Director: Michael Gornick
Screenplay: George A. Romero
Based on stories by: Stephen King
Starring: Lois Chiles, George Kennedy, Dorothy Lamour, Daniel Beer, Jeremy Green, Page Hannah, Don Harvey, David Holbrook, Stephen King, Holt McCallany, Frank S. Salsedo, Paul Satterfield, Tom Wright, Tom Savini
Country: United States
Running Time: 90 min
Year: 1987
BBFC Certificate: 15
Anthology horror films have been a staple of the genre since Ealing Studio’s masterful 1945 entry, Dead of Night. Since then the likes of Amicus Studios have brought us some real classics, like Asylum and The House That Dripped Blood, and more recently we’ve had some other great examples of the portmanteau film, like Trick ‘r Treat.
In 1982 director George A. Romero and author Stephen King joined forces to craft an excellent anthology feature with Creepshow. Essentially a film version of the classic and controversial EC horror comics that terrified and excited kids in the 1940s and 1950s, Creepshow is an excellent five story anthology horror.
Its success meant a sequel would be inevitable and five years later, in 1987, Creepshow 2 emerged. Romero would pen a script from stories by King, but this time around the director duties would fall to Michael Gornick, who was cinematographer on the first film.
I have a lot of time for Creepshow 2. I used to watch it repeatedly on VHS together with the first entry in the film series, which has since spawned other sequels and a successful TV show. But despite my fondness for it, I have to admit that nothing is up to the quality of the first film, and we even lose two stories, the first having five, due to budget reasons.
The film, like the first one, has a framing device, this time following a young boy called Billy who wants the latest issue of Creepshow comic, and gets his wish when a delivery driver, called The Creep and played by Tom Savini but voiced by Joe Silver, arrives to give him his wish. We then get an animated sequence to introduce each story, which has subpar animation and isn’t as engaging as the first one, this time following a group of bullies and their scrapes with Billy.
The three stories that are delivered in Creepshow 2 are a mixed bag, and let’s look at each one in turn.
Old Chief Wood’nhead
The first story follows George Kennedy’s hardware store owner and his wife, played by Dorothy Lamour, who are terrorised by a gang of hoodlums.
The gang loots the store, which is in a once thriving but now dying community called Dead River, before murdering the couple. The tearaways face nasty retribution when the Native American Chief statue guarding the front of the store comes to life and takes the gang down.
Kennedy and Lamour are typically good as the ageing store owners who are forced to accept their store’s days are over but whom want to give something back to the community. Though, their final moments are far too over the top and stagey, even for a comic book themed horror film.
The trio of hoodlums are obnoxious, which they should be, but also annoying. Thankfully, when the statue comes to life things get very interesting and we get a suitably over the top and fitting finale.
There’s some pretty gory death sequences as the statue takes down the trio, one by one. The statue is mostly depicted by its shadow, or not at all, as characters are killed, until his final standoff with the lead gang member, played by Holt McCallany, perhaps best known now for the Netflix series Mindhunter.
I felt that until the statue comes to life, it wasn’t a very gripping story at all and a bit of a slog, only really worth watching for the two central performances by Kennedy and Lamour. Thankfully it comes to life for the final moments.
The Raft
The second story is much better and the nastiest of the lot overall in terms of dark content. It follows a group of four college students on a trip to a lake. The four, two guys and two gals, are horny and out for a good time. They frolic about in the ice cold water of the lake and fool around but soon realise all is not as peaceful and tranquil as it seems.
They witness a duck struggling against some kind of blob-like creature floating on the surface of the lake. The creature then turns its attention to the teens, who are stuck on the titular raft and taken down one by one.
Cue a decent amount of tension when the characters are in the water and the blob approaches, particularly when they attempt to outswim the creature. The music ramps up the atmosphere here and the cinematography feels a little bit off kilter, adding to the creepiness of the tale.
The inevitable death sequences are typically gruesome and gloopy, and very memorable, though the blob itself looks a bit cheap, like cellophane or bubble wrap floating on the surface of the lake.
Like the first tale, as well as the third that will follow, this one features a great final few moments. This one amps up the nastiness and follows an uncomfortable sequence when one of the guys is trying to see his love interest naked whilst she sleeps.
It’s an unpleasant scene and is followed by said love interest having half her face ripped off by the creature. Suffice to say no character survives and the final death comes with the last guy standing proclaiming he’s beaten the creature as he reaches the shore only for it to leap out of the water and consume him, pulling him back in to the lake.
This story is the one that’s stuck with me most since I was a child, probably because of the grotesque special effects, and it still stands up in the icky stakes today. A step up in quality from the first story.
The Hitch-hiker
The quality continues to improve with the final segment, which follows Lois Chiles’ adulterous character Annie whom we meet getting out of bed having just slept with her lover.
She leaves and tries to drive home as quickly as she can to avoid arousing the suspicions of her husband, but she ends up running over a hitchhiker when she is distracted by dropping embers from her cigarette on herself and loses control of the car on a bend.
No-one is around to witness the accident so Annie drives off, thinking she got away with the hit and run. However, the hitchhiker soon appears outside her window and says “Thanks for the ride!”.
Annie is then pursued by the hitchhiker for the remainder of the story before a particularly downbeat ending in which she finally gets her comeuppance for the hit and run.
Chiles, perhaps best known for portraying Bond girl Holly Goodhead in the Roger Moore 007 outing Moonraker, is excellent as the guilt-ridden central character. Actor Tom Wright is also particularly memorable as the hitchhiker.
