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What’s the deal with this Creepshow 2? It’s not the one we wanted to talk about, but hell, let’s do it!

Creepshow 2! 

Movie Details:

• Release Date: 1987
• “Run”time: 1 hour and 32 minutes
• Where to watch it: Streaming
• Directed by: Michael Gornick
• Written by: Stephen King, George A. Romero, and Lucille Fletcher
• Starring:
  • George Kennedy
  • Lois Chiles
  • Domenick John
  • Holt McCallany

Synopsis: The Creep again brings you three tales of terror (hopefully) in this anthology horror sequel!

Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 5.5

Review: This month, we’ve gone through slashers, revenge movies, haunted houses, and torture porn. I think Kevin will agree that this month has been a real joy, experiencing all these different stories, to varying levels of enjoyment. In a certain way, this month has been one long collected anthology of stories that represent our love of horror, culminating in the end to the Halloween season. There’s an obvious reason why I shoehorned a ham-fisted reference to anthologies here: I love anthology horror. 

From the Twilight Zone to Tales from the Crypt, I’ve always been a fan of smaller stories told in a larger package. With anthologies there will always be stories that are more enjoyed than others, and that lets the viewer better define their preferences. 

For today’s film, we were originally going to cover the original Creepshow, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find it on ANY streaming service (without renting it). However, Creepshow 2 was readily available on Shudder. For me, Creepshow 2 serves the same talking points I wanted to address with the original anyway, so I was down.

The original Creepshow, co-created by George Romero and Stephen King, was an early introduction to the idea of anthology horror. The comic book aesthetic, reminiscent of classic EC comics, appealed to young teen Brandon. The reaction shots, hyper realistic uses of color, the comic book framing were all cool additions… They were a kind of reminder that this is all just a story, no need to fear.

It wasn’t until many years later that I realized there was a direct sequel. This time Romero forwent director duties but holding on to writing credits along with Stephen King. Whereas Creepshow offered five tales of terror, Creepshow 2 opted for three standalone stories, introduced to us by our host, the Creep (Tom Savini).

The first story, “Old Chief Wood’nhead” is about a man and wife shop owner in a small Arizona town, who are tormented by teens wanting to get famous. When things go south, the teens get their comeuppance by way of Old Chief Wood’nhead, the Native American statue from in front of the store. This is our intro story, and it drags a little. George Kennedy as the shop owner is sufficiently empathetic and kind. Holt McCallany as the leader of the vicious teens is hammy and unhinged (and loves his hair). The revenge Chief gets on the teens is fun when it finally happens, turning the horror into a karmic horror that EC and Creepshow are known for.

The second story is an adaptation of “The Raft”, a Stephen King story from his anthology novel, “Skeleton Crew”. I remember reading the story and being scared as hell of lakes (I think lakes are creepy as hell anyway). The movie follows along closely to the short story: four college kids swim out to a raft in the middle of a lake and are terrorized by a blob-like oil slick on top of the water. A big part of the scares here are about isolation and the impending doom of hypothermia or death by blob. The blob itself looks like a trash bag on the water, but when the flesh-eating effects start, it becomes more effective. 

The final story is a straightforward story about a woman killing a hitchhiker in a hit and run and being terrorized by the apparition. This tale is appropriately titled, “The Hitchhiker”. Of all the stories, this one comes the closest to being scary. As a Twilight Zone fan, the short reminded me of the classic episode, “The Hitchhiker”, though the supernatural twists are obviously different.     

All three of the stories are wrapped in an animated tale of a boy getting back at his bullies. The animation isn’t great, but it is fun to watch the karmic comeuppance happen in lieu of a higher special FX budget. 

As far as where this movie sits on the scale, it’s no Creepshow. Although I do enjoy watching it, it took me multiple views to appreciate it for what it is. For Creepshow sequels, I tend to consider the spiritual sequel Tales from the Darkside: The Movie a far superior movie. In fact, one of the stories included in TftD was “The Cat” which was originally meant to be in Creepshow 2 but was cut because of budget constraints. 

Though yes, I do like this movie, I must be honest with its rating. I LOVE anthology horror and I am inclined to like this one, but if this was anyone’s first foray into this genre, they might be turned off. But like this month of horror films, if we collected all the anthology horror films out there together, someone might like this better than, say, the abomination that is Creepshow 3. Anthologies help us refine our likes and dislikes and ultimately our preference for the types of stories we consume.

KEVIN’S THOUGHTS: I didn’t like Creepshow 2 as much as the original. Aside from The Raft, I felt the stories were not as well done. This is just another example of a sequel that does not build upon or live up to the original.

Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 5 (If not for The Raft, it’d be a 3)

Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage! 
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!