Creepshow 2 is an American horror comedy anthology film directed by Michael Gornick, who was George A. Romero's cinematographer on the original Creepshow. Released in 1987 the screenplay for Creepshow 2 was penned by Romero (director of the original film), and once again based upon stories by Stephen King. It is the follow-up to Creepshow, 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 2007 (that had no involvement from Stephen King or George Romero) , titled "Creepshow III".
Plot
Prologue
A delivery truck pulls up to a newsstand in a small town where a young boy named Billy (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 package opens of its own accord, Billy begins to read and the delivery man reveals his true identity as the Creepshow Creep.
Old Chief Wooden Head
Old Chief Wooden Head with his knife drawn
An elderly couple named Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour) in the southwest oversee a general goods store with a cigar store Indian named "Old Chief Wooden Head" who adorns the front porch and are humbled to see their old, run-down town coming to a bitter end. The Spruces are then visited by a Native American elder from a local tribe who gives them turquoise jewellery as collateral for the debt the tribe has incurred. The elder bids them farewell and returns to his tribe. After the elder departs, the couple are then subject to a vicious robbery by the elder's nephew, Sam (armed with a shotgun) and his two friends. After ransacking the store, Sam demands that Ray hand over the turquoise. Ray resists, and as a result, the Spruces are then shot and killed by Sam. The three thugs then leave in their car and begin preparations to run away to Hollywood, California. Old Chief Wooden Head then comes to life and goes out on a warpath to kill Sam and his friends and avenge the murdered Spruces. Old Chief Wood'nhead brutally kills Sam's two friends and corners Sam in his home, Sam being unable to fight back as the shells from his shotgun have no effect on the wooden Indian. Sam attempts to lock himself in his bathroom but Old Chief Wooden Head breaks through the wall and scalps Sam as he screams in terror. The Native American elder then visits the Spruce's general store to find Old Chief Wooden Head on his pedestal, holding his nephew's scalp, aware of what has happened. He wishes the dead Spruces a peaceful afterlife and drives away.
Interlude 1
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.
Deke meets his brutal demise in "
The Raft"...
Four college students, Deke, Laverne, Randy, and Rachel decide to go swimming in a desolate lake far away from civilization. As they make their way to a wooden raft in the middle of the lake, they realize that they are being terrorized by floating black blob when it grabs a hold of Rachel and consumes her. The frightened students begin to panic and mourn the loss of Rachel. Deke then contemplates quickly swimming to shore so he can bring back help as he is a fast swimmer. But before he can carry out his plan, the blob seeps through the raft's cracks and pulls Deke through the raft, killing him in the process. Randy and Laverne manage to evade the creature long enough to where it gives up trying to grab them from under the raft as well. Randy and Laverne spend the entire night on the raft, afraid to fall asleep in fear that the creature will attack them while they sleep. They do manage to fall asleep and Randy is the first to wake up in the morning, relieved to find that Laverne and himself made it through the night. With Laverne still sleeping, he begins caressing her body and fondling her breasts. She soon awakes screaming in agony as the creature has seeped through the cracks and has a hold of her face, much to Randy's horror. As the blob pulls her off the raft and begins consuming her, Randy uses the opportunity to jump off the raft and 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. The blob returns to the lake, with no evidence of the four students even visiting the lake other than their car which was left running the whole time. The camera pans out to reveal a "No Swimming" sign barely visible from behind some growth.
Interlude 2
On his way back home from the post office, Billy is ambushed by a gang of neighborhood bullies, who harass him and take his package from him. The gang's leader then opens the package, finding the Venus Flytrap bulb, and throws it on the ground, crushing it with his foot. In retaliation, Billy kicks the bully in the groin and flees, with the bully and his gang in hot pursuit.
The Hitchhiker
"Thanks for the ride, lady!" - The Hitch-Hiker
An unfaithful businesswoman named Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) gets up from bed after sleeping with her extramarital lover, realizing that she has to get home before her wealthy attorney husband to avoid suspicion. Annie hops into her Mercedes-Benz and makes way for home. On the way, she accidentally kills an innocent hitchhiker (Tom Wright) as a result of her speeding down the road, eager to beat her husband to the house. Seeing that no one witnessed the incident, Annie takes off without much thought. Shortly after Annie takes off, the area of the incident is crowded by passersby, with many reporting the hit-and-run to the police.
Miles away from the scene, Annie stops along the road and begins thinking about what she has done and the consequences involved, but she ultimately concludes that no one has anything on her and thinks 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 repeated throughout the story). The frightened Annie then speeds off in terror, but everywhere she goes, the hitchhiker always reappears and becomes her tormentor throughout the trip as she repeatedly runs him over, hurls off the top of her car, slams his body into trees, etc. as he only gets more and more battered and bloody without dying. She eventually loses control of her car drives off the road and down a hill, knocking herself out.
She awakes a short while later, not seeing the hitchhiker anywhere in sight, believing 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." The hitchhiker begins attacking her as she vainly attempts to fight him off. Later, her husband arrives home to find his wife's dead body in her car with the hitchiker's sign showing his targeted destination (reading DOVER).
Epilogue
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 wasn't 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 himself, who cackles in glee as he drives off in his delivery truck to deliver the latest issue of Creepshow to another town.
Trivia
- The film featured Dorothy Lamour in her final film.
- Stephen King makes a cameo appearance as a truck driver in "The Hitchhiker".
- "The Raft" was previously a short story by Stephen King, published in his collection Skeleton Crew.
- The second story in the film "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie", entitled "The Cat from Hell", was originally intended to be in Creepshow 2, along with another Stephen King short entitled "Pinfall". These stories were eventually dropped due to budgetary restrictions.
- Creepshow comic books are seen in the scene where Sam and his friends ransack the Spruce's store in the first story.
- At the end of the ending credits we find a 1949 quotation of the Collier's magazine (according to the ending credits) that warns against the easy amalgam between comics and juvenile delinquency:
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"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 handly, 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."[1] |
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References
External links
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The Creepshow Series |
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| Films |
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| Unofficial sequel |
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| Remake |
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| Spin-offs |
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| Creators |
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