3/5 exquisitely satisfactory
  by B. Lafave (lakeland , fl)
if all i had to go on was the critics , i never would have seen this nifty little film . all the critics seem to have a favorable knee jerk reaction to the first film (name stars and whatnot) . it's not a bad picture either . i saw this at the time of release alone . i had very low expectations . i like comic books a lot and enjoyed the animation . i really liked the story about the stuff in the lake but thought the picture was kinda lame overall . i guess this must be what they characterize as a quilty pleasure . the film was released well before dvd and so on . i did not choose to see it again until dvd with its' correct aspect ratio . the picture kinda nagged at me or haunted me throughout the years until i did revisit it on dvd . today i bought it . i can't really rationalize why i like the picture so , but i do . i prefer it to the first film . when i told my wife we were gonna see CREEPSHOW 2 , she asked if that "was the one with the lake ?" excitedly . i think the critics are upset GEORGE ROMERO did not direct this little omnibus . rather like AMICUS anthology films , this one may grow on you . it's no knockout but it sure is fun .

5/5 Creepy and Fun...Three Tales To Keep You Up At Night
  by ReviewMaster (ca)
Creepshow 2: Movie Review

Grade: A-

...O.K., it's not so scary that you'll stay up at night, but the three tales included are creepy in their own fun little way. Stephen King [who, in case anyone doesn't know, (but should know, you're not a horror fan if you don't!) wrote such novels as Cujo (Signet), The Shining, The Green Mile : The Complete Serial Novel...I could go on for a long time] and George Romero (you have to be kidding me if you don't know him and his world-famous zombie movies: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (Ultimate Edition), Day of the Dead, George A. Romero's Land of the Dead (Unrated Director's Cut), and, most recently, George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead) have teamed up to make a sequel to Creepshow, (which I haven't seen...yet) and they've done it in such a great fashion that you think you're actually in an `80's horror comic. Each story plays like a full movie, and guess what? That means three times the fun and terror...

The first of these tales, "Ol Chief Woodenhead", is a perfect way to start the movie, it being the best of the trio. An old shopkeeper living in a town that has long since died still remains loyal to his store, along with his life-size model of an Indian Chief, despite his wife's protests to sell the place. He refuses, the store has kept money in his pockets; he can't give it up now. Besides, he has ties with the town and its Indian tribe living in the outskirts, they owe him some money. The local Indian Chief soon shows up, and he comes bearing the tribe's greatest and most prized possessions, for the old shop owner to keep for now, until the tribe has collected enough money to pay him in cash. After much arguing, the shopkeeper reluctantly agrees to take it, therefore honoring the tribe. But trouble soon follows, as three robbers, one of them even one of the tribe, steal the treasures. They make off literally like bandits, and each goes quickly back to their homes to get ready to leave to Hollywood with their money. But they're not going anywhere if `Ol Chief Woodenhead can stop it...Coming to life and stepping off the porch he stood on for all those years, he grips his axe and gets ready to do what needs to be done..Not scary, but great story-telling! Grade: A

The next tale, "The Raft" pits spring-breakers against a man-eating oil slick, and you have to wonder which one came up with the idea, SK or GR. The teens, in college, park their car by an isolated lake, and, seeing a lone raft in the middle of the lake, decide to hop in and swim to it. But one of them sees something in the lake (the oil slick) drag down a duck, and "eat" it. Fearful, they start to get scared. And that's when the first one dies. The slick, which is very hungry, (I don't think the duck filled it up) wraps around her leg (the first one to die) and pulls her off the raft, dragging her under. Did I mention that the slick can "move" around the lake, following food? The only problem I had with this one was that the oil slick looked pretty fake at times, and the whole plot got kind of cheesy at times too. Still, creepy and well thought out. Grade: A-

The last tale, "The Hitch-Hiker" just falls short of the par that the first two were on. A woman driving down the streets of lonely `ol Maine has thought on other things, like coming up with an excuse for being late coming home, (she's having an affair, and forgot the time to come home to her husband, who's never late coming home) hits a hitch-hiker, killing him. After seeing the damage, (to the hitch-hiker and her fancy expensive car) she decides to just drive away, or, do a hit-and-run. But the hitchhiker, who's still dead, has other plans for her...But the plan for this tale just isn't as great as the first two tales. I think the story isn't as good as the first two, (a lack of imagination for Stephen King? That's a first!!!) and in the end it just didn't click. It was still pretty good though, and the ending makes it worthwhile. Grade: B-

To put the cherry on the top, all of this is wrapped around an animated tale of a boy and his comic. The art looks great, and in the end the whole movie is great, with minor flaws, mostly in the special effects department; the acting was good, for the most part. An excellent nod to the eighties, and plain out horror in general.


