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Film / Creepshow 2

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The sequel to the classic 1982 horror anthology Creepshow is a bit of a mixed bag. A smaller budget lowered the number of stories from five to three, and they also couldn't afford to do as many of the "comic book effects" as they had on the first movie.

The aforementioned three stories are:

  1. Old Chief Wood'nhead - The Spruces, Ray (George Kennedy) and Martha(Dorothy Lamour), are the elderly owners and operators of a general store in the dying town of Dead River, Arizona. Part of the store's decor includes Old Chief Wood'nhead, a wooden statue of an Indian chief that Ray has owned for at least 30 years that he treats as an old friend. The Spruces debate on whether or not to close their store upon observing the deteriorating state of their town, when Benjamin Whitemoon(Frank Salsedo), the elder of a local Native American tribe, enters the store. Whitemoon offers a bag of turquoise jewelry, his people's sacred treasures, to the Spruces as collateral for the debt his tribe has incurred, before departing back to his home. Later that night, Benjamin's ne'er-do-well delinquent nephew, Sam Whitemoon (Holt McCallany), along with his hoodlum friends, the wealthy Andy (Don Harvey) and the gluttonous Fatstuff (David Holbrook) rob the Spruce's store. After looting the register for what little money it has, Sam forces Ray and Martha, at gunpoint, to give them the sacred jewelry. The Spruces refuse, forcing Sam to kill them. Sam and his buddies plan to run away to Hollywood, where Sam hopes to become famous thanks to his long, dark hair. But after the delinquents leave, Old Chief Woodn'head manages to come to life, going on a bloody rampage to avenge the Spruces.
  2. The Raft - Deke (Paul Satterfield), Randy (Daniel Beer), Laverne (Jeremy Green) and Rachel (Page Hannah) are four fun-loving, pot-smoking college kids who are driving out to Cascade Beach, a hot spot in the middle of nowhere, for a dip in the lake. They also hope that a leftover from the summer, a wooden raft, will still be out on the lake at this time of year. After discovering that the raft is indeed out on the lake, the kids attempt to swim out to it so they can smoke more weed and unwind on it. Randy notices a pair of ducks getting dragged under the water by an unseen force, and urges his friends to swim to the raft faster. Once all four kids are on the raft, they manage to get a look at what it was that Randy's been worrying about: a large, black blob reminiscent of an oil slick floating on the surface of the water. They also find out that the blob's hunger isn't limited to ducks when it latches onto Rachel, pulls her into the lake, and digests her. Now frightened out of their minds, and realizing that there's a very low chance they'll be rescued anytime soon, the remaining three kids are forced to stay on the raft, unless they want to be the blob's next meal. Adapted from a short story of the same name from Stephen King short story collection Skeleton Crew.
  3. The Hitchhiker - Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) is a wealthy and spoiled woman who is cheating on her attorney husband, George (Richard Park), with a gigolo. After a power outage resets the gigolo's alarm clock, Annie discovers that she has only minutes until George gets home, and ends up in a race through the state of Maine to beat him there so he won't get suspicious. After an ember from the cigarette she was smoking falls onto her lap, Annie loses control of her car and winds up running down an innocent hitchhiker bound for Dover (Tom Wright). Rather than stay and take responsibility for her actions, Annie chooses to flee the scene the moment she sees other cars approaching. The other people who to try and help the hitchhiker, including a couple, a trucker (Stephen King), and ironically, George, who reports the incident to the police, don't notice her as they try to help the hitchhiker, who has unfortunately died. After rationalizing her options, Annie is confident she got away undetected, but soon finds the hitchhiker standing outside her car window, the reanimated man thanking her for giving him a ride. Annie spends a good chunk of time driving her car through the woods, being relentlessly pursued by the undead hitchhiker, who clings to the car whenever he can. She also tries to kill the hitchhiker herself, shooting him, running him over, and repeatedly slamming him into a tree. Unfortunately, while all of these tactics only cause him to become more and more mangled, they don't end up killing the undead hitchhiker, who really, really wants his ride to Dover. Enough to kill for it.

    The film also has a partly-animated Framing Device featuring the Creep and a boy named Billy (whose Name's the Same as the boy in the first film.) who has a run in with some bullies.

