Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Creepshow 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Featureless Creep

Reviewed by Michael Reuben September 1, 2013

Five years after the modest success of the original Creepshow, creators Stephen King and George Romero wrote a sequel—King supplied the stories, Romero the script—and turned it over to Romero's cinematographer, Michael Gornick, to direct. Budgeted lower than the original, Creepshow 2 couldn't match Romero's effects, and Gornick lacked his former boss's visual wit and flair for crafty editing. Still, the stories were clever enough and the fanbase sufficiently loyal to guarantee an audience in theaters.

Unlike the original Creepshow, which was produced in partnership with Warner Bros., Creepshow 2 was released by New World Pictures, which explains its tortuous history on home video. The rights have bounced back and forth between Image Entertainment and Anchor Bay. Image released the laserdisc, but Anchor Bay released the first DVD, with a few extras. Ten years later, the rights reverted to Image, which released its own DVD and, after a two-year delay, is quietly releasing Creepshow 2 on Blu-ray. None of Anchor Bay's extras survived the trip.

As with the first Creepshow, the sequel gathers individual horror tales within the framing device of the experiences of a young boy, Billy (Domenick John), who is a devoted fan of the Creepshow comic book series "hosted" by a grim reaper known as "The Creep". In Creepshow 2, however, The Creep is no longer a stylishly drawn figure in comic panels on which the camera's eye zooms in and out. He alternates between a live-action character (played by horror makeup legend Tom Savini) who delivers the comic's monthly issue to the eagerly waiting Billy and an animated cartoon, drawn in basic Saturday-morning TV style. (In both cases, the deep, mocking voice is supplied by character actor Joe Silver.) The Creep's patter and style anticipate the Crypt Keeper on HBO's Tales from the Crypt, right down to the bad puns. (Unlike the Creepshow films, the HBO series was based on an actual EC comic series.)

The film is comprised of three tales, although five were written to match the number in the first Creepshow. One of the unused stories became the "Cat from Hell" segment in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990).

The first story, "Old Chief Woodn'head", is set in the fictional southwestern town of Dead River, where the elderly Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour, in her last film appearance) have kept a general store for many years. Now the town is dying and largely deserted, and Martha urges Ray to shut down the store and retire. Ray, however, believing in the town, its people and its future, keeps opening the store and touching up the war paint on the huge wooden Indian that adorns the front porch. The figure is so real that it almost seems alive.

Ray has extended credit to most people in town. One day, Ben Whitemoon (Frank Salsedo), an elder of a local Native American tribe, visits the Spruces to deposit a collection of valuable silver and turquoise jewelry as collateral for their debts. Ben explains that this will make his people borrowers, which is a more honorable status than that of beggars. Ray accepts the deposit reluctantly, promising to guard the jewels with his life.

Shortly after Ben Whitemoon departs, three punks break into the store from the back and rob it. The leader is Ben Whitemoon's nephew, Sam (Holt McCallany), who plans to use the robbery proceeds to start a new life in Hollywood, where he expects his good looks to make him a star. Sam is aided by Andy (Don Harvey) and Fatso (David Holbrook, whose father, Hal, starred in the first Creepshow). In addition to cash and goods, they also steal the jewelry left by Sam's uncle.

Is it a spoiler to reveal that the robbers don't get very far? The title of the segment is a tipoff that the wooden figure on the Spruces' porch is more than he seems. Indeed, as Ben Whitemoon leaves the general store, the huge figure seems to nod at him. After Sam Whitemoon and his gang leave, it does much more.

The second tale is introduced by a portion of the framing story in which Billy receives a Venus Flytrap bulb ordered from an ad in the comic book. "It's a plant that eats meat!" marvels Billy. This leads us to "The Raft", a jaunty interlude about four college students driving to a remote mountain lake for a private swim and whatever comes afterward. Deke and Laverne (Paul Satterfield and Jeremy Green, a former Doublemint twin) are a good-time couple, who can barely keep their hands off each other in the car's front seat. Rachel (Page Hannah) doesn't look so glad she came, and Randy (Daniel Beer) falls somewhere in between.

