The Rites of Exorcism - The Metamorphosis
Hello fellow Pumpkinhead fans, as you may or may not know back in 1993 the Comic Book Company "Dark Horse Comics" obtained the rights to produce a Pumpkinhead mini series titled Pumpkinhead The Rites of Exorcism. This was to be written by Gary Gerani and Mark Patrick Carducci (the original writers/creators) and run for four issues, but only two ever saw the light of day thus leaving us to wonder just how the story was intended to end.
All was not lost however for the conclusion found it's way into some of our hands via an instructional booklet packed in with GEOmetric Design's Pumpkinhead The Metamorphosis Model Kit. This kit has become very hard to find and can be a bit costly, so I've taken it upon myself to write a copy of the stories conclusion here for anyone who may be interested. I realize I may be wasting my time and that's fine, but maybe some of you might enjoy this story as IMO it adds some interesting elements to the Pumpkinhead myths.
I would also like to point out that I in no way claim to own any rights to Pumpkinhead or this story. Okay, lets get started..........
Pumpkinhead The Metamorphosis (How The Original Writers Hatched a Winged Incarnation of Their Screen Demon)
By Gary Gerani
Right after we finished the first Pumpkinhead screenplay, Mark Patrick Carducci and I began concocting a sequel. Pumpkinhead II: The Rites Of Exorcism was essentially a Romeo and Juliet type story, with the beautiful young protege of Haggis the Witch torn between he occult obligations and her love for a doctor's son from a nearby town. When tragedy strikes, another avenging Pumpkinhead demon is invoked. Only this time, do to the intervention of a mysterious stranger (an Ahab like Pumpkinhead hunter) the invoker would be spared Lance Henrikson's gruesome fate.
Although the eventual movie sequel utilized a different plot (mark and I wound up being Creative Consultants and rewrote the final shooting script), Dark Horse Comics became interested in developing Pumpkinhead as part of their Stan Winston inspired line, alongside ALIENS and PREDATOR. Conveniently , the RITES OF EXORCISM screen treatment adapted perfectly into the comic book medium. But, because of the cost of the license, lack of promotion and the inability of the artist to finish his work on schedule, the 4-issue comic book series was aborted mid-way. The big surprise of the final issue (PUMPKINHEAD sprouts wings!) would never see the light of day, except in the form of this magnificently sculpted model kit.
Which gave GEOmetric Desighn's George Stephenson a nifty idea: why not use the kit's instruction booklet to reveal the remainder of the story? And why not get the original creators to write the material?
So, for the benefit of loyal Pumpkinhead fans who enjoyed the first two chapters, we present the second half of our story But first, a summary of Chapters One and Two.
CHAPTER ONE:
Haggis the Witch is dying, Her successor is a beautiful young mountain girl named Mariah, who is torn between her occult obligations and her love for David Pierce, the young son of a Doctor who lives in a nearby town called Pine Falls. Disobeying his father, David makes plans to run off with Mariah just as a mysterious stranger arrives in town, This is Angus Brenner, a haunted, Captain Ahab like character who is investigating the recent death of Ed Harley (played by Lance Henrikson in the first film). Brenner knows that Harley invoked a Pumpkinhead demon and seeks the medium Haggis. Meantime, Mariah agrees to run away with David but alters her plans when she finds the old Witch dead. At the funeral, Mariah - now the spiritual leader of her mountain enclave confidentially puts some misfit trouble makers in their place and lights the funeral pyre. Dramatically, the souls of Haggis victims are released within the bellowing smoke....
CHAPTER TWO:
Waiting to meet David, Maria is assaulted and accidentally murdered by the troublemakers she thwarted at the funeral. These young delinquents are: Tommy Joe, the leader; right hand man Stroud; and Jabez and Willa, brother and sister. David finally shows up, finds Mariah's body and is overwhelmed with grief. He remembers the Pumpkinhead ritual his beloved once explained to him...and invokes the demon himself. With sadistic glee, the fully-formed Pumpkinhead hunts and savagely murders Tommy Joe, then set out for the others Meanwhile, Angus Brenner finds the unconscious David and returns him to his father. He then explains to the two of them the exact nature of their dilemma. David has invoked a demon to murder in his name, which is the equivalent of selling one's soul to the devil. But there is a way out for our tragic Romeo. Armed with special knowledge and a lance soon to be blessed by the village priest, Angus, David and DR. Pierce prepare to "spit in the devil's eye."
