Reviews (8)

I Would Really Like to see it on DVD!!
I didn't read the Danielle Steele Book Changes but I saw this movie that is based on the book and liked it and I'm hoping that it will be transferred to DVD. Cheryl Ladd who I have liked ever since seeing on Charlie's Angels when I was a kid was very good in this movie and so was handsome Michael Nouri and I recommend this movie but think it should be on DVD! I'm also thinking of going to a used book store to look for the book so I can finally read it.

A Mother From NJ
This movie had everything in it. Cheryl Ladd made me laugh and cry as a mother of 2 twin girls who meet and falls in love with gorgeous Michael Nouri who is a widower with 3 children. The doctor played by Nouri and the newscaster played by Ladd were the typical couple in the end who had a hard time bringing to families together and then adding in two more.(They had twins in the end)

great movie
changes was a great movie.i watched it sevral times and i couldnt get enough of it.

Awesome book, awesome movie!!!
Very heartwarming movie, just like the book, no disappointments what so ever!!! Although the descriptions of the characters differ somewhat in the movie, the movie does not miss a beat and does not take away from the original story. A good movie to curl up on the couch to.

PAM DOES NOT LIKE MEL THAT MUCH
PAM DOES NOT LIKE MEL THAT MUCH/VAL GETS PREGNANT BY MARK AND MADDIE IS 8 HE IS THE YOUNGEST/MEL HAS 2 GIRL TWINS JESS AND VAL AND AT THE END SHE HAS A GIRL AND BOY TWIN BY PETER/PAM TOOK IT THE WORST WHEN THERE MOM DIED. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A starkly original visual treat, this Halloween-themed exercise in terror is uncommonly well made, seeking to add yet another creature to horror film lore. A group of teenagers camping in a remote mountain resort accidentally kill a boy and cover it up, and his aggrieved father (Lance Henriksen) vows revenge. Enlisting the help of a local witch, he conjures up a mythic demonic monster to kill those responsible for his son's death. The plot and dialogue are not very original, but the creepy mood and some fine work by director Stan Winston (the special effects whiz behind Jurassic Park) make Pumpkinhead an eerie gothic horror tale and great viewing for Halloween nights. --Robert Lane ... Read more

Reviews (65)

Sowing the Seeds of Revenge!!!!
Who couldn't use a pumpkinhead in their lives? I love the premise to this. A redneck has his child murdered by sterotypical teens and goes to the "old witch in the hills" for revenge. Her bright idea is to summon "pumkinhead", a hideous creature who literally feels the rednecks pain. It sets out on a mission of vengnece destroying the guilty parties with a ferocity not seen in horror films in a long, long time. The demon is cool. Theres lots of bones braking and suffering though little gore. So why only three stars? For one, the score is downright aggravating. I never want to hear a harmonica or blues guitar again! ever! Plus the screenplay is rotten. I found the characters to be painfully one dimensional. You really could care less if they all end up rotting in pumkinheads vile belly. You just don't "feel" this movie like others of its ilk. Theres a pretty cool demon in "The Unnamable" and that film is far superior to this. Still, pumkinhead has a pretty dark and sombre mood to it. If thats your thing, this movie could be for you.

An overlooked horror classic
Stan Winston, who is possibly the greatest makeup artist and creature effect artist ever, directed this unusually good horror film. Lance Henriksen stars as Ed Harley, a man who wants revenge against the city folk who accidently killed his son. He goes to a witch that lives near a swamp and she conjures up Pumpkinhead, a monster that will get revenge on the yuppies. However, Ed begins to realize that he has made a mistake, and he tries to stop the monster he helped unleash. Henriksen is unbelieveably good in his role, and it may be the best of his career. Stan Winston did a great job as director and its a shame he hasn't directed anything since. As with the original Halloween, Pumpkinhead is a horror movie that pulls off being scary and good at the same time without buckets of blood and gore being splashed every other scene. Highly recommended.

Full screen?
Oh dear. Buy the R2 release instead, it's in proper widescreen.

Much better than I expected.
I am a huge horror fan, but have found myself disappointed with many of the more recent horror films, particularly the garbage churned out by Artisan Entertainment. I hadn't heard much about this film prior to renting it. I was pleasantly surprised. The acting was above average and Stan Winston's creature was quite impressive. The film has one of the creepiest atmospheres about it of any horror film I've seen since the original "Alien." Lance Henriksen was excellent and believable as the vengeful backwoods dad. Particularly if you are a parent, you know where he's coming from. There was genuine pathos in the scenes that dealt with his son. And unlike most newer horror pictures, the film was actually scary! My one question is: Why isn't this superior horror film more widely known?

