you do.<br /><br />Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings is a poor film, it follows a great film & does nothing but turn in a teenagers on the run from a monsters type film. Watch the far superior original again instead, definitely not recommended. For some bizarre reason this inspired a video game called Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge (1995) while two more film sequels have been made recently Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes (2006) & Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud (2007).