THE CONCLUSION:
Stroud and the younger troublemaker, Jabez, are at Stroud's house; they don't know where 16 year old Willa has disappeared to. Both fear the consequences of Tommy Joe's crime. Panicked, Jabez swings open the front door and there, suspended by tendrils of hair, is the decapitated head of Tommy Joe! The terror stricken boy bolts and disappears into the woods as Stroud rushes over and gets a good look at Pumpkinhead's handiwork. He doesn't realize it was the demon that killed his best friend; he thinks it's some crazy enclavers out for revenge. So he races to the authorities, tells them about Tommy Joe's crime. and begs them for protection.
The sheriff locks up Stroud and sets out to retrieve Mariah's body. Meantime, Pumpkinhead has followed Stroud to the police station. The demon creature emerges from the forest and strides across the highway, directly toward it's quarry. As the monster approaches, a car swerves off the road and crashes into a telephone pole. Inside the police station, lights flickers. The deputy, locking up Stroud hears the car crash. He glances out a window and sees Pumpkinhead advancing! As a supernatural tornado blast into the outer office, he pulls out his gun, backs up and aims. The creature enters, looking for Stroud. The deputy fires several times; no effect. Then Pumpkinhead grabs the hapless officer and sends him hurtling through a nearby window. As the demon enters the cell area of the police station, Stroud is hysterical. Cringing in the corner of an adjacent cell is an old drunk, who watches disbelievingly as the shadow of Pumpkinhead passes by....
A couple blocks away, Angus, Dr. Pierce and David are approaching the town church when David is jolted by a seizure. Through blurry vision he perceives Stroud in the jail cell, crazed with terror as Pumpkinhead looms up in front of the bars. Dr. Pierce takes his son's hand, giving him strength, then looks to Angus. The demon hunter knows full well what the seizure indicates....
Inside the cell block, the demon sneers sadistically. It rips the cell door apart as Stroud desperately yanks at the bars embedded in his window. Hopeless, he falls back, cringing like a trapped animal as Pumpkinhead draws nearer. Then the monster glances at the window with which Stroud was so preoccupied and a sick, whimsical idea occurs to him. Pumpkin grabs his victim by the hair and savagely slams Stroud's head directly into the window bars. It explodes like a pulpy tomato.
Outside, David's seizure is over... Angus and Dr. Pierce help David to his feet. Father Gibbon, the local priest, rushes over to help them. They hear a loud noise, and Angus points to the station house. Emerging from the just-demolished side of the building is Pumpkinhead, stalking forward. Just then, the sheriffs car pulls up but before he and his deputies even realize whats going on, the creature has jumped on the roof of the vehicle. The lawmen fire point blank at Pumpkinhead, its arms outstretched mockingly. Suddenly, the creature jumps down, upends the squad car and sends it hurtling atop his attackers, killing them instantly. Pumpkinhead sprints away, back into the woods.
Inside the church, Father Gibbon blesses Angus's lance; the harpoon-like weapon looks formidable, especially in Angus's powerful hands. A guilt-ridden David is consoled by his father, who apologizes for not believing him and taken the time to understand him. David admits that his father was right, that he's always run away from trouble and rationalized his cowardice.
"I know what I have to do now" the young man grimly proclaims. "There's only one way to end this nightmare...."
"If you mean to take your own life, forget it" Angus interrupts, "there's another way"
"Can't you understand?! Because of me, people are getting slaughtered ....innocent people, just for getting in its way!"
"Damning yourself to hell, David, won't change that," Angus insists.
"I don't care! Look, you don't know what this is like."
But Angus does know. "I was like you....once" he tells David. "I invoked the creature to avenge the death of someone I loved very dearly. I experienced the killings, the torturing, the agony.... but I survived. And I became something better than I was...."
Just then, Father Gibbon tells the trio that there is someone they should see, someone who has taken refuge in the church since earlier that evening. David's guilt intensifies as he looks up and makes eye contact with Willa, the priest guest, who has completely shut off her emotions since Mariah's murder.
