Creepshow 2 (1987)

   

Directed by: Michael Gornick

Written by: George A. Romero &
Stephen King (Story)

Starring:

Domenick John …. Billy
Joe Silver …. The Creep (Voice)
George Kennedy …. Ray Spruce
Philip Dore …. Curly
Dorothy Lamour .... Martha Spruce
Frank Salsedo .... Ben Whitemoon
Holt McCallany .... Sam Whitemoon
David Holbrook .... Fatso Gribbens
Don Harvey .... Andy Cavanaugh
Dan Kamin .... Old Chief Wood'nhead
Paul Satterfield .... Deke
Jeremy Green .... Laverne
Daniel Beer .... Randy
Page Hannah .... Rachel
Lois Chiles .... Annie Lansing
David Beecroft .... Annie's lover
Tom Wright .... The Hitchhiker

Special Appearances:

Tom Savini .... The Creep
Stephen King .... Truck Driver

Release Date: Theatrical: May 1, 1987

 

Rating:

 

The child named Billy (Domenick John) returns as he buys another Creepshow comic book presented by the Creep (Tom Savini).
He buys some buds which are supposed to turn into human giant eating plants to get even with his tormentors.
While he plans this the Creep introduces 3 chapters.

The first one is titled Old Chief Wood'nhead of a wooden Indian statue standing at a corner store that has a special power to come to life after two store owners are killed by a bunch of smugglers and seeks revenge on them.

The second chapter is titled The Raft of a group of teens deciding to hang out at a deserted lake swimming to a raft and find out that there's a deadly black blob around the lake that kills them off one by one and there's only one survivor left named Randy (Daniel Beer). Can he swim back to shore?

The third chapter is titled The Hitchhiker of a rich woman named Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) who has an affair with a male prostitute.
When she drives home she accidentally runs over a hitchhiker but doesn't report it.
Suddenly when she keeps driving the Hitchhiker (Tom Wright) keeps popping up saying "Thanks for the ride lady" leading her to her death.

 

An impressive beinning of the film there's a good moment with an eager kid whom is Billy Boy waiting for his package as well as spotting the Creep coming out of his truck to deliver the parcel to him as this works in perfectly for a horror anthology and more so than in the original flick. It suddenly starts to look clever when it suddenly turns animated as well as having the Creep introducing one of the chapters and revealing the comic book. Worked in greatly especially when it shows a coming book page of what we are expecting to watch here.

In the chapter Old Chief WoodnHead a nice camera shot on the wooden statue the indian standing in front of the store as well as an elderly indian named Ben Whitemoon walking towards the store and staring at the statue as there's a nice close up shots that teases you when it shows this statues face changing an expression as you think to yourself "Am I seeing this right??" For sure looked clever to your viewing here.
We have a setting with Ben acting generous towards a married couple owning the store named Ray and Martha with their happy discussions trying to make this moment look truly heartwarming before the nasty moments come in as this looked a little too obvious and set out too. However it does seem to work into the chapter nevertheless.
Things for sure look disturbing when we spot Ben's nasty nephew Sam Whitemoon and his goons come in afterwards and vandalise as well as rob the place which shows a perfect change of the couple being happy to feeling miserable as well as what happens to them making this hard to watch as well. Perfect psychological feels to all of this without a doubt. Nice close up shots on the discussions as well as the nasty and violent remarks.
Also a good shot on the statue making movements along with what it does as this for sure looked pretty amusing.
Perfect moments on this statue making it's vengeful moves on these criminals as we spot a good still moment on one of them named Fatso Gribbens enjoying himself by watching some TV and making smart remarks on what's playing as there's a killing moment that takes you by surprise on this moment which looked clever as to how it was put together.
Then with the other goon Andy Cavanaugh being pitted against this statue which reveals a shadow on the two of them as well as a shadow on the statue's axe swinging down and blood splattered against the wall which often works in a horror film without spotting anything too graphic.
A perfect shot on Sam being grabbed by the statue's hand crashing through the wall about to take his scalp which is of course a tradition for an indian when someone betrays them back in the good old days. This looked perfectly forceful while watching all of this happening.

The moments looked entertaining still with the Creeper still introducing the story as well as Billy Boy going to a store and discussing on a venus fly trap that eats meat which seemed amusing to watch for the anthology and wondering as to what he's gonna do with what he buys.

