Creepshow 2
| Creepshow 2 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Gornick |
| Produced by | David Ball |
| Screenplay by |
George A. Romero Lucille Fletcher (uncredited) |
| Based on |
Stories by Stephen King |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
Les Reed Rick Wakeman |
| Cinematography |
Richard Hart Tom Hurwitz |
| Edited by | Peter Weatherley |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release dates | May 1, 1987 |
Running time | 92 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.5 million |
| Box office | $14 million |
Creepshow 2 is a 1987 American live-action/animated horror comedy anthology film directed by Michael Gornick[1] and the sequel to Creepshow. Gornick was George A. Romero's cinematographer on the original Creepshow. The screenplay was written by Romero, the director of the original film. It was once again based upon stories by Stephen King, featuring three more "Jolting Tales of Horror": Old Chief Wooden Head, The Raft, and The Hitchhiker.
Creepshow 2 was followed by an unofficial sequel in 2006—which had no involvement from Stephen King or George Romero—titled Creepshow III. Creepshow make-up artist and Creepshow 2 actor, Tom Savini, stated that he considers Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) the real Creepshow 3.
The cover of the special edition DVD released by Anchor Bay Entertainment in both the United States and United Kingdom is an homage to the Tales from the Crypt comic books from EC. This film originally had five tales scripted, like the first Creepshow, but two stories, titled "Pinfall" and "Cat from Hell", were scrapped due to budgetary reasons. "Cat from Hell" was, however, filmed for Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.
Plot
Prologue
A delivery truck pulls up to a newsstand in a small town where a young boy named Billy (named after and confused with the boy from Creepshow) arrives eagerly waiting for it. The truck's back shutter opens to reveal a sinister figure who drops off a package onto the sidewalk — the latest issue of Creepshow, much to Billy's delight. As the film momentarily turns into an animation, the package opens of its own accord, (revealing the cover of the comic is the same as the cover in the final scene of the previous film). As Billy begins to read, the delivery man reveals his true identity as the Creepshow Creep.
Old Chief Wood'nhead
An elderly couple named Ray and Martha Spruce (Kennedy and Lamour) in a small, fictional, southwestern town called Dead River, oversee a general goods store whose decor includes a cigar store Indian named "Old Chief Wood'nhead" (Dan Kamin) on the front porch. They are humbled to see their old, run-down town coming to a bitter end. The Spruces are then visited by a Native American elder named Benjamin Whitemoon from a local tribe who gives them turquoise jewellery, which are his tribe's sacred treasures, as collateral for the debt the tribe has incurred.
The elder bids them and Old Chief Wood'nhead (who nods to him, briefly startling him) farewell and returns to his tribe. Later that night, the Spruces are subject to a vicious robbery led by Benjamin's estranged nephew, Sam (Holt McCallany) armed with a shotgun, and his two friends, Andy and Fatstuff. After ransacking the store, Sam demands that Ray hand over the turquoise. The Spruces refuse, and are fatally shot by Sam.
The three thugs then leave in their car and begin preparations to run away to Hollywood, California, where the vain Sam expects to become a movie star, in part due to his long, dark hair. Old Chief Wood'nhead then comes to life after they leave, and goes out on a vicious warpath to kill them and avenge the murdered Spruces.
After brutally killing Fatstuff and Andy, Old Chief Wood'nhead corners Sam in his home, with Sam being unable to fight back as the shells from his shotgun have no effect on his wooden assailant. Sam attempts to lock himself in his bathroom and escape through a window, but Old Chief Wood'nhead breaks through the wall, grabs Sam by his long hair, pulls him through the wall, and scalps him.
When Benjamin Whitemoon wakes up in the morning, he finds the bag containing the turquoise jewellery by his side. He visits the Spruce's general store to find Old Chief Wood'nhead on his pedestal, holding his nephew's bloody scalp, a blood-stained knife, and fresh warpaint adorning the chief's face. Now aware of what has happened to the Spruces and what Chief Wood'nhead has done to the killers, Benjamin wishes the old warrior a peaceful afterlife and drives away.
Interlude 1
After reading Old Chief Wood'nhead, Billy is seen at the town post office, receiving a package from when he sent a product ad from his copy of the Creepshow magazine. Incensed by the skeptical clerk's dismissal of paying $9.99 for a toy from the "funny papers," Billy reveals that the package actually contains the bulb for a carnivorous Venus flytrap. The clerk doubts the actuality of the package and Billy sets off for home and the Creep presents another tale.
