Mark Turner I loved George Romero's CREEPSHOW. I was a fan from the first moment I laid eyes on the trailer. When it was released I was working as a theater manager showing the film and I would pop in to watch moments from the film when time provided. To this day I consider it a classic. Had it not been for the success of the film we might never have seen anthology shows like TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MONSTER or Romero's own TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE come about. When I heard back then that CREEPSHOW 2 was being made I was ecstatic. The end result left much to be desired though.Once more we're presented with tales to frighten straight from the comic book pages of Creepshow, a homage to the horror fueled comics of the fifties. A wrap around story involving a young boy who loves the comic and is tormented by bullies keeps the film moving. Add to that the Creep in the film, this time portrayed by effects artists Tom Savini rather than an animated dummy.The first story has us in a small town out west gasping its last dying breath. General store owners Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour) provide a helping hand to those in need in the way of store credit even though they could easily retire and live comfortable on their own. When a criminal Indian from the nearby reservation and his gang rob the store killing the pair it seems justice will not be served. But then they never counted on the wooden Indian standing out front.The second story is perhaps the best here, based on Stephen King's novella THE RAFT. Two young couples are headed out to the local lake with the intent of swimming out one last time to the floating raft in the middle despite the chilly temps of the water. Fueled by beer and false bravado they swim out completely ignorant of the large patch of something floating on top of the water. That is until they see it engulf a bird floating on top. When one of the girls is taken from the raft and eaten by this glob a standoff follows. The only way to get help is for one of them to reach the shore. But how will they avoid the creature? The final story here is about a woman having an affair who plows down a hitch-hiker on her way home. If she reports it or takes the man to the hospital she'll have to explain why she was driving where the accident occurred. Rather than do so she drives off hoping someone else will find him. Except that he continues to pop up, more battered and bloody with each appearance, always saying "Thanks for the ride, lady." Will she ever be free of this damaged image? The film ends with an animated piece featuring the aforementioned story of the young boy pursued by bullies on his bicycle. So how does the film hold up? It doesn't come close to the original. That could be in large part because the film went from a high profile studio like Warner Brothers to the low budget line New Horizons, Roger Corman's company. It could be because Romero was no longer directing or that King and Romero weren't on set daily to discuss the script they had written. In any case while a decent movie it placed side by side with the original leaves it lacking.And yet there is a legion of fans out there who love this one as well. For them the news that the film was being released on blu-ray by Arrow Video was a Godsend. Now they could have it in a pristine format to enjoy over and over again. And, being an Arrow release, you knew that the extras would be better than most and that the version offered would indeed be the best ever found. The film is presented here in a 2k digital restoration with original stereo audio. Other extras include audio commentary from director Michael Gornick moderated by Perry Martin, a new interview with Daniel Beer, a new interview with Tom Wright, and interview with Romero, and interview with Savini, a featurette with make-up effects artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, a featurette on Rick Baker, behind the scenes footage, trailers and TV spots and a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Mike Saputo.Fans have already been buying this one up like crazy with special editions that include a collector's booklet fetching top dollar. I'm glad that this version now exists but I doubt I'll watch it over and over again. It is worth watching once and fans will delight that they can have this version on their shelves now.

StuOz Five horror stories.Generally speaking, I don't review horror films but Creepshow 2 has a connection to a 1958 science fiction film called: The Blob. The blob came from outer space on a meteor and starts killing people. The film was later re-made in the 1980s.But forget both versions and just watch a chapter of Creepshow 2 titled: The Raft. The Raft is basically a "blob story" but told in a much quicker, smarter, suspenseful and sexier way. About a group of attractive stoned teenagers on a raft who encounter a creature in a lake. As is the case in these things, there is the rather dumb lad and the more intelligent lad who spots the danger before it happens.As for the other four chapters of Creepshow 2, well I did not really warm to them, but I am more into science fiction than horror, so I would not pay too much attention to that.

SnoopyStyle It's the sequel to the anthology series by Stephen King and George A. Romero. There are three main stories with animation in between. The first has Ray Spruce (George Kennedy) and wife Martha (Dorothy Lamour) as the owners of a tiny general store in the middle of nowhere. The wooden Indian has been out front for some 30 years. When the Spruces are killed in a robbery, the wooden Indian comes alive to right the wrong. It's a slow start. The tension isn't high. The Indian isn't that scary. He looks like a guy in makeup. There is no drama.The second story has four young people driving to an isolated lake. The water is cold and there's a blackish blob. It looks like an oil slick and the foursome gets stranded on the wooden raft in the middle of the lake. It is very simple and very effective. The special effects aren't that sophisticated but are also very effective. This is a much better section.Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) is cheating on her husband. She's rushing to drive home late at night when she hits a hitchhiker (Tom Wright). She takes off but gets haunted by him. Stephen King does some over-acting. Annie is not an appealing character and nobody should care what happens to her. The tone should be moody but it overplays its hand. The music cues are too loud. It doesn't work. This is basically one out of three. The animated connecting scene don't work either. The middle section is very memorable even after many years since I last saw it. That's not enough.

GL84 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.The Good Stor(ies): 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 decide 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 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 being 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 she continues on 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 Louis Chiles 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 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.The Bad Stor(ies): While all have their little problems, as a whole this one is decent enough. The biggest thing that these suffer from is an overall bored feeling. They aren't that original either, as there's been tons of stories out there with the same general plot as these and do it much better. Also quite hard to sit through is the wraparound segments, which are quite terrible, have nothing to do with the features being presented afterward, and have none of the style and wit of the previous entry. That also applies to the stories, but this one mainly suffers from the lack of creativity.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and drug use.