2/5 Crappy Show
  by Mark Eremite (Seoul, South Korea)
What made the first Creepshow good was how nicely it encapsulated the spirit of the comic book, right down to the cheesy, brightly colored panels. The tales were short, you followed along as the wind turned the pages, and the acting was actually pretty good.

And then they made this thing.

King wrote the stories and Romero adapted them for the screen, but other than that and the title, this thing is about as far from the first as you can get. Gone is the comic book feel. Instead they've introduced a connective wrap-around cartoon that would've worked better if it'd just been live action. Also, an annoying character called The Creep introduces and signs off on each segment. The Creep is a pointless, campy version of The Cryptkeeper (from HBO's Tales from the Crypt), and The Cryptkeeper was already campy enough. Now picture him poorly animated and with a chin like an old man's, well, never mind.

The tales here are longer (bad call) and there are fewer of them (equally bad call). Here's the rundown:

OLD CHIEF WOODENHEAD - Horrible exposition that is slathered on long after the audience gets it already. A kindly store owner and his wife are beset upon by no-good-niks who trash the place, steal some valuable Native American trinkets, and then do other bad things. Not only does this clip broadcast its ending from the first scene, but it takes its sweet time getting there, and then doesn't even show you the stuff that would normally make it creepy.

THE RAFT - Really cool idea (about four kids who are trapped on a raft by sinister goo) is ruined by atrocious acting and some super silly writing. Creeped me out when I watched it as a kid, but after leaving the theatre, all I could remember was the gratuitous boob shot.

THE HITCH-HIKER - A woman hits a hitchhiker during a minor cigarette mishap and flees the scene of the crime. "Can you live with this?" she asks herself during her interminable and unbelievable dialogue with herself. Apparantly not. Good effects, but -- like the first segment -- predictable and dull.

Stupid host. Stupid execution. Stupid all around. Skip this thing and rewatch the first.

5/5 Creepshow 2
  by Douglas Ray Williams (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
I cannot say as much on Creepshow 2 as i did on the original but it is still a good pickup if you like a B movie. The best story in this one is where we all remember when the kids are trying to escape that Oil slick in the pond...

4/5 More Horror Comic Mayhem(generic title, but I can't think of anything else right now)
  by Stanley Runk (Camp North Pines)
I think Creepshow is one of the best and most fun horror films of all time, so naturally Creepshow 2 was gonna have a hard time living up to it. It doesn't help matters that the powerhouse writing/directing team of Stephen King and George Romero isn't here. Well, sort of. Romero takes writing duties(based on Stephen King stories) and the directing is left to Romero's DP, Michael Gornick. It only has 3 stories instead of 5 and seems to be missing that tongue in cheek touch of the first film.
But I still love the movie! The first story is about a cigar store wooden Indian that comes to life for some Charles Bronson-esque revenge when some hoodlums rob the general store and kill the owner, played by George Kennedy("Be sure...Breath Assure!") and his wife. The second story comes from King's short story collection, Skeleton Crew. It's about two couples that drive out to a lake in October to swim out to a wooden raft in the middle of the lake. Why? I've never been quite sure. You practically get cold watching them. Once on the raft they are attacked by a round, black water creature that looks like a garbage bag half submerged in the water. Like The Blob, it's hungry and eats anyone it can grab, or whoever gets too close to it. The third story has a snooty, rich Lois Chiles hitting a hitchhiker on the highway. She flees the scene, but the dead dude simply isn't gonna leave her alone, and she engages in a war/chase with the zombie-like hitchhiker.
Like the first film, these three stories are supposed to be from a comic book, but they are linked together by animated sequences involving Billy(the boy with the Creepshow comic in the first film) being harassed by bullies and getting his revenge. Also in the animated sequences is "The Creep", a kind of Cryptkeeper character who introduces the stories. This animation is the cause of some of the criticism of this movie. I don't mind it terribly, but it is kinda unnecessary and seems there only to pad out running time. If you ask me, the three stories are all rather solid. A lot of folks don't particularly care for the first story, but in the immortal words of Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad". I actually like that first story very much. "The Raft" is a great little tale that could have even made it into the first film. Though it changes King's story a bit, it keeps the spirit of the story for sure(the Blob/garbage bag monster in the story had swirling colors in it's body that had a hypnotic, druglike effect on those who looked at it. There was some sex and a different ending as well. But the ending was anticlimactic for a film. The movie's ending was great.). The Hitchhiker segment is also quite strong and had the quirkiness of some of the stories in the first film like Father's Day and Something To Tide You Over.
Creepshow is one tough act to top, but Creepshow 2 ends up being a very entertaining film regardless.