Horror Hound Magazine Issue 13!

On stands now, Issue lucky number 13 of Horror Hound Magazine! For this issue I was charged with writing a retrospective on the entire "Pumpkinhead" series, an assignment that I have to admit I wasn't so sure about at first.

The article was challenging for several reasons. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of the original. It has its moments and the creature is pretty incredible, but as a full film experience it just doesn't hold up for me. The first sequel, "Blood Wings" is an atrocious piece of garbage, but is one of my guilty pleasures due mainly to the bizarre PC game tie in that I owned in the early 90's. Then, there were two sequels done 2 years back for the Scifi channel. So, you can see my conundrum right off the bat.

What resulted was an incredibly honest article in which I try to praise the original for all of its accomplishments, while still trying to get across the fact that it was not a critical or commercial success upon its original release. Once that was out of the way, I went about being brutally honest about the three sequels, and tried to get to the bottom of why they turned out the way they did. I was helped tremendously by my interview with P2 director Jeff Burr, who turned out to be one of the most candid interviews I've ever done.

Two weeks before my deadline, it was revealed that Stan Winston, the original film's director and the ultimate father of Pumpkinhead, had passed away after a long fight with cancer. For obvious reasons, this made writing the article even harder.

So anyways, I feel good about it and hope you guys enjoy it. The other main articles in the issue are a retrospective on Michael Jackson's "Thriller", a look back at the legacy of Wizard Video, and the 20 most wanted horror films that are yet to be released on DVD. If you subscribe to Horror Hound through the site, you'll save a few bucks off of the cover price too, which is always nice. If you don't want to go that route, HH is also available in most major book retailers including Barnes and Noble and Borders. You just have to look close since they usually hide them behind the other horror mags.