Angus confirms that taking refuge in a holy place can throw Pumpkinhead "off the sent," for awhile at least. They decide to use this to their advantage. David and Willa are to remain in the church while Angus and Dr. Pierce drive out to the hills near the enclave. There, they will prepare for a final confrontation with the the demon. As this plan is set in motion, they wonder what has happened to poor Jabez....
Out in the woods, shielded by a giant boulder, Jabez cringes in the darkness, half mad with fright. He hears what sounds like Stroud's voice calling to him. Confused, he emerges and looks about. Directly above him, reclining on the boulder, is the perversely nonchalant form of Pumpkinhead, who gestures with is elongated finger for Jabez to "come Here." Jabez shrieks, runs madly through the woods, falls down, picks himself back up again, and runs until finally....he reaches the lake. As the physic winds pick up momentum behind him, Jabez realizes he has nowhere to run; he dives into the frigid water and swims for all he's worth. He hears the monster emerging from the woods and glaces back to the shore. Pumpkinhead doesn't seem so confident now. He takes a step into the water and recoils, then stares directly at Jabez with a frustrated animal snarl. The boy over joyed at this temporary reprieve, slaps the water furiously and swims deeper into the lake. After a few minutes, he stops and looks behind him again. Inexplicably, the demon has vanished! Jabez isn't sure what this means but he resumes his swimming, though a bit more cautiously....
Jabez can see the shoreline several yards away from him as he continues his rhythmic stroke to safety. Escape is only seconds away when a sharp-taloned, leathery hand grabs one of his legs, pulling the teenager several feet to the lake's bottom. Then Pumpkinhead lets go and Jabez rises to the surface and continues his frantic swimming. It's a cruel and tortuous exercise as the boy realizes the demon can swim; the demon was being playfully sadistic in giving him false hope.
Finally, terrified and out of breath, Jabez pulls himself onto the shore and nearly collapses from his exertions. When he tries to get up, Pumpkinhead's huge, demonic foot pins him down. The monster is now all over the boy, who is squirming on the ground like a fish out of water. The demon wrenches off one of Jabez's arms and tosses it over his shoulder, into the lake, Then he tears off the other arm, bends down beside his furiously thumping victim ans observes with sadistic interest, Jabez's worm-like "dance of death" When his demonic interest wanes, Pumpkinhead kills the boy by stomping a clawed foot on his head....crushing it like a cantaloupe.
Back in town, at the church, David reels back, caught in the grip of another psychic seizure, unnoticed by Father Gibbon who is saying a prayer in an adjoining room. But Willa notices. She sees David, torn between his guilty conscience and the instinct for survival, remove a dagger from his jacket. She stops the young man just as he appears on the verge of using it on himself. Willa nods "no" to him and looks deeply into hi eyes. This simple gesture has a profound effect on his decision to go on living.
Deep in the woods near the enclave, Angus Brenner outlines his attack plan. They will dig a pit, sprinkle it with holy water, and then camouflage it; Willa will serve as bait. Once the demon falls into the pit and is momentarily caught off guard, Angus will hurl the lance and, hopefully, slay the fearsome creature. Surprisingly, Mariah's parents and some of the other enclavers show up and offer to help with the digging of the pit. Angus and Dr. Pierce are grateful for their assistance.
Back in town, Pumpkinhead has finally sensed where Willa is hiding and begins to stalk toward the church. Father Gibbons shoves Willa and David out of the back door of the church and elects to stay behind to face the demon and, hopefully, to detain him. David and Willa scramble into a car and speed toward the trap Angus is setting.
Father Gibbon is facing the church alter and midway through a ritual of prayer when the psychic turbulence becomes audible. The demonic storm grows increasingly louder when, finally, Pumpkinhead crashes through the church doors. Looking about defiantly, the demon enters and cautiously stalks down the aisle. Only a few feet from the alter, he recoils as the priest turns, faces him and continues to pray aloud, The creature seethes with anger, feeling trapped by the hostile environment. With a dramatic swipe of its sinewy arm, Pumpkinhead smashes a nearby window and makes his escape, climbing up the side of the building....
In the woods near the enclave, the pit is almost completed. David and Willa arrive skidding to a halt at the site. Dr,Pierce is greatly relieved to see his son, and the two men embrace. The final preparations are made....
