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ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - May 1st

"CREEPSHOW 2" released in 1987

Three more bone-chilling tales that include a vengeful wooden Native American, a monstrous blob in a lake, and a hitchhiker who wants revenge and will not die, in Michael Gornick's anthology sequel, Creepshow 2!

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In Old Chief Wood'nhead, an elderly couple named Ray and Martha Spruce (George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour) in a small, fictional, southwestern town called Dead River, oversee a general goods store whose decor includes a cigar store Indian named "Old Chief Wood'nhead" (Dan Kamin) on the front porch. They are humbled to see their old, run-down town coming to a bitter end. The Spruces are then visited by a Native American elder named Benjamin Whitemoon from a local tribe who gives them turquoise jewellery, which are his tribe's sacred treasures, as collateral for the debt the tribe has incurred. But later that night, the Spruces are viciously robbed by Benjamin's estranged nephew, Sam (Holt McCallany) and his two friends, Andy and Fatstuff (Dan harvey and David Holbrook). The gang flee after killing the old couple. Old Chief Wood'nhead then comes to life after they leave, and goes out on a vicious warpath to kill them in revenge for the murdered Spruces.

Above:   Rachel (Page Hannah) is killed by the black blob in the lake!

For The Raft, four college students, Deke, Laverne, Randy and Rachel (Paul Satterfield, Jeremy Green, Daniel Beer, and Page Hannah ), go swimming in a desolate lake far from civilization. After they make their way to a wooden raft, they are terrorized by a floating black blob resembling an oil slick that grabs a hold of Rachel and consumes her. Panicked, Deke plans to swim to shore so he can bring back help. Before he can, the blob seeps through the raft's cracks and pulls Deke through the raft, killing him. Randy and Laverne evade the creature until it gives up trying to grab them from under the raft. Randy and Laverne are afraid to fall asleep in fear that the creature will attack. But with time running out, only one of them will be able to escape and make it back to shore - but which one?

In the final segment, The Hitch-hiker, an adulterous businesswoman named Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) gets up from bed after sleeping with a gigolo, realizing that she has to get home before her wealthy attorney husband to avoid suspicion. Annie hops into her car and heads for home several miles away. As she speeds down a dark road, she accidentally kills a hitchhiker (Tom Wright). Seeing that no one witnessed the incident, she takes off. But shortly after she leaves, the area of the incident is crowded with passersby, who report the hit-and-run to the police. Miles away from the scene, Annie thinks about what she has done and the consequences involved, but ultimately concludes that no one has anything on her and thinks that everything will be fine. Before she can continue, however, the hitchhiker she killed suddenly appears outside her window and utters "Thanks for the ride, lady," a line he repeats again and again as he appears randomly out of nowhere time and again, to exact his ghoulish revenge!

[after Chief Wood'nhead scalps Sam Whitemoon]
Voice of The Creep: Well, kiddies, that was quite a price for young Sam Whitemoon to pay... eh, toupee, ehh, heh!
[chuckles]

Top:   Ray Spruce (George Kennedy) tends to his beloved wooden Indian, who he calls "Old Chief Wood'nhead" (Dan Kamin);

Above:   Just when Randy (Daniel Beer) thinks the nightmare is over... !

Following the success of the first Creepshow movie, Stephen King wrote an outline for the sequel, which George A. Romero then adapted into a screenplay. The second of the three segments, The Raft, is based on King's short story of the same name from 1982 (the other two segments are original stories for the movie). The filmmakers then chose Michael Gornick to direct, after having served as the cinematographer on the previous film. Originally, the film was planned to have five stories much like the first film, but these two segments, however, were cut from the film due to the film's budget. The first of the two segments, Cat from Hell, would later be used in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, which focused on a wealthy old man hiring a hitman for $100,000 to kill a black cat, which was believed to killed three other people inside the residence he lives in and fears to be next. The next segment, Pinfall, was set to appear after Old Chief Wood'nhead, which told the story of two rivalry teams consisted of the Regi-Men and the Bad News Boors competing in a bowling alley owned by an old-aged millionaire; the owner is soon killed in a freak accident and the teams found out afterwards that he would award one of them $5 million for whoever got the highest score. Soon, things turn up for the worst of the Regi-Team when the Boors, after they were killed in a fiery car-crash purposely caused by the Regi-Team, return as burnt-up revenants and soon get their revenge on their killers. Unlike Cat from Hell which managed to be brought onto the screen through a different film, Pinfall was never shot and never appeared outside of the film's original script.

Like the first film, numerous stars appear in the horror segments for Creepshow 2, including; George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, Lois Chiles, Frank Salsedo, and Tom Wright, with cameos from Stephen King and Tom Savini. Actor Daniel Beer, who originally auditioned for Deke before being cast as Randy in the segment The Raft, actually almost died from hypothermia while filming; the water was so cold, his body turned green. Even though the crew reportedly wanted him to continue acting, director Gornick said if they forced him to keep working in his condition, Beer would walk off the set and never return. Thankfully, Beer made a full recovery and returned to film the remainder of the segment. Make up artist Ed French did, however, leave film while filming The Raft after being snubbed by the director who turned to Howard Berger for advice on how to fix blob monster in the lake. Berger and Greg Nicotero finished the remaining effects in the film without French. French's departure caused further problems as he was also set to play the titular character, The Creep, in the wrap-around segments. With his departure, make-up artist Tom Savini stepped in to play the small prosthetic laden role.  

TRIVIA:   Barbara Eden was originally cast as the hit-and-run driver Annie Lansing during Creepshow 2's last story, The Hitch-Hiker; but had to drop out prior to filming due to her mother falling ill. Lois Chiles was later re-cast in the role. 

Top:   Adulterous Annie Lansing (Lois Chiles) is at the beginning of her nightmare when she runs over the Hitchhiker (Tom Wright);

Above:   The Creep (Tom Savini) himself!

Grossing an impressive $3.5 million on it's opening day, Creepshow 2 eventually would gross over $14 million at the US box office, although receiving mixed to negative reviews from critics. Allmovie gave the film a negative review and cited "This less-satisfying sequel to the 1982 George A. Romero/Stephen King anthology presents a new trio of King stories, framed in a similar EC Comics-style format -- this time featuring some rather lackluster animated segments involving horror-host "The Creep," who introduces each chapter with pun-heavy gallows humor." Following the release of Creepshow 3 in 2006 - which had no involvement of Romero or King - Tom Savini stated that in regards to Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, he considers that film to be the "real" Creepshow 3. This could be due to the fact that like mentioned, the Cat from Hell segment was used in the film after it was scrapped from Creepshow 2.

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   33%

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