The Pumpkinhead franchise began with Stan Winston’s directorial debut Pumpkinhead in 1988. Winston, who is a genre legend in the world of special effects, helped create an incredible creature and world for what is essentially a straight-forward creature feature and revenge story. The seeds were planted for a much larger mythos, however, eventually leading to the introduction of other demons and monsters. Now below fans can see every demon in the Pumpkinhead universe explained ranging from the original movies to the later comics.
Inspired by Ed Justin’s poem of the same name, Pumpkinhead revolves around a literal demon of vengeance. In fact, the film’s original title was none other than Vengeance: The Demon. Eventually the title Pumpkinhead was chosen, giving the creature its name and immortalizing Justin’s poem as the calling card for one of horror’s most vicious and underrated monsters.
Of course, we’re here to discuss a variety of demons – not just the one. To completely have every demon in the Pumpkinhead universe explained, we’ll begin with the Pumpkinhead film franchise and later dissect the comics that were much more innovative and explored the franchise’s core concept by introducing so many more characters and demons to the plot. If fans have only stepped into the feature film side of things, they’ll be ecstatic to hear about the comics. For now, however, let’s dive into the films.
Every Demon in the Pumpkinhead Universe Explained (Movie Timeline)
The Pumpkinhead movies comprise a relatively straight-forward series. This is likely because after the original movie, budgets fell, and the sequels couldn’t support much more than the titular man-in-a-suit monster. In fact, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings was released straight-to-video in 1994. The film was largely unrelated to its predecessor, and as such, some fans even consider it a separate continuity. The next two films, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes and Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud, debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2006 and 2007, respectively. On the bright side, they were much more tied to the original film, and actor Lance Henriksen even reprised his role as Ed Harley having sold his soul and given his body to become Pumpkinhead’s next vessel.
For those unfamiliar with the original movie’s concept, Pumpkinhead is a demon that can be summoned by someone (or even multiple people) who want to seek vengeance. Those who summon Pumpkinhead will become spiritually tied to the monster, allowing Pumpkinhead to become immortal unless the person, or persons, who summoned the beast are killed. After the beast is destroyed, however, the person who sold their soul to summon Pumpkinhead must give up their body as the next vessel when someone else decides to seek revenge. It’s an interesting way of turning the titular monster into a physical metaphor for revenge’s never-ending cycle.
Outside of that, the movies are relatively light on introducing any other monsters, but there is one such addition in Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings. While the narrative is largely stand-alone, if fans do consider it canon, it can make sense. The film isn’t actually about the same Pumpkinhead from the original movie or whose lineage is continued in the Sci-Fi Channel sequels. Rather, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings explores the deformed and orphaned offspring of Pumpkinhead named Tommy. The young child grows up in the woods where a woman – and witch – named Miss Osie takes care of him. She’s separate from the witch in the original film named Haggis, which can cause some confusion, but it seems as though there are several such witches later introduced in the related comic books.
As for Tommy, he is eventually murdered, with the rest of the story taking place decades later. Tommy is unknowingly resurrected by a group of teenagers who trespass onto Miss Osie’s property. Her house burns down, leaving her hospitalized, while Tommy takes the form of his father – Pumpkinhead – and seeks revenge for her while also killing those who murdered him as a child. Eventually Tommy’s Pumpkinhead form is killed in a fashion similar to when his mortal body died, and the movie comes to an end. It’s an interesting story even if it doesn’t really coincide with the original film all that much. If Tommy is the offspring of the original Pumpkinhead and a mortal woman, however, then that would probably make him a “Cambion” which is the offspring of a demon and a human.
The demons featured in the actual films end there. Similarly, the straight-forward lore of Pumpkinhead is followed very closely in the incomplete Pumpkinhead comic book series published by Dark Horse in 1993. Fortunately, the property was revived in 2018 by Dynamite Entertainment with a new Pumpkinhead limited series. The five issues that comprise the series are full of mind-blowing revelations including the presence of all-new demons for Pumpkinhead to go up against.
Every Demon in the Pumpkinhead Universe Explained (Comic Timeline)
The run from Dynamite Entertainment finally establishes the lore behind Pumpkinhead and the meaning of the film’s original tagline: “For each of man’s evils, a special demon exists.” To coincide with Pumpkinhead, five new demons were created for the comic book run, all of which are guarded by their own witch. Haggis from the original movie appears and in her backstory it’s revealed that she chose to guard Pumpkinhead as a young girl. Her sisters are the other witches, almost all of whom were quite cruel to her, chose the other demons to protect and summon when called upon. This creates an interesting dynamic because most people are naturally going to summon Pumpkinhead for revenge than they are summoning a demon for pride or sloth.
The more organized mythos from this comic book series makes it easy to list each demon and what they represent. We’ll take a look at those characters while excluding Pumpkinhead who was already explained above and, fortunately, this comic book series is extremely faithful and accurate to the character’s lore as presented in the original film. Here’s the list of demons as summoned in the comic’s narrative:
- Pride
- Greed
- Envy
- Lust
- Sloth
Some of these creature designs feel more closely related to Winston’s design of Pumpkinhead than others, but they all shine on the page and no doubt would make for some great practical monsters if ever adapted to live-action. The demons are summoned in the story by the sisters of Haggis to kill Pumpkinhead. In their favor, they’re happy to do so, as the below quote from the comic confirms:
“Demons raised from sin! Kin, one and all! But not kin that loves each other,” confirms one of the sisters. “Yes! Yes! They can kill him! And what’s more, they want to kill him! Envy… That’s what drives them. They’re jealous of how often Vengeance is brought forth to roam the Earth.”
The explanation of their combined jealousy continues with a reference to their own lust:
“Lust. They feel it… A lust to unleash their hatefulness upon the world… But only their dear brother Vengeance is called upon so often.”
Fans may notice only five demons listed, and that’s because the sixth demon – representing Gluttony – is killed. A prequel story titled Gluttony reveals as much and gives a final explanation for the last of every demon in the Pumpkinhead universe. The story, further referring to the demon as “Excess,” tells a rather tragic narrative about the monster’s end. As it turns out, Haggis did have one sister that was kind to her, Mildred. Mildred was the keeper of this sixth demon until she scolded it for eating too much. She had hoped it would provide fatter hogs for the community. Her good intentions weren’t enough, however, and the demon ultimately killed her in response.
Haggis, being the keeper for the literal demon of Vengeance, used Pumpkinhead herself to kill Excess. The beast tried to eat Pumpkinhead when he was just barely summoned, but even that couldn’t stop our most beloved of the monsters. Pumpkinhead bursts through Excess’s stomach, killing him from the inside out. To continue her duty as Pumpkinhead’s keeper, Haggis offers Mildred’s corpse as sacrifice, leading her to become the next vessel for the demon and giving her more time to watch over the creature.
Now every demon in the Pumpkinhead universe has been explained. The other demons ultimately shared a similar fate, with Haggis killing her sisters who summoned them as a means to protect Pumpkinhead. Of course, those sins are never really gone, and it would be a great concept for a new movie to further explore every demon in the Pumpkinhead universe by utilizing these concepts. Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – Pumpkinhead is the greatest of them all.
