Director: Michael Gornick
Year: 1987
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Anthology
Plot:
Waiting to see the new Creepshow comic book, a young boy arrives when The Creep drops them off and begins leafing through the book, reading three stories.
Review:
Old Chief Wood'nhead-Running a general store in a drying-up town, a man and his wife are presented with a special gift for their services. Immediately afterward, a group of punks decides to rob the store, leaving the couple for dead. The Indian sculpture in front of their store, Old Chief Wood'nhead, comes to life and tracks them down one by one. This wasn't bad, and is overall pretty decent. The special effects for the statue are excellent, applying a 'wooden' body suit to make it move and act just like a wooden statue coming to life, having the stiffness that comes with a moving statue. It steals all the best scenes, especially the assault in the garage and inside the trailer park, which are both quite suspenseful due to its presence. The kill scenes also show some verve, as we get attacks by a volley of arrows, a swipe to the head with an axe, and a pretty nasty scalping. On the downside, the story is predictable, which ruins the experience a little as you know exactly what's going to happen exactly as it would be expected, playing out basically as a routine slasher film with the statue as the killer. It's quite obviously going this route, though, and it makes for a fun time overall.
The Raft-Heading out to an abandoned lake, a group of friends swim out to a raft floating in the middle for some relaxation. When a floating mass nearby takes an interest in them, they have to find a way to get away before it kills them all. The biggest thing with this one is that the blob in the lake is really cool. There is a lot of mystery surrounding it, and you can't really tell how it's going to end. As great as the mystery is, the creature just looks like a black tarp floating in the water. The deaths are wildly over-the-top, as the blob eats through their flesh, leaving a mound of bloody bones and melted skin. It has a lot of great suspense, and the tension in the second half, where the creature begins to break through the holes in the wood, is really creepy. The story moves along at a sharp pace, hardly ever slowing down, and is really entertaining once it gets started. This is the segment that features the most satisfying ending, and everyone gets their just desserts, featuring a twist that is the nearest the film ever gets to capturing any of the black humor that ran through the original. It's a really good story.
The Hitchhiker-Running late from a tryst, a woman hits a hitchhiker accidentally with her car, but fearing the repercussions, she takes off. As she struggles with herself for doing the deed, she encounters him repeatedly as he continues looking for revenge for her actions. The most interesting thing here is how hard the woman fights against the hitchhiker. She runs him over with her car, runs over him, and crushes him against trees continually. She does practically everything a human would really do in a similar situation, and it's quite fun to see them. The special effects in here did a very good job on the hitchhiker, as every time you see him, he's gradually gotten more and more mashed to pieces thanks to her repeatedly driving over him with her car until there is but a skeleton left. The longer it goes on, the more it becomes distorted and the more gruesome it becomes. However, the segment becomes so ludicrously overblown in the escalating wrecking of the car in attempts to dispose of the hitcher that it earns far more on the laugh scale than ever does for its scares. It might have been more interesting if they had played up how the mangled hitchhiker could have been a figment of her imagination. That really could've been played up more, rather than a few passing hints at it. Its biggest problem, though, is that it gets repetitive after a while, and they could have cut this segment down to keep it fresh. It feels like it's doing the same thing over and over, and could've been trimmed down.
Overview: ****/5
A halfway decent follow-up with some large nagging problems, there's more than enough to like here that it's a worthwhile and watchable sequel that doesn't hit the highs of the original. Those with an interest in the format, who appreciate this era of genre fare, or who are fans of the creative crew will want to dive into this one, while those who don't appreciate these factors should heed caution.
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