With R. L. Stine being so prolific, it’s a surprise that we don’t see way more adaptations of his work. Sure, there’s Goosebumps and Fear Street, but this renowned author has written more than just those two series. A lot more.
For instance, his 1999 anthology book, The Nightmare Hour, provided the basis for one of the best children’s horror shows around. As of last year, stories from that omnibus have become the source material for a new series of movies. This includes Pumpkinhead, as well as its sequel, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2.
In the first movie, a folk horror-inspired plot to improve the town of Redhaven had been exposed; in exchange for a prosperous harvest, a child had to be sacrificed—turned into a “pumpkinhead”. To make that offering easier on everyone else, though, the victim was wiped from the townspeople’s memories. It was as if they never existed.
So although Sam (Bean Reid), the central character in Pumpkinhead, was successful in both saving his older brother Finn (Seth Isaac Johnson) and putting an end to the pumpkinhead ritual, he himself became forgotten. Well, by everyone apart from his two confidants: the sheriff’s daughter Becka (Adeline Lo) and an adult outlier named Rusty (Matty Finochio). The latter took in Sam now that his mother and brother’s minds had been wiped of him.
It’s been a year since the events of the last movie, and all but Sam is calm before Halloween. Reid’s character simply can’t accept that his family doesn’t remember him, and he’s insistent on finding the magical tome that could put an end to his ordeal. No luck yet, but that’s only because the book has found its way to another boy: a mistreated classmate named Evan (Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez).
As with the first movie, Pumpkinhead 2 has little to do with the source material. Even less so here, on account of Stine never issuing a sequel to his short. Jem Garrard’s own continuation certainly has nothing to do with “Return of the Pumpkinheads”, an episode from the Haunting Hour series. No, Garrard’s sequel is more high concept, even if it does end up like a mix between the Care Bears movie, Hocus Pocus and Stranger Things.
As sequels tend to do, or rather, they should, Pumpkinhead 2 aims for bigger and better. The stakes are raised, and not just for Sam. His emotionally stunted but likable guardian gets his own arc, and it proves effective. As for the secondary antagonist, who’s only outranked by the town’s curse, Evan is never fleshed out. He merely exists as a sort of sad parallel for Sam, whose own domestic situation could be worse. After all, he has someone like Rusty in his corner, whereas Evan has no one.
There is also an upgrade in monsters. While the last movie housed just the one scarecrow enforcer, Evan is assisted by a brigade of walking and stalking pumpkinheads. They’re still very much actors in costumes, but there is more effort in concealing that fact.
If you took a shine to the previous Pumpkinhead, its successor should also be to your liking. It’s more on the dark fantasy side than before; horror icon Cassandra Peterson is crucial to the story’s magic element. The sense of originality is a bit lower this time around, but even so, Pumpkinhead 2 is a fine patchwork of familiar and popular ideas. Plus, it’s never a bad thing to have more gateway horror.
R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 is now streaming on Tubi.