Surprisingly decent horror film
At first glance, you think this would be mediocre, right? For starters, there's the old "Oh we commited a crime we can't tell the police!" sort of plot. Also, there's the usual young-adults-being-killed-one-by-one sort of setting. However, despite all this, "Pumpkinhead" really does stand out among other horror films that have used this formula.

For one, Lance Henriksen delivers perhaps the best performance of his career. You really do feel a relationship between his character and his son, and you really can't hate him even after he chooses to unleash Pumpkinhead on the kids who killed his boy. Also, when Lance gives that one guy a death look shortly after finding his son dead...oh believe me, you will feel all the anger and frustration - and pure HATE - that he is feeling.

Pumpkinhead himself is impressive. As usual, there aren't too many full body shots of the monster until the very end, but that's fine. There are some indeed creepy moments as the monster stalks the "city folk" one by one, killing them off the minute one is seperated from the rest. He's not just an animal...he's a sick bastard! He takes the time to mutilate or torture his victims, making him even more frightening than the famous Alien. I might add the special affects aren't that bad; some people have made fun of the affects, but I was impressed - Pumpkinhead looks like a real monster.

To summarize, if you're in the mood for a bit of a chill, give this one a view. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Pyromania over the top!
The silliness begins in 1955 with newlyweds Brian and Peggy Bell undergoing a secret government experiment to give humans an increased resistance to radiation. As an unfortunate side effect, (don't all nuclear experiments have icky side effects?)their newborn child has developed the ability to cause people to burst into flame. Alas, Brian and Peggy are our first victims and our first hint that this is not going to be a special-effects masterpiece.

Jump to the present-day (late 80's) and our little firestarter is all grown up in the form of university student, Sam Kramer (Brad Dourif). Sam's opening scene is a school play audition wherein his performance is so pathetically bad that even his loving fiance, Lisa (Cynthia Bain) tells him not to quit his day job. If this scene was meant to ease the audience into Dourif's unconventional manner of acting by poking fun at him, it doesn't work, because we'll get to cringe a whole lot more as Dourif spends the rest of the film screaming and bugging his eyes out in an over-the-top performance that, for many other actors, would be a career-ending one. Even if this movie had a decent director, Dourif is woefully miscast and should really stick to roles that welcome complete psychosis like Grima Wormtongue (The Two Towers) and Piter De Vries (Dune).

Cynthia Bain doesn't fare much better, which is a shame because she does show some promise and is one of the better actors in the movie. Indeed, seeing her smiling face early on, while dressed in some attractive, if outdated outfits is one of the few bright points of the film. Unfortunatley, the screenplay soon has her bouncing between moderate to extreme hysteria, reminiscent of the closing scenes of Pumpkinhead, but without the believable motivation. It is actually a testament to her acting abilities that she can keep a straight, albeit tortured face through an increasingly ludicrous and muddled plot. In one scene, while driving her deteriorating, flamethrower of a boyfriend to the doctor, she has to alternately comfort and express her love for him while dodging the jets of flame shooting out of a hole in his arm. With driving skills like these she belongs in NASCAR, not this whacked-out flick.

If you think this sounds completely insane, just wait, it gets better - or worse depending on how you like your camp. After all, the words, "subtle" and "Tobe Hooper" are never found in the same sentence, let alone the same screenplay. As with Hooper's other works like Poltergeist and Lifeforce, the level of chaos and zaniness can only escalate, but in this case, on a very limited budget. Soon Sam Kramer is inadvertently toasting everyone around who even mildly upsets him - from a snotty radio producer (John Landis in a cameo role) to a friendly old security guard to an evil doctor/scientist who's trying to inject our poor hero with some green goo that looks fresh out of a cylume stick. All of this culminates in one of moviedom's most memorably silly climaxes that will leave you either laughing hysterically or uttering a very large: "huh?".

Bottom line: If you enjoy campy movies, Spontaneous Combustion can be quite fun at times. Unfortunately, the film is laced with enough seemingly serious acting and overtones to give the viewer the feeling that it wasn't meant to be funny. This, combined with a demented musical score and some seriously flawed writing make for an experience that can only be truly enjoyed by die-hard Brad Dourif (or Cynthia Bain) fans.

As far as this DVD version goes, the transer is very so-so and the only extra offered is a theatrical trailer. Blech.

CAUTION: Contents of this movie may be hot!
spontaneous combustion
Function: noun
: self-ignition of combustible material through chemical action (as oxidation) of its constituents -- called also spontaneous ignition

The thought of inanimate objects -- such as a pile of rags, or an old collection of tools -- spontaneously bursting into flames, is terrifying. Well, imagine if there was such a thing as spontaneous HUMAN combustion! Pretty scary, huh?

For Sam, it's not only scary, it's reality.

