Cast:
Wraparound story: Domenick John (Billy), Tom Savini (The Creep), Joe Silver (The Creep voice), with the voices of Brian Noodt, Marc Stephan Delgatto, Jason Late, P.J. Morrison, and Clark Utterback.
"Old Chief Wood'nhead" segment: George Kennedy (Ray Spruce), Dorothy Lamour (Martha Spruce), Philip Dore (Curly), Frank Salsedo (Ben Whitemoon), Holt McCallany (Sam Whitemoon), David Holbrook (Vince “Fat Stuff” Gribbens), Don Harvey (Andy Cavanaugh), and Dan Kamin (Old Chief Wood'nhead)
"The Raft" segment: Paul Satterfield (Deke), Jeremy Green (Laverne), Daniel Beer (Randy), and Page Hannah (Rachel)
"The Hitchhiker" segment: Lois Chiles (Annie Lansing), David Beecroft (Annie's Lover), Tom Wright (The Hitchhiker), Richard Parks (George Lansing), Stephen King (Truck Driver), and Cheré Bryson (Woman at Accident)
Directed by Michael Gornick.
Review:
Oh hey, remember Creepshow (1982)? That was the fun-as-hell anthology film (distributed by Warner Bros.) that had the 1-2 punch of George A. Romero directing five stories that had each been written by Stephen King. There were plenty of interesting shots in the film that aimed to capture the feel of comics such as Tales from the Crypt that had interested the minds of children (and made whiny complainers mad) in the 1950s. Five years after the general success of the film came a sequel that had Michael Gornick serve as director. In addition to being the cinematographer of five Romero features (such as Creepshow), he had directed a handful of episodes of the Romero-created Tales from the Darkside (1984-86) show; this is the only film directed by Gornick. Stephen King wrote an outline for the film that George A. Romero utilized to write the screenplay. Of course, because of a lessened budget for the sequel (reported to be half of the original, as distributed by New World Pictures), the plan for five stories instead became just three. "Pinfall" involved a rivalry between two bowling teams that turns deadly in more ways than one. Apparently, the story was adapted into a comic book of limited quantity in 2016. The other story, "The Cat from Hell" (a story written by King in 1977), would eventually find its way into filming as one of the segments for Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), which if you remember was co-written by Romero. The movie was a mild hit with audiences. There was a Creepshow 3 (2006), but it is more "in name-only" than anything; a TV series based on the 1982 film (with two King stories adapted into episode form) came out in 2019.
This time around, there are a few wraparound segments (done in animation), such as the five-minute opening involving a delivery boy and "The Creep" (seen in live action for the intro and the final shot before the credits). I wanted to like this movie, but there is an underwhelming fashion to it all that reminds me more of lesser episodes of Tales from the Darkside than the fun times one had with Creepshow (there isn't anything as entertaining as say, Leslie Nielsen casually burying a man on the beach). It just doesn't have as much interesting things to really play in grand execution, seeming more a problem of middling acting and budget more than anything. In terms of "not quite great anthology", it probably matches more with The Vault of Horror (1973) than Tales from the Crypt (1972), which is to say is not a compliment. "Old Chief Wood'nhead" is somehow the longest story at 28 minutes, probably because it loves to stall for what it thinks is atmosphere for the beginning when it comes to setting up an old dying town and two leads in Kennedy and Lamour that is then interrupted by-oh you get the idea, something has to happen for a wooden Indian statue to matter. It is about as predictable as the gore that will arise from it, for better or worse. "The Raft", lasting roughly 20 minutes, was based on the King story of the same name (as published in 1982), albeit with a few small changes. It probably matches the best in terms of compact pacing with a useful enough terror to go with some silly teenagers getting nabbed. "The Hitchhiker", lasting roughly 24 minutes, is mostly a duet where one hangs inside a car and one hangs from it. Chiles and her casual nature of trying to cope with what is and what isn't real in that debate of culpability while one gets to hear "Thanks for the ride, lady!" again and again. The movie didn't really have that much steam to lose, anyway. The wraparound segments aren't even that satisfying after a while because really, what's the point of having Tom Savini under makeup anyway? The animation is mild and overall conclusion involving plants isn't even worth writing home about. In conclusion, there are plenty of things one can say about the movie that are "okay" or "mild", but the movie in total never particularly gels greatly enough in enough of its stories to really pull a punch. Being the sequel to a really fun anthology is no fun, managing to make the subsequent Tales from the Darkside film come off as being better handled is another matter. I can't call it a good movie because I know it will just fade from my head as quickly as it came in, which is a shame.
Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.
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