Creepshow 2

Creepshow 2 (1987)
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Cast: George Kennedy, Tom Savini, Lois Chiles, Dorothy Lamour
Extras: Commentary Track, Featurette, Photo Gallery, Trailers, Storyboards
Rating:

After the success of the original ’Creepshow’ in 1982, George A. Romero and Stephen King once again put their heads together and concocted a sequel of their ’Tales From The Crypt’ knock-off, entitled ’Creepshow 2.’

The film, directed by Michael Gornick, consisted of three episodes. The first, ’Old Chief Wood’nhead’ is about a wooden Indian chief statue taking revenge for the murder of a storeowner. It is a suspenseful episode that makes for a great opener. The following two episodes sadly never live up to the same level. There is ’The Raft’ in which a weird man-eating oil-slick on a lake feeds on some teenagers in a silly and boring T&A episode, and the final one is ’The Hitchhiker’ in which a woman faces her own bad conscience after running over and killing a hitchhiker in the middle of the night. Again this episode is poorly conceived and boring to he end. All episodes are tied together by small carton interludes.
Anchor Bay presents ’Creepshow 2’ in an anamorphic widescreen presentation and the image is absolutely clean and clear. No blemishes are evident and the transfer hold a good level of detail. Colors are strong and vibrant, and blacks are solid. No edge-enhancement or compression artifacts distract form the viewing.

Audio comes as a 5.1 channel track that is good and well-balanced. Dialogues are will integrated and always understandable.

As extras Anchor Bay has added a commentary track by Michael Gornick that is moderated by the DVD’s producer Perry Martin but given the poor quality of the film, I found it less than interesting or engaging. A featurette on the special effects artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero is also included as well as a photo gallery, trailers and a storyboard gallery.

’Creepshow 2’ is for die-hard fans, really. It’s a solid DVD, no question, but the film is just a ridiculous drag that never lives up to the originality and inventiveness of the original ’Creepshow.’ Your mileage may vary.