I got the DVD of Creepshow 3 for only two or three bucks at a local Wallgreens bargain bin. Needless to say I did not keep that movie. I pawned it off on someone else eventually with the stipulation that it was a terrible movie.
Well, having heard the many opinions online that Creepshow 1 and 2 are gems of horror—maybe even downright classics—I final got around to watching Creepshow 2 on Netflix this week. I am extremely happy to report that I was very satisfied with the experience overall.
Creepshow 2, like the other movies in the series, is an anthology film of a few short—and very well constructed—horror stories. Each of the stories is based off of a work of Stephen King and takes inspiration from the EC horror comics of the 1950s. Being a huge fan of the EC horror comics and of Stephen King I was very excited to have a great Creepshow experience. And I did.
The old man’s pride and joy is his wooden Indian that he keeps on the front porch of the store. He takes time to care for the statue and repaint the war markings on its face. On a particularly difficult day the chief of the local tribe arrives and makes an offering. He gives the shop owner a bag of turquoise jewelry—precious heirlooms of the tribes—and says that the owner is to hold onto the jewelry until they can pay him back for his service.
But later that night an estranged member of the tribe—who is also a stereotypical young punk--comes in and robs the place and takes the jewelry. Well, as fate would have it in the realm of EC style horror, the wooden Indian comes to life and hunts down the estranged punk and his friends in a night of killing.
This first story just screams EC horror comics. It has a story of sin and punishment similar to any installment of Tales from the Crypt. It is also surprisingly mild on the gore and violence. Yet it manages to be an entertaining installment in the film. It is a good start to this anthology.
This story is definitely more graphic than the previous. The slick burns and corrodes skin on contact. So there is scenes of flesh, blood, and muscle hanging out. This one does a great job of keeping the macabre silliness of the classic EC comics while still being very frightening and disturbing.
It is then that she sees the bum in her rearview mirror. He is bloody and beaten and coming after her. She spends the rest of the story trying to get away from the supernatural reckoning. But the gory beast of a man keeps coming back for her, unrelenting. And he gets grosser looking with each encounter.
This final story was good but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first two. It felt like more gore than suspense or story. That doesn’t make it bad, just not as enjoyable as the first two stories. I also didn’t relate to the main character as much.
Summing it Up
Deaths: 11
Language: 4
Gore Factor: 4
Sex Factor: 3
Scare Factor: 3
Fun Factor: 4
Overall Rating: 4