A group of teenage campers stop by at Harley's, and, while riding their dirt bikes, they mortally injure Billy by accident.
One teen, Steve, stays with the boy until his father's return; the 'killer' flees the scene with his girlfriend, while the rest leave to find a phone.
Joel, who is personally responsible for the boy's injury and is on probation for a similar incident, rips out the phone cord, knocks one of his friends unconscious and locks him and a girl in the closet to stop them from contacting the authorities.
The witch uses blood from father and son to resurrect the corpse, which rises as a gigantic, spindly demonic monster referred to as "Pumpkinhead" by the locals.
Ed arrives and shoots Pumpkinhead, but when Joel checks to see if the creature is still alive, it grabs a fallen rifle and impales him with it.
A local boy, Bunt, helps the two remaining campers, Tracey and Chris, reach an abandoned church in the woods.
Later that night, the witch buries Ed in Pumpkinhead's grave, ready to wait for the next person seeking revenge, and still wearing the necklace his son Billy made him.
Given Winston was then busy refining the story, he gave free reins regarding design to artists Alec Gillis, Shane Mahan, John Rosengrant and Tom Woodruff Jr., the last of whom also wore the Pumpkinhead suit.
Its consensus reads: "With effects work and solid direction from Stan Winston -- and Lance Henriksen adding welcome gravitas -- Pumpkinhead is a creature feature that stands a cut above".
[13] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "As a technician, Winston clearly knows how to make a monster, but as a director he's yet to learn how to bring one to life".
[14] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote that the film has poor writing and acting, but it is surprisingly polished for a B movie.
[5] Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times wrote that, despite its poor writing, the premise is interesting, but it's not executed as well as Forbidden Planet.
[16] TV Guide rated it 2/5 stars and wrote that the film's second half becomes tedious because of its overdone slasher formula.
[17] In a 1992 retrospective, Jon Nalick of the Los Angeles Times described it as "a well-executed film in a genre that is littered with dimwitted slasher flicks".
[18] Bloody Disgusting rated the film 4/5 stars and called it "a gothic story of love, loss, vengeance, and redemption".
[23] Writing in Horror Films of the 1980s, critic John Kenneth Muir called it "a meditation on vengeance" that is "surprising and rewarding" for its rejection of vigilante justice, a popular theme in the 1980s.
Dynamite Entertainment began publishing a five issue Pumpkinhead limited series, written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Blacky Shepherd, in February 2018.
[32] In 1995, Electronic Arts published a first-person shooter computer game for Microsoft Windows called Bloodwings: Pumpkinhead's Revenge.
Sculpted by Japanese artist Takayuki Takeya (竹谷 隆之), the second kit was based on the Pumpkinhead sequel story written by Carducci and Gerani and published in the Dark Horse Comics series.