Directed by Michael Gornick
Starring Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour and Tom Savini
For some mysterious reason, I never got around to watching Creepshow 2 until my college years. The original flick is one of the most downright fun horror movies you'll ever see; all five stories in it are somewhat lesser degrees of each other, but the sum total is fantastic. Coupled with enough genuinely WTF moments to have you and your friends giving it some good-natured chiding (Ed Harris' dance FTW) and we're talking one of the all-time great party movies, brought to you by your friends Stephen King and George Romero.
Upon seeing the sequel for the first time, I actually liked it BETTER than the original. After some repeat viewings, my rose-colored glasses/nostaligia for my college days have been tempered somewhat, because there are portions of this flick that qualify as downright dopey. Fortunately, those portions are a little few and far between, peppered in between some pretty good atmospheric stuff. Well, except for the first story. That one is pretty dopey all around. With that, let's get to the movie. Much like the original, this movie is anthology to the core; three tales of terror, all held together with a wraparound story involving a kid reading a comic book that the stories come from. Just like the original, we've also got Stephen King as the inspiration, with Romero (who directed the original) penning the screenplay.
If nothing else, I've got to hand it to this movie as far as the sequence goes, because they lead off with what is undoubtedly one of the more tedious segments in any anthology movie I've seen in "Old Chief Wood'nhead." In it, we have George Kennedy as the proprietor of a general goods store in some nondescript Southwestern town that finds itself under siege from the local group of street hooligans, led by a man with the most luxurious mane of rock and roll hair I've ever seen. And folks, this section of the story REALLY drags; we get a long, not terribly tense series of events with Kennedy and his wife dealing with the thieves followed by the murder of Kennedy. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the store's resident cigar store statue has recently received a visit from a mystic Shaman, and I think you know where we're going from here. Anyway, this segment isn't particularly scary or memorable, and you're much better off skipping ahead.
When I was in junior high, "The Raft" was one of my favorite Stephen King short stories, and the film version that follows in Creepshow 2 is only slightly less awesome. The story this time concerns four college students who decide to go swimming in a lake that is far, far away from civilization. Great idea alert. Upon reaching the titular raft in the middle of the lake, they see a mysterious oil slick floating toward them. It seems harmless enough...until it absorbs one of them in its gooey mass, never to be seen again. This segment is everything that "Old Chief Wood'nhead" isn't, in that it ramps up the tension halfway through and never looks back, boasting this palpable sense of claustrophobia and entrapment at its core. It's also got some very nice titshots and one of hell of an ending twist an added bonus, so sports fans of the world take note.
The third segment isn't quite as strong. Entitled "The Hitch-Hiker," it's about - you guessed it - Frank Stallone. Nope, it's about a ghostly hitch-hiker, more specifically one who tails adulterous wife Annie Lansing (Chiles in a decent amoral protagonist performance) after being run off the road in a hit and run accident by Annie. To be sure, this segment is a little predictable and repetitive, but it's also got a lot going for it in the atmosphere, the ungodly creepy look of the reappearing hitch-hiker itself, and a pretty fun little cameo from King in the process. It's also got a line of dialogue that might just stick in your head long after the film's running time, but that's a different story altogether.
And...that' all folks, from there, we hit another segment of the wraparound story as Comic Kid's bullies get one hell of a comeuppance followed by the ending credits. Longtime readers (and savvy horror fans) undoubtedly know that the original Creepshow contained five stories, while this one takes the "lean and mean" approach of three stories. It turns out that the length cut was due to budgetary reasons, and I've got to believe that the powers-that-be were kicking themselves after this flick turned out to be a modest hit with a $14 million box office take from a mere $3.5 million investment. Come on, guys. Throw another $5 million at your movie and shoot for the moon. One of the planned stories, "Cat From Hell," would eventually be filmed for Tales From the Darkside: The Movie, so not all was lost. Still...man. Just, man.
Creepshow 2 is nowhere near the classic that it's original film is. Very few movies can top that one, both for atmosphere and for impact. Indeed, "Old Chief Wood'nhead" had this one limping out of the gate from the get go while the first film had us all wanting our damn cake already, but the movie manages to regain its footing pretty well in the latter chapters. In addition, it's also the only movie that I've seen that contains the moral lesson to not fondle a hotty coed's tits when attempting to evade a murderous oil slick in the middle of a lake.
*** out of ****. Skip the first story and you should be alright from there; otherwise, stick to Creepshow 1.
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