The Raft
Four college students, Deke, Laverne, Randy, and Rachel, go swimming in a desolate lake far from civilization. After they make their way to a wooden raft, they are terrorized by a floating black blob resembling an oil slick that grabs a hold of Rachel and consumes her.
The students panic. Deke plans to swim to shore so he can bring back help. But before he can, the blob seeps through the raft's cracks and pulls Deke through the raft, killing him. Randy and Laverne evade the creature until it gives up trying to grab them from under the raft.
Randy and Laverne are afraid to fall asleep in fear that the creature will attack. They manage to sleep and Randy is the first to wake up, relieved to find that he and Laverne made it through the night. He begins caressing Laverne's sleeping body and fondling her breasts. She awakes screaming in agony as the creature is revealed to have seeped through the cracks and has covered the right half of her face, much to Randy's horror.
As the oil-like blob pulls her off the raft and begins consuming her, Randy jumps off to swim to shore. He ultimately makes it, barely escaping the creature, and yells "I beat you!" However, the creature rises up from the water like a wave and engulfs Randy. It returns to the lake, with no evidence of the four students even visiting the lake other than their car. The camera reveals a "No Swimming" sign barely visible from behind some vegetation.
Interlude 2
On his way back home from the post office and reading The Raft, Billy is ambushed by a gang of neighborhood bullies, who harass him and take his package from him. The gang's leader Rhino then smashes and opens the package, finding the Venus Flytrap bulb, and throws it on the ground, crushing it with his foot. In retaliation, Billy kicks Rhino in the groin and flees, with Rhino and his gang in hot pursuit. The Creep then appears and presents another tale.
The Hitch-hiker
An adulterous businesswoman named Annie Lansing (Chiles) gets up from bed after sleeping with a gigolo, realizing that she has to get home before her wealthy attorney husband to avoid suspicion. Annie hops into her Mercedes-Benz 380SE and heads for home several miles away. As she speeds down a dark road, she accidentally kills a hitchhiker (Wright). Seeing that no one witnessed the incident, she takes off. Shortly after she leaves, the area of the incident is crowded with passersby, who report the hit-and-run to the police.
Miles away from the scene, Annie thinks about what she has done and the consequences involved. She ultimately concludes that no one has anything on her and thinks that everything will be fine. Before she can continue, however, the hitchhiker she killed suddenly appears outside her window and utters "Thanks for the ride, lady," a line he repeats throughout the story. Annie speeds off in terror, but everywhere she goes, the hitchhiker always reappears. She repeatedly runs him over, hurls him off the top of her car, slams his body into trees, etc. and he only gets more and more battered and bloody without dying. At one point he pulls up his sign, reading "You killed me". Annie eventually loses control of her car and drives off the road, down a hill and into a tree, knocking herself out.
She awakens a short while later, not seeing the hitchhiker anywhere in sight and believes it to be a bad dream. She gets back on the road and drives home, succeeding in getting there before her husband. As she begins to step out of her car, the hitchhiker appears from under her car, completely mangled from the trip, still uttering "Thanks for the ride, lady." He attacks her as she vainly attempts to fight him off. Later, Annie's husband—the same man who reported the hit and run—finally arrives home to find her in her car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning caused from her still running car and the hitchhiker's sign around her neck, with the sign saying "DOVER".
Epilogue
As the Creep is about to drive away, he spots Billy still being chased by the bullies. Billy leads his pursuers into a vacant lot swarming with out-of-control plant growth. As he rides into what seems to be a dead end, the bullies move in to pummel him, only to learn that the bulb they smashed was not the first one Billy had ordered, as a quintet of Giant Flytraps emerge from the surrounding weeds and devour the thugs one by one. The spectacle is witnessed by the Creep, who cackles in glee as he drives off in his delivery truck to deliver the latest issue of Creepshow to another town. In a post-credits scene, the following text appears:
"Juvenile delinquency is the product of pent up frustrations, stored-up resentments and bottled-up fears. It is not the product of cartoons and captions. But the comics are a handy, obvious, uncomplicated scapegoat. If the adults who crusade against them would only get as steamed up over such basic causes of delinquency as parental ignorance, indifference, and cruelty, they might discover that comic books are no more a menace than Treasure Island or Jack the Giant Killer".
Colliers magazine, 1949
Cast
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References
- ↑ "Creepshow 2". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
External links
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