Tropes used in this film:

  • Adaptational Dumbass: All of the teens in "The Raft" get this. They apparently miss the sign warning them to keep out of the water, which wasn't there in the short story. The story at least somewhat justifies it when Randy points out to Deke that it's the off-season and there's probably no caretaker, so no one is going to find them. Randy in the film thinks it's a good idea to taunt the creature when he seems to have escaped it. In the book, he was reduced to begging when it prevented him from sitting down by swimming under the raft.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Randy in "The Raft". While he and LaVerne started fondling each other during the short story, it was consensual and more a moment of stupidity when LaVerne's hair got in the water. In the movie, he molests her while she's asleep, which leads to her getting killed.
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  • All There in the Manual: The lead bully is identified as "Rhino". His name is carved into the wooden fence when his gang first appears in the film.
  • Artistic License – Cars: At the end of The Raft, we see the car on shore with its radio still playing. After a whole day and night of continuous playing without running the alternator, the car's battery should have given out.
  • Asshole Victim: But of course! Sam Whitemoon and his two goons in Old Chief Wood'nhead, arguably everyone except Rachel in The Raft, and Anne in The Hitchhiker. Not to mention the bullies from the Framing Device.
  • Between My Legs: Used in a shot during the end of the movie, shortly before the flytraps appear.
  • Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts
  • Back from the Dead: The nameless hitchhiker.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Old Chief Wood'nhead. The kind elderly couple are dead, but the titular statue avenged them and returned the stolen torquoise jewels to Benjamin Whitemoon.
  • Blob Monster: The carnivorous "oil slick" in "The Raft".
  • Brownface: While Whitemoon's actor Frank Salsedo actually was Native American, Holt Mc Callany who played Whitemoon's nephew Sam is not and was clearly wearing makeup to make him look Native American. It isn't very convincing.
  • Burp of Finality: The blob monster from "The Raft" burps after it has devoured all four protagonists.
  • Car Fu: How Annie tries to dispatch of the zombie hitchhiker, with the assistance of a tree.
  • The Determinator: The Hitchhiker from the segment "The Hitchhiker" is pretty persistent.
  • Death by Irony: Sam Whitemoon really values his head of hair, and even says it's going to get him "paid and laid". He's scalped by Old Chief Wood'nhead.
  • Deranged Animation: All the characters in the animated bumper segments, especially the blond boy Billy.
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma!: Randy molesting Laverne in her sleep instantly turned him from the Only Sane Man in a group of jerks to an Asshole Victim that deserved to be eaten by the blob monster.
  • Facial Horror: By the time the Hitchhiker finally settles the score with Anne, all that's left of his face is extremely bloody mulch with two eyeballs dangling down from their sockets. Also what happens to Laverne when the Blob Monster engulfs her head.
  • Failed a Spot Check: The end of The Raft reveals that there was a No Swimming sign right next to their car. Somewhat justified, since said object was covered by bushes, but the audience could reasonably see it, so could the characters. Then again, it's doubtful they would have heeded it.
  • Fold-Spindle Mutilation: Happens to Deke when the Blob Monster pulls him through the floor of the raft.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: Look carefully at Sam Whitemoon's face after he kills Martha. There's a look of horror on his face; it's not clear whether he is shocked at actually killing someone or if he's feeling momentary remorse for the murder. Any remorse though vanishes instantly when he murders Ray and shoots up the store.
  • Groin Attack: Inflicted by Billy to the lead bully with a kick that most place-kickers would envy.
  • Horror Host: The Creeper, who is a more active and visible character than in the first movie.
  • It Can Think: The Blob Monster from the raft seems to have enough presence of mind to ambush its victims, settling underneath the raft and squeezing itself partially between the logs, keeping said victims on alert and wearing them down mentally to make them easier to catch and kill.
  • Idiot Ball: Randy in The Raft. For most of the segment, he's the only intelligent person around, taking immediate alarm of the blob when it first appears. Then he inexplicably does some really stupid things that get both him and LaVerne killed.
  • Immune to Bullets:
    • Old Chief Wood'nhead gets blasted at least once by Sam's shotgun; it doesn't even faze the chief.
    • The hitchhiker, being undead, has this too.
  • Implacable Man: Old Chief Wood'nhead might as well be a wooden Terminator, because not even bullets will stop him from hunting down and killing his quarry.
  • Instant Turn-Off: The segment "The Raft". Two teenagers (a boy and a girl) are trapped on a raft in the middle of a lake by a monster living in the water. While the girl is asleep, the boy starts groping her in a sexual way. The girl turns over, revealing that the monster has seeped through the raft and dissolved part of her face, terrifying the boy.