Sam always knew that there was something wrong with him, but he couldn't quite figure out the origin of his problem. After years of research, Sam discovers that his parents had been used in a number of atomic-weapons experiments shortly before he was born. The government was attempting to engineer the perfect weapon for war. When the project fails, the government hides all evidence of the project, and it becomes a tightly-kept secret.

Or did it?

No!

As a result of Sam's parents' repeated exposure to radiation, both of their genetic codes were changed, eventually being passed onto their first (and only) child, Sam. Because of the radiation running through his veins, Sam discovers that he has the uncanny ability to make things AND PEOPLE burst into flames.

Talk about getting "hot under the collar"!

"Spontaneous Combustion" is a masterful horror/sci-fi movie by one of the most talented filmmakers in the industry - Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Poltergeist"). ... Read more

Reviews (65)

Sowing the Seeds of Revenge!!!!
Who couldn't use a pumpkinhead in their lives? I love the premise to this. A redneck has his child murdered by sterotypical teens and goes to the "old witch in the hills" for revenge. Her bright idea is to summon "pumkinhead", a hideous creature who literally feels the rednecks pain. It sets out on a mission of vengnece destroying the guilty parties with a ferocity not seen in horror films in a long, long time. The demon is cool. Theres lots of bones braking and suffering though little gore. So why only three stars? For one, the score is downright aggravating. I never want to hear a harmonica or blues guitar again! ever! Plus the screenplay is rotten. I found the characters to be painfully one dimensional. You really could care less if they all end up rotting in pumkinheads vile belly. You just don't "feel" this movie like others of its ilk. Theres a pretty cool demon in "The Unnamable" and that film is far superior to this. Still, pumkinhead has a pretty dark and sombre mood to it. If thats your thing, this movie could be for you.

An overlooked horror classic
Stan Winston, who is possibly the greatest makeup artist and creature effect artist ever, directed this unusually good horror film. Lance Henriksen stars as Ed Harley, a man who wants revenge against the city folk who accidently killed his son. He goes to a witch that lives near a swamp and she conjures up Pumpkinhead, a monster that will get revenge on the yuppies. However, Ed begins to realize that he has made a mistake, and he tries to stop the monster he helped unleash. Henriksen is unbelieveably good in his role, and it may be the best of his career. Stan Winston did a great job as director and its a shame he hasn't directed anything since. As with the original Halloween, Pumpkinhead is a horror movie that pulls off being scary and good at the same time without buckets of blood and gore being splashed every other scene. Highly recommended.

Full screen?
Oh dear. Buy the R2 release instead, it's in proper widescreen.

Much better than I expected.
I am a huge horror fan, but have found myself disappointed with many of the more recent horror films, particularly the garbage churned out by Artisan Entertainment. I hadn't heard much about this film prior to renting it. I was pleasantly surprised. The acting was above average and Stan Winston's creature was quite impressive. The film has one of the creepiest atmospheres about it of any horror film I've seen since the original "Alien." Lance Henriksen was excellent and believable as the vengeful backwoods dad. Particularly if you are a parent, you know where he's coming from. There was genuine pathos in the scenes that dealt with his son. And unlike most newer horror pictures, the film was actually scary! My one question is: Why isn't this superior horror film more widely known?

Surprisingly decent horror film
At first glance, you think this would be mediocre, right? For starters, there's the old "Oh we commited a crime we can't tell the police!" sort of plot. Also, there's the usual young-adults-being-killed-one-by-one sort of setting. However, despite all this, "Pumpkinhead" really does stand out among other horror films that have used this formula.

For one, Lance Henriksen delivers perhaps the best performance of his career. You really do feel a relationship between his character and his son, and you really can't hate him even after he chooses to unleash Pumpkinhead on the kids who killed his boy. Also, when Lance gives that one guy a death look shortly after finding his son dead...oh believe me, you will feel all the anger and frustration - and pure HATE - that he is feeling.

Pumpkinhead himself is impressive. As usual, there aren't too many full body shots of the monster until the very end, but that's fine. There are some indeed creepy moments as the monster stalks the "city folk" one by one, killing them off the minute one is seperated from the rest. He's not just an animal...he's a sick bastard! He takes the time to mutilate or torture his victims, making him even more frightening than the famous Alien. I might add the special affects aren't that bad; some people have made fun of the affects, but I was impressed - Pumpkinhead looks like a real monster.

To summarize, if you're in the mood for a bit of a chill, give this one a view. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

FAMILY OF SPIES
IVE READ THE BOOK AND SEEN THE MOVIE ON TV,WHICH IS WHY IM PURCHASING IT FROM AMAZON.COM.

ITS GOT LOTS OF ESPIONAGE,CLOAK AND DAGGER SCENES,AND IT REALLY IS A DYNAMITE MOVIE. ... Read more