Creepshow 2 (1987)
Directed by Michael Gornick
I don’t think I’ve done too many anthology movies, so when I saw Creepshow 2 on Shudder, I figured I’d give it a watch. The best part about anthology movies is that if one story blows, it is only going to be like 20 minutes long and a new one will start. The bad side is the opposite, you might love a story then it ends too quickly. The previous Creepshow had 4 stories, this one has 3, but are they as decent?
The first story follows an old couple that owns a general store in a dead town. The old man’s prized possession is a large wooden indian chief in front of his store. An old native american man comes to the store and gives the old man a bundle of jewelry from the tribes of the area to pawn until they can repay their debts. The old man reluctantly accepts and the native american man leaves. That night the native american man’s grandson and his two thugs show up at the store and hassle the old couple. They trash the store and rob the old couple. A struggle ensues and the old couple ends up getting shot. The gang takes off and the grandson shoots the wooden chief. Later that night the chief comes to life and hunts down each of the three thugs and kills them.
Not too much else to say about that one. The acting is pretty good, George Kennedy plays the old man and he’s as solid as always. The grandson was annoying, he was obsessed with his hair and that was all he talked about. Obviously the wooden chief scalps him in the end, it was telegraphed the whole way lol. The special effects are solid, especially on the wooden chief it was believable. The kills were what you expect really, nothing too great, nothing dumb. On to the next…
Segment two revolves around two dude bros and their lady friends. The four go swimming in a lake in the middle of nowhere. Once they jump in a horse around a bit they notice this mysterious blob coming towards them and they get on the raft in the middle of the lake. They think it is an oil slick but they are greatly wrong when one girl gets pulled into the blob and devoured. The remaining three scramble to find a way to escape and find out what exactly the nasty gook in the water is. Suddenly one of the guys gets pulled through the raft and devoured as well. The remaining two make it through the night and in the morning the guy decides to grope the girl, for whatever reason. You’re on a raft in the middle of a lake surrounded by a flesh eating blob and you decide to get it on. Makes me laugh really. Anyway, the girl gets grabbed by the blob and pulled into the water. The guy decides to take his chances and swims for the shore. He barely makes it to the shore and he starts yelling “I BEAT YOU” at the blob and it soon envelopes him and the segment ends.
It is rather simple and short but probably the best and most memorable of the movie. There are some dumb things like the guy groping the girl on the raft in the morning, but all in all it is a fun segment. The acting isn’t as strong as the Indian Chief but it is decent enough to keep you interested. The effects are pretty awesome, the scenes where the blob devours the people are gory and cringe worthy. The blob itself looks like a big garbage bag covered in puke and shit. I wondered the whole time why they didn’t just take their chances at swimming ashore, and man if I made it like the kid at the end I would have jumped into the car and got the fuck out of their instead of yelling at it.
The last segment kinda blows. We see a middle aged woman driving home at night on the expressway, when she accidentally hits a black man in a raincoat and kills him. She panics and decides to take off. Now her entire drive home she sees the man as his spirit attacks her saying only “thanks for the ride lady.” It is kind of lame and way too basic of an idea to last the time it does, which is around 20 minutes. I just didn’t care for this one at all.
Acting wise it isn’t horrible but the story is so lame, that I wasn’t interested. The special effects were competent and the black man deteriorates as the story progresses. I just can’t get behind this one, I just don’t like it.
It is hard to grade this as a whole, so the first segment gets a B from me. The second segment is a B+ and the third is a D. I can’t give anything an F because it was at least watchable I just didn’t care for the third one at all. I would suggest it even for just the first two, these are fun and it is worth mentioning the cool animation segments between the three stories.