In the second chapter The Raft is my favourite one of them all as there's nice impressive cheesy discussions between the gang of teenage friends driving along in their car off to the lake as the atmosphere looked great as well as the surroundings on the great outdoors of Los Angeles.
Perfect shots on them swimming to the raft as well as some ducks being revealed devored by some gunk as well as good suspenseful shots on this gunk coming towards them plus a nice shot on Randy spotting this and telling his friends to swim faster knowing it's not good by what's in the lake which was a nice add on into the story.
A perfect moment with one of the friends Rachel testing her hands with the gunk as this leaves you a cringing feeling that this isn't a good idea at all. Also great effects when we spot on what happens as this looked totally terrifying to watch all of this happening and pretty gruesome to watch as well.
Perfect close up shots on this gunk climbing up from the cracks of the raft and dragging someone else down as this looked good and graphic which also should please the horror fans such as myself.
THen there's a perfect psychological feel to everything when there's only two people left on the raft holding one another and having to stay there all night fearing on what to do as this can give anyone the creeps imagining as if you were in that situation.
A good camera shot looking down on someone lying down on the raft as well as seeing their face turned and the gunk attached to her in which this looked horrifying to watch.
Perfect moment when the last survivor swims to shore trying to beat this thing as there's good shots on him and the object zooming in and just when you think he's safe on shore there's a great special effects moment with this gunk rising up which is a memorable moment to anyone who watched this flick. It looked incredibly well done.

Then later we get back into the wraparound story which looked more impressive as Billy Boy being pitted by his bike against some bullies as this for sure looked unpretty as to what they do to his parcel but yet a good self defensive moment on what Billy does to the head bully.

An impressive beginning in The Hitchhiker chapter as we spot a calm and mellow moment between both the character Annie Lansing and her lover after their affair in their hotel and getting ready to leave as well as having a good uplifting discussion as this all came naturally well together. All of this looked carefully focused and shot.
Perfect still moments on her driving in her vehicle at night and in deep thoughts as well as concentrating on lighting her cigarette as this leaves a perfect clue that something is going to happen while she's not paying attention to the road and it just does with good shots on her car swerving in the slippery road which looked incredibly suspenseful and hitting a hitchhiker as this looked perfectly brutal and seeing the results on what had happened.
More psychological moments when she is pitted to hitting someone and fearing she will go to jail and drives away as this looked perfect when she is in fear driving. Plus a good creepy distance shot on spotting the bloodied hitchhiker waving towards her and then a good creepy shot on him neaxt to her window revealing black comedy thanking her for the ride along with him up on the car roof trying to grab down at her as this for sure looked perfectly intense on how this was done.
Also great shots on the car going at full speed through a forestry area which is not pleasant to watch thinking that she's going to wrecjk her car but trying to find some way on getting rid of the hitchhiker as well as a nice shot on him holding sign telling her that she killed him which was an impressive and memorable moment. This character starts to look more gruesome each time as this was impressive for a horror flick without a doubt.
Then things look back to normal when she drives home as it leaves a perfect calm feeling and suddenly BAM it's not over as this of course is a tradition to any horror story and well put in.

Then we're back at the wraparound segment in which the animation looked incredibly impressive when we reveal on what happens to these bullies and then later on it goes back to looking non animated for when the credits starts to roll up as well as the Creeper ending the show which was impressive and perfectly well done too.

Bottom line is that I enjoyed this one a little better than the first as it had a better plot in each of them I found. Plus the stories were a little darker. Plus the film wasn't too long with less chapters as it's just plain and simple. Good special effects used and a solid movie all the way.

The acting is good just like in the first one. Joe Silver (The Creep) was solid in his role and was impressive with his ghoulish type of voice while introducing the chapters and getting just spooky and humoress adding great timing with both of these. He made a perfect Cryptkeeper type of personality but doing it in his own style.

In the chapter Old Chief WoodnHead, George Kennedy (Ray Spruce) always delivers as I've never seen him do a bad performance. He shows a good warm hearted type of behavior acting very happy and welcoming. He for sure does a nice job by acting upset later on when the teror strikes him as well as trying not to lose his niceness. Also does well reacting to being shot too. He was always a character actor and a good one too.
Dorothy Lamour (Martha Spruce) also shows a nice softness and great elderly type of attitude as the wife. She for sure had the right looks to portray this role as someone who likes life and was comfortable in her performance as you can tell. She also does well by reacting fearful when the terror happens to her too along with good shocked expressions too.
Holt McCallany (Sam Whitemoon) lived to play a thug in this flick and knew his craft by playing the leader of the bunch in which he was perfect by getting into your face. Also wwas great by spitting and getting aggressive just offering a nice full force to everything that he did. Does a nice job acting violent and obnoxious too. Yes he even had the perfect criminal looks too along with a believeable nasty sarcasm too.
David Holbrook (Fatso Gribbens) was perfect as the dorky sidekick thug in which he shines it off as someone whom is dimwitted along with having a geeky type of laughter as he seemed to know his comic side to the character. Plus had the right burly type of looks too. For sure knew his stuff by acting non serious but yet was good at being threatening too.
Don Harvey (Andy Cavanaugh) knew his stuff as the other goon in the film in which he shows a good sharp presence as well as having a good tough guy type of look and appeal to his role. Seemed to be right on the ball when the action starts as well as having a good slick type of attitude too. Plus was good with his icy and smooth talking too. For sure had a great thuggish presence within everything that he did.

