Hefty trash bag...scary!!

CREEPSHOW 2 (1987)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Horror sequels generally do not work. A sequel to a horror anthology can work because as long as the spirit and sense of macabre is intact, then you have creative freedom to come up with just about anything, free of formula restrictions. The fault with "Creepshow 2" is that the spirit and sense of macabre fun from the first "Creepshow" is missing and so we get yet another routine piffle of a movie. Someone call the Creeper and ask for a refund.

Three stories circulate this hastily-produced and edited mishmash of an anthology, unlike the first "Creepshow" which had five stories. First one works some of the magic of EC comics as it has George Kennedy as the proprietor of a general store that is losing business. He keeps the store open because he helps some friendly Native American folk who promise they will reward him for his generosity (he also keeps an old Indian statue named Old Chief Woodn'Head in front of his store). His wife (Dorothy Lamour) is wishing for retirement so they can live the few years they have left in peace. One night, three thieves decide to rob the store, kill the owner and his wife, and make off with the loot and head to Hollywood! Old Chief Wood'Head, armed with his machete, comes to life and exacts revenge. Nothing truly special in overall content, but the story moves along briskly and I enjoyed George Kennedy's brief performance.

The second story is the weakest and the most laughably stupid. Based on a Stephen King short story, "The Raft" has four younglings swimming at a lake, resting their laurels on a raft and smoking pot, until an oil slick approaches them and tries to eat them! This instantly reminded me of the atrocious "The Blob," only worse because it can't seem to take too long to swim back to land and outlap a floating Heft garbage bag! But there is always time for hanky-panky on a raft - a scene that screams the 1980's by way of "Meatballs" (to be fair, most of this is in the King story published in the "Skeleton Crew" anthology). This segment has about as much suspense as watching a Hefty garbage bag floating in the water.

The third and final story is superior to the second but grows wearisome. Lois Chiles is an amoral adulteress and housewife who is involved in a hit-and-run accident. She hopes it is forgotten since there are no witnesses, except for the hitchhiker himself she ran over! He is in relentless pursuit of her, screaming a lame line ("Thanks for the ride, lady!"), and this story is torpedoed by its own tediousness. There is nothing inventive or horrific about it, and it makes one yearn for the old classic "Twilight Zone" episode where a car pursues the hit-and-run driver. All we get here is Chiles looking uncomfortable and the occasional glimpse of a rotting corpse.

"Creepshow 2" has its merits with the old wooden Indian statue segment, and the sneakily creepy and eerie prologue and epilogue with the Creeper (Tom Savini) and a kid who is bullied and gets revenge with man-eating, well, I don't want to spoil it for you. These moments capture the black-humored ghoulish fun of the original "Creepshow." On the whole, however, "Creepshow 2" is neither ghoulish nor black- humored nor much fun, not to mention far less than creepy. It is as wooden as the Indian statue.