The woods are uncommonly still this night. The enclavers have left, choosing to stay as far away from the demon as possible. Only Willa (positioned in front of the pit), David, Dr. Pierce and Angus Brenner remain. As they await Pumpkinhead's arrival, David asks Angus about his own experiences with demons such as this one. The demon-hunter solemnly explains how a bullet intended for him killed his beloved wife. After the enraged Angus invoked the demon, it was his brother, a priest, who helped him remove the curse. Angus survived, but his brother was killed in the final confrontation with the demon. Now, Angus has made it his life's mission to help others who were overcome by grief, those who had made a tragic mistake like his. This, he said, was his way of atoning, and David could see the wisdom in it.
As Angus's tale concludes, the approaching psychic storm is heard. As the demon nears, the storm's electrical fury is not only heard, but seen in the deep dark of the forest. David sees his father and Angus each mouthing a silent prayer and the young man sees the wisdom in this, too. Nevertheless, the eyes of the older men read grim determination; Willa's eyes convey a paralyzing fear.
Finally, Pumpkinhead arrives in the clearing and faces Willa. He impatiently stalks toward the terrified woman. And, just as planned, he falls headlong into the trap. From within the pit,the demon is heard flailing about and howling in fury. As Angus prepares to hurl the lance at the creature, like the maniacal Captain Ahab harpooning Moby Dick, Pumpkinhead continues to flail about helplessly. Suddenly, something extraordinary happens! Pumpkinhead's bone-like shoulder blades crack, expand, and sprout huge leathery wings. Everyone, even Angus, is paralyzed by this unexpected metamorphosis. A windstorm of dirt blown from the pit temporarily blinds Angus and he drops the lance. Pumpkinhead flies out of the trap in an explosion of debris, its huge wings pounding the night air.
Confusion reigns as Angus is snatched to the tree tops by the savage, taunting demon, who playfully threatens to drop him to certain death below. Meanwhile, David (like Ed Harley in the first film) has taken on the features of the demon Willa backs away in fear and Dr. Pierce doesn't know what to do.
Finally, Pumpkinhead slams the helpless Angus against a boulder and is about to tear the man to pieces. But David, thinking fast, pulls out his dagger and, much to his father's horror, plunges the weapon into his own arm. Pumpkinhead screams in agony (anything David feels, the demon feels, too). Sensing danger, the creature abandons Angus and focuses its attention elsewhere.
Pumpkinhead, who has now taken on some of David's features, lands in front of his alter ego and begins to advance. David, still possessed, tells Willa to get behind him. He takes the dagger and prepares to use it on himself. The demon, sensing its inevitable victory hisses a sneer at the young man. But, victory will not be visited upon Pumpkinhead this night. Dr. Pierce grabs the lance and with maximum effort hurls the weapon at the monster. The lance strikes a seemingly mortal blow to the demon and drives it to the ground. This exertion is not without its price as the older man collapses in a heap holding his chest. David immediately rushes to his father's side, takes his head in his hands and looks deeply into his eyes, David's eyes still show signs of possession but are nonetheless filled with tears.
Pumpkinhead squirms, still alive but pinned to the ground by the lance. A grim Angus Brenner has recovered himself and is determined to end this conflict once and for all. He plunges the lance even deeper into the monster. Pumpkinhead howls and grabs Angus's shirt. But before his advantage is lost, the demon-killer pulls the lance out of the creature's chest and, like an avenging knight, slashes off the demon's head. Pumpkinhead is dead.
David's eyes returns to normal as he holds his fathers head in his hands, Dr. Pierce smiles, knowing his son has escaped eternal damnation....then he dies in his son's arms. Angus Brenner, relating to David's loss,walks over and places his hand on the young man's shoulder; Willa looks on wide-eyed as seconds later, the head of the demon self-incinerates....
Days later, the solemn figures of Angus Brenner, David and Willa pay silent tribute at Dr. Pierce's grave. And, as David and Willa leave the grave site and Pine Falls, like Angus, they leave older and wiser than their years.
END
And there you have it, the conclusion to PUMPKINHEAD: THE RITES OF EXORCISM. I hope you enjoyed it. I know the summaries for chapters 1 and 2 don't go into much detail so I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
I'm a big Pumpkinhead fan and have quite a few interviews/articles and some scripts in my collection so I'll probably be sharing more stuff here in the future.
Cheers
🎃