Movie Info
Movie Name: Creepshow 2
Studio: New World
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movies
Release Date(s): May 1, 1987
MPAA Rating: R
Worst…barber…ever
The Creep is back with a new group of tales to terrify and shock. He has the story of a wooden Indian out to avenge his owners’ deaths, a thing in an isolated lake lying in wait for victims, and a woman haunted by a hitchhiker she struck down in a hit-and-run. With stories like these, you might never sleep again.
Directed by Michael Gornick, Creepshow 2 is a horror anthology film. A follow-up to the 1982 film Creepshow, the film is based on stories by Stephen King and features a script by George A. Romero. The movie was met with average reviews and did not fair as well as the original film.
Creepshow 2 just doesn’t live up to the standards of Creepshow. While Creepshow offered a lot of variety, Creepshow 2 is overloaded with too many longer stories. Originally it was planned to also have more tales, but the movie was cut down for time and as a result, you get an anthology movie that runs the risk of having a story or two you do not like…in a smaller format.
She’s fine…just jump in
With three stories, you kind of expect them all to be good. Unfortunately, Creepshow 2 starts out with the clunker known as “Old Chief Wood’nhead”. While it isn’t an awful story (it does feel like an E.C. Horror story as intended), it just doesn’t have enough energy or pop…especially to start out the tale. It is too long, too dull, and not enough jumps. It would have worked perfectly as an episode of Tales from the Crypt when HBO started making that series, but here, it flounders and starts the movie off on a downbeat.
The movie does have some great horror. “The Raft”, which adapts Stephen King’s same titled story which was originally published in Gallery in 1982 and collected in Skeleton Crew, is quite scary. It has a sense of dread and hopelessness that I find terrifying. The creature holds the characters essentially hostage, just waiting for them to die. The story is similar in format to the 2006 novel The Ruins by Scott Smith which was also turned into a film in 2008. “The Raft” hits every mark of an anthology horror story right down to the end with a tongue-in-cheek moment.
Thanks for the ride, Lady!
The final sequence “The Hitchhiker” also has some good scares. Originally Barbara Eden was meant to star in the story but had to drop out leaving the role to Louise Chiles. Opposed to the other entries, it feels more ruthless and built around jump scares. The bloody hitchhiker’s classic “Thanks for the ride” line still is fun and good for a laugh.
Creepshow 2 shows a real downgrade after the fun freshman outing of Creepshow. The entry doesn’t have the style or class of the first film, but it gets close. I love an anthology film, but this just isn’t what I hoped for from a Creepshow movie. While Creepshow 3 (which is awful) was released in 2007 as a straight-to-DVD film with no association to the other films, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is considered the true sequel to Creepshow 2 since it had a lot of ties to the original Creepshow line (including stories that were meant to be in this film). In 2019, Shudder launched a Creepshow anthology TV series.
Related Links:
Creepshow—Season 1 Review and Complete Episode Guide
Creepshow—Season 2 Review and Complete Episode Guide