  • Karmic Death:
    • Sam is very vain about his hair in Old Chief Wood'nhead. Care to guess how the titular chief kills him?
    • Randy in The Raft is fairly smart and likable up until he molests LaVerne in her sleep instead of waking her up so she can be on guard against the blob, which directly leads to her death and keeps us from feeling sorry for his dumb ass when the blob gets him, too.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: The Chief vandalizes Andy's Cool Car before killing him.
  • Magical Native American: Benjamin Whitemoon.
  • Mook Horror Show: Old Chief Wood'nhead's rampage is shown from the perspective of his victims like in a more traditional slasher movie. The big difference is that the "slasher" is the good guy here.
  • Muck Monster: The main antagonist of The Raft is some formless blob that looks like an oil slick and which has a hunger for organic flesh.
  • Mythology Gag: In The Raft, Laverne wears a Horlicks University t-shirt. Horlicks University was the college in The Crate in the first film.
  • Nice Hat: Ben Whitemoon sports one.
  • Oh, Crap!: The bullies, when they find out Billy wasn't fleeing to the abandoned lot.... he was luring them there to be devoured.
  • Only Sane Man: Randy for most of The Raft. He's alarmed by the blob when it first appears and is immediately on guard against it. Sadly, he picks up the Idiot Ball near the end.
  • Outside Ride: Happens twice to the zombie hitchhiker: one ride on the roof with his hand pinned by the sunroof, the other a ride on the hood after he crawls up from underneath the undercarriage, leading to the Car Fu moment above.
  • Palate Propping: The lead bully manages to hold the maw of the giant Venus flytrap open to prevent it from swallowing him, but only for a few seconds.
  • Pungeon Master: The Creeper in the animated host segments.
    Creeper: It's amazing that you boors and ghouls keep coming back for more. You must be gluttons for pun-ishment!
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Old Chief Wood'nhead goes on the warpath against the thugs that killed Ray and Martha.
  • Rule of Scary: We know next to nothing about the blob in "The Raft". We don't know if it was man made, something from another planet, or supernatural. All we know is that it's a man-eating predator that wont stop till its hunger is desired.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Rachel in "The Raft." Being the first to go, she isn't around long enough to show any of the Jerkass qualities of her friends, and the source material also makes her out to be the most likable of the teenagers.
  • Shadow Discretion Shot: Andy's death by tomahawk in "Old Chief Wood'nhead."
  • Shout-Out:
    • "Spruce" is Tabitha King's maiden name.
    • If you look closely at the headboard of the bed around the start of "the Hitchhiker", you can see a couple of Stephen King novels like It.
    • Throughout "Old Chief Wood'nhead", the "Convict Story" episode from The Cisco Kid can be seen playing on the televisions.
  • Slasher Smile: Billy, when the venus flytraps eat the bullies
    "They eat meat!"
  • Soundtrack Dissonance:
    • 'The Hitchhiker's rampage is accompanied by music that's less 'scary' than 'completely rocking out'.
    • The final few minutes of the theme over the closing credits do not belong in a horror movie.
  • The Savage Indian: Old Chief Wood'nhead, and with good reason.
  • The Savage South: Where Old Chief Wood'nhead resides.
  • Teens Are Monsters: Sam Whitemoon and his buddies.
  • Tempting Fate: When you are only six inches out of the water, don't taunt the flesh-devouring abomination unless you are 100% sure it can't come on shore.
  • Third Act Stupidity: Randy. For most of the segment, he's the only intelligent person around, taking immediate alarm of the blob when it first appears. Near the end, he decides to molest LaVerne in her sleep rather than wake her up so she can be on guard, leading to the blob getting her. And even when he manages to swim to the shore, he sits only six inches out of the water and taunts the blob rather than just getting to his car and driving off, leading to his own death.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Randy should have waited till he made it to the car and drive off before taunting the blob monster. Annie really shouldn't have fled the scene of an accident.
  • Vanity License Plate: Anne's Mercedes and George's BMW ('LANSING 1' and 'LANSING 2')
  • Walking Swimsuit Scene: Because of obvious reasons, the teens of "The Raft" spend most of the story in swimsuits or skivvies.
  • We Sell Everything: The Spruce general store. If you look closely during that segment, they sell many things such as canned food, candy, produce, keys, hardware, beer, etc.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The small, redheaded bully disappears at some point just before his buddies get themselves devoured by gigantic Venus Flytraps.
    • There is a small possibility he barely made it out while the rest of the bullies got eaten.
  • Your Cheating Heart: Part of what kickstarts the plot of "The Hitch-Hiker" is Annie's race to get home from her lover's house before her husband does, leading to the death of the hitchhiker.


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