October 18, 2010 - Creepshow 2

This was the second horror movie I ever saw. The first was Sleepwalkers, which I haven't seen since. I'm curious to see if it lives up to my memory. Or at the very least, the corncob kill is just as badass. But I digress. Creepshow 2 is a great, creepy and funny little movie in the vein of EC Comics. Which is awesome. More movies need to take cues from EC Comics, in my humble opinion. Heck, that was one of the best parts of Altitude.

It's an anthology film (and one of the biggest inspirations for The Last) with a nifty connecting story between each segment. It's got that great hyper-emotive animation style where all the character's faces contort wildly as they speak. This boy runs afoul of bully's and gets chased to an abandoned lot. Bad things happen. It's cute and has a great ending and is a great filler between the actual stories.

The first segment is called Old Chief Woodenhead. An elderly couple own a general store in a town that's dying. The wife wants to leave, but the husband is committed to the town, and to his Indian statue that stands in front. A Native chief that owes the couple some money gives them some precious jewelry as collateral, but that night the chief's nephew comes looking for it. Things don't go well, and soon something is hunting down the nephew and his accomplices. This segment has the best acting of the bunch. You really feel for the old couple, especially the husband. The nephew is a perfectly hateable jerk who gets what's coming to him. The special effects are solid, and there is some sweet gore. A good way to start things off.

The second segment, The Raft, was my favourite when I first saw it. It was gross, scary and had boobs. Looking back on it, it's still my favourite. It's gross, scary and has boobs. Four college kids drive out to a lake in the middle of nowhere to go swimming. Once they're there though, they find a weird oil slick in the water that eats a bird soon after they get there. Thing is, they are stuck on the raft and aren't so sure they can outswim it. The acting is atrocious, and none of the characters are likable. This would be a problem in a longer story or a feature, but here it just makes they're inevitable messy demise that much sweeter. It's got some great blood and kills, and is my personal favourite.

The third segment is titled The Hitchhiker, and is probably the weakest. A woman drives home to her husband after having an affair and hits a hitchhiker on the side of the road. Panicking, she drives off and convinces herself that no one saw. It isn't long though before the hitchhiker comes back for revenge. The lengths the woman goes to get rid of the unwanted passenger are hilarious in a Looney Tunes kind of way and this is probably the bloodiest of the bunch. What I hate though, is the woman constantly talking to herself, spelling out her inner monologue. She's not a good enough actress to pull it off, and it quickly becomes grating. That said, it's still a lot of fun, and is easily the most quotable.

Creepshow 2 is a fun, creepy ride that fits perfectly into the Halloween season. I actually prefer it a bit to the first one, which is strange because I'm a Romero fanboy. Blood, boobs, laughs, gore and puns. What more do you need?