Post by slayrrr666 on Apr 10, 2008 10:10:10 GMT -5
“Creepshow 2” is a decent enough anthology series that’s got it’s own set of flaws.
**SPOILERS**
Waiting to see the new Creepshow comic book, young Billy, (Domenick John) arrives when The Creep, (Tom Savini) 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, Ray Spruce, (George Kennedy) and Martha Spruce, (Dorothy Lamour) are presented with a special gift for their services. Immediately afterward, Sam Whitemoon, (Holt McCallany) Fatso Gribbens, (David Holbrook) and Andy Cavanaugh, (Don Harvey) 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. It even creaks, too. It steals all the best scenes, especially the assault in the garage and inside the trailer park, which are both quite suspenseful due to it’s presence. The kill scenes also show some verve, as we gets 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 kinda predictable, which ruins the experience a little as you know exactly what's gonna happen. It’s basically a routine slasher film with the statue as the killer, and it plays out exactly as it would be expected.
The Raft-Heading out to an abandoned lake, Randy, (Daniel Beer) Deke, (Paul Satterfield) Laverne, (Jeremy Green) and Rachel, (Page Hannah) 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 blob in the lake is kinda cool. There is a lot of mystery surrounding it and you can’t really tell how it’s gonna end. As great as the mystery is, the creature just looks like a black tarpaulin 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, Annie Lansing, (Lois Chiles) hits a hitchhiker, (Tom Wright) 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. 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. Every time you see him, he’s gradually got 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. It’s 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 it 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.
The Final Verdict: While suffering from creativity and the lack of style from the others, this is still a lot of fun and an overall decent enough film. It’s not as great as the first one, but there’s enough good stuff to give it a look if it appeals to you.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and drug use