When they reach a gorgeous mountain lake, the water is freezing, but Deke persuades them to swim toward the raft anchored in the middle. Randy notices something that resembles an oil slick, except that it seems to be moving with purpose, and he cries out to everyone to swim to the raft as fast as they can. Everyone makes fun of Randy, as the slick encircles the raft, and one of the group reaches out to touch it. That turns out to be a fatal mistake.

Thus begins a long day and night of terror, recriminations and increasingly fragile nerves, as a frivolous outing turns into a fight for survival. The "slick" (or whatever it is) clings to the raft and will not let anyone flee to shore. No one knows where to look for them. (This was the era before portable cell phones.) Does anyone survive and, if so, how?

In the third story, "The Hitch-hiker", Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles, Moonraker) is racing home in her Mercedes from an adulterous evening that ran late. She wants to be there when her husband arrives to avoid uncomfortable questions. Incautious and inattentive, she runs down a hitchiker (Tom Wright) she never even saw. With no apparent witnesses, Mrs. Lansing takes off into the night. Other vehicles pull up shortly after, and their occupants report the hit-and-run. (Stephen King has a cameo as a truck driver.)

But the dead hitchhiker keeps reappearing in front of, behind, next to, on top of, and even inside Mrs. Lansing's car. "Thanks for the ride, lady", he says in increasingly garbled tones. Each time he reappears, Annie fights him off, running him down again and again, and eventually wrecking the expensive automobile past the point of restoration.

Does Annie Lansing ever make it home? That would be telling.

"The Hitch-Hiker" is bookended by two animated segments from the framing story, in which bullies steal Billy's Venus Flytrap bulb, but Billy finds an effective way to get even, Creepshow-style.

Creepshow 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Creepshow 2 is something of a letdown after a long wait. The source element appears to be several generations removed from the original camera negative, because it's lacking in the resolution of fine detail, which becomes particularly evident in long shots. It has also suffered minor but noticeable damage in the form of speckles and small scratches. The image is unusually dull, flat and dark, even allowing for the film's low budget. One expects darkness in "The Hitch-hiker" segment, which takes place entirely at night, but the remaining two stories are set primarily in bright daylight, and even in them one strains to make out detail. The image does boast a nicely saturated array of colors, but nothing like the exaggerated neon-style with which director Gornick filled the frame when he was shooting the first Creepshow for George Romero. (The credited cinematographers on Creepshow 2 are Tom Hurwitz, who has since become an award-winning DP of documentaries, and Richard Hart, a gaffer and second unit DP.)

The image has substantial film grain, but it's not what anyone would call fine. The grain pattern appears to be natural and unmarred by digital manipulation, but the structure is coarse and is one of several factors suggesting that the source was a print or an interpositive. Grain is significantly heavier in sequences involving optical dupes, notably the animated portions, but that is to be expected. With no extras, the average bitrate is a healthy 27.98 Mbps, and the compressionist obviously needed the higher rate to prevent the grainy image from generating artifacts.

Creepshow 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

According to IMDb, Creepshow 2 was originally released to theaters with a mono soundtrack. Retailer listings indicate that both the first Anchor Bay DVD and Image's DVD were also mono, but the Blu-ray features a 5.1 soundtrack in DTS-HD MA 5.1. However, despite the use of multiple channels, the mix remains largely front-centered, with little sense of separation or rear channel activity. The main advantage of the remix is clarity and good dynamic range, especially for the atmospheric horror score by songwriter Les Reed, with contributions by former Yes keyboard player Rick Wakeman.

Note that, although the Blu-ray's back cover claims that English SDH titles are included, the disc has no subtitles.

Creepshow 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Like Image's 2011 DVD, the Blu-ray contains no extras. Anchor Bay's 2001 DVD contained a trailer and a behind-the-scenes still gallery. In 2004, Anchor Bay issued a "Special Divimax Edition" that added a commentary with director Gornick (moderated by Perry Martin); "Nightmares in Foam Rubber", an effects documentary featuring Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero; storyboard art; the screenplay via DVD-ROM; and trailers.

Creepshow 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Creepshow 2 is a reminder of how much fun the horror anthology could be when properly executed, but it pales next to both the original and the much better executed Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. Still, it has its moments, mostly courtesy of old pros like George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour. It's unfortunate that Image Entertainment could not find better source material, but until something better comes along, this is what's available.