In the chapter The Raft the performances in this one was half good in which we have a good brawny presence by Paul Satterfield (Deke) in which he seemed to do okay by having a macho, flirtatious and outgoing attitude along with having a convincing humoress and sarcastic type of behavior. Also shows alot of lifelike energy into whatever he did in his role. Had the perfect looks to all of this and made a good leader to his group of friends. Also does well hollering in pain by the end of his performance.
Jeremy Green (Laverne) seemed not too shabby in her role as she seemed to do not too badly freaking out when the terror was striking her and crying in fear as well as being perfectly alert when this is all happening springing to her feet a great deal. She studied it pretty good. Had some nice energy and enthusiasm for all of this. Does well screaming in fear at the end of her performance too.
Daniel Beer (Randy) seemed a bit low on energy in his role like when he was calling someone to swim faster to get to the raft but you could tell he really tried his best to pull off a character. He wasn't overly terrible but needed some improvements. Had the right looks for his role as a typical teenager but that did more of the talking. Showed nice energy when he was racing to shore though.

In the final chapter the Hitchhiker the acting was very natural in which we have Lois Chiles (Annie Lansing) acting happy in the beginning of her performance and letting her conversations going with the flow in which this looked well performed. Also good moments on her talking to herself while driving in her vehicle as this was a real attention grabber for what she was talking about. Also does great while reacting in shock as well as freaking out and getting upset as well as scared after she hits someone in which she made this look incredibly believeable. Plus was great by getting anxious and paranoid when she is harrassed as well as going crazy when trying to shake off her harrasser which she brought to a punch a great deal too.
David Beecroft (Annie's lover) brought on a nice charm and appeal into the story although he wasn't in it all the way through. Defientely shows a nice witty and outgoing type of behavior and focused well with the discussion he was having to his oinscreen actrress. Has the right looks to this as a heartthrob in the story.
Tom Wright (The Hitchhiker) was wonderful both acting comedic and scary with his annoying attitude just springing into action before your eyes and having a nice scratchy type of speaking wailing away while speking. He shows a ton of great energy and knew on how to act menacing within his blocking. A ture horror character.

There is a breast shot in The Raft as someone lifts up her top while sleeping.

People are murdered by the Old Chief WoodnHead as he shoots an arrow through someones head and offscreen he takes someones scalp.
In the Raft chapter there are gruesome murders as the blob eats the teens showing their skin ripped off etc.
In the Hitchhiker the person is run over in a gruesome way and when his corpse appears he looks very gruesome.

We have music composed by Les Reed with additional music by Rick Wakeman from the band Yes as he composed the keyboard playing for the Raft which is excellent spooky sounding and very dark as well as having a perfectly dark wavy sound to it which sounded incredibly effective. Also alot in the wraparound segments there's the high pitched quiverring icy sounds which works in well for what is being told into the story. In the first chapter Old Chief WoodnHead we hear alot of uplifting and heartwarming music suiting the beginning of the film as the composer did a good job following the first bit of the story and knowing on how to change it to aounding adventerous later on when the gangsters come in for the kill as well as the vengeful situations too. In The Hitchhiker there's alot of great suspenseful classical as well as other typers of sounds including the odd guitar strings which works in perfectly for when the hitchhiker is harrassing the woman driving which sounds perfectly strong in every way. It showed off nicely. We also have the original theme song from the composer John Harrison which sounds just as effective for this sequel.

Deke: I feel the need, the need... for WEED!

Rachel: [being consumed by a slime monster] Help! It hurts! It hurts!

Randy: It looked like it was going after the girls!
Deke: Aw, come on man, I thought you said you sobered up!
Randy: It looked like it was going after the girls!

Randy: [after making it ashore] I... beat... you. I BEAT YOU!

The Hitchhiker: Thanks for the ride, lady!