Author Stephen King pops up on screen in the Creepshow series again, as a lorry driver in a much smaller role than his starring role in one of the stories in the first Creepshow, The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill.
It’s a strong story overall, though like the others doesn’t come close to the heights of the best of the original film’s segments.
Creepshow 2’s framing device, despite feeling lower grade in the animation stakes than the first film, features a decent final segment that involves the lead member of a nasty gang who is antagonising Billy, get their comeuppance thanks to a huge Venus flytrap.
In closing, I had a good time revisiting one of my childhood favourites, Creepshow 2. Â The film features some decent performances, some not so good, two pretty good stories and one not so good, and a decent score by Les Reed, which includes a hummable theme that reaches a pretty high pitch at times.
The quality of the stories improves as it goes on, and each has a very memorable ending, but it’s admittedly a noticeable step down from the first film.
Film: 
Creepshow 2 is released on 4K UHD by Arrow Films and available to stream on Arrow, on 29th September 2025. The package looks to be exactly the same as Arrow’s earlier Blu-ray, except with a 4K disc, this time with a brand new restoration.
The picture and sound quality are both really strong, with a highly detailed and natural transfer, though the animated sequences and their transition to the live action stories feels a tad soft. Overall though it looks pretty good. It also sounds fine, and I found no issues there.
4K ultra HD limited edition contents:
Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original negative
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original lossless mono, stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio options
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary with director Michael Gornick
Screenplay for a Sequel, an interview with screenwriter George A. Romero
Tales from the Creep, an interview with actor and make-up artist Tom Savini
Poncho’s Last Ride, an interview with actor Daniel Beer
The Road to Dover, an interview with actor Tom Wright
Nightmares in Foam Rubber, an archive featurette on the special effects of Creepshow 2, including interviews with FX artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero
My Friend Rick, Howard Berger on his special effects mentor Rick Baker
Behind-the-scenes footage
Image gallery
Trailers & TV spots
Original screenplay galleries
Creepshow 2: Pinfall, a Limited Edition booklet featuring the comic adaptation of the unfilmed Creepshow 2 segment “Pinfall” by artist Jason Mayoh
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by festival programmer Michael Blyth
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Mike Saputo
All of the extra features are ported over from Arrow’s earlier Blu-ray edition, with the only change seemingly being that the transfer is a brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original negative.
The commentary with Gornick is an easy listen with the director on fine form and providing plenty of background about the making of Creepshow 2, including the budgetary cuts and interesting comments on Romero’s involvement.
A 2016 interview with George A. Romero runs for 10 minutes, and covers his interest in horror comics, the release of the first Creepshow, the missing stories that were canned for Creepshow 2 and his thoughts on the film and those involved. It’s a good interview, though all too brief.
The Tom Savini interview is even shorter at eight minutes and covers his thoughts on Creepshow, Creepshow 2, and the makeup for The Creep character he plays, as well as some thoughts on New World Pictures, which released the film. Again, it’s a decent listen despite its runtime.
Actor Daniel Beer, who appears in The Raft story as Randy, gives a decent 15 minute interview from 2016, during which he covers his memories of the film and working on it, as well as a fun memory of his co-star Page Hannah, and how cold it was during the shoot at the lake.
Next we have a 14 minute interview with actor Tom Wright, who played the hitchhiker in the final story. The 2016 interview sees Wright give a run through of how he got into acting, talks us through the story, and his recollections of making the film. He clearly had a fun time, which shows in a good interview.
A 2004 featurette with FX artists Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero is the standout extra. Running for 32 minutes and made by Anchor Bay, Berger and Nicotero are on fine form, giving background to their early lives, before their transition into working in the film industry and some of the films they worked on. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes footage of some of the effects being made and some great anecdotes.
Howard S. Berger talks wonderfully about special effects legend Rick Baker in a three-minute outtake from the Anchor Bay featurette. It’s a decent brief interview, with Berger talking passionately about a meeting with Baker as a 14-year-old.
The behind-the-scenes footage from Tom Savini is neat. Running for six minutes it shows us Savini having The Creep makeup applied and performing as the character.
Two trailers and a TV spot are featured. They play up on the involvement of Stephen King and George A. Romero. The TV spot features some specially filmed clips with The Creep character encouraging the home audience to go to the cinema to watch the film.
Three image galleries are included. The first includes promo images, production stills and behind-the-scenes photos and runs for almost four minutes. The other two contain both the 1984 second draft of the script and the 1986 final screenplay draft. The scripts are two very valuable and welcome inclusions.
I wasn’t provided with the physical package, but the booklet and comic book look to be the same as the ones I received with my original limited edition copy of Arrow’s earlier Blu-ray release. So I’ll review those now, but keep in mind, the finished product for the 4K release may differ.
The booklet features an article by festival programmer Michael Blyth. It’s a really strong essay that’s very honest about the quality of the film, highlighting the good, the bad and the ugly, comparing the sequel to Creepshow, and giving a brief overview of the two stories that were cut from the sequel for budgetary reasons.
The comic book features Pinfall, a comic book adaptation of one of the two unfilmed stories that were dropped for budgetary purposes. The other to be canned was Cat From Hell, which was later filmed as a story for The Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Pinfall follows a bowling rivalry between the Regi-Men and Bad New Boors. The Boors are purposely killed in a car crash instigated by the Regi-Men, and return from the grave to seek revenge on their killers. The story is okay for the first half but really comes into its own for the finale, just like the stories in the film, and there’s plenty of gruesome gore. A very welcome inclusion.
In summary, Arrow have provided a strong package for their 4K UHD release of Creepshow 2. The release carries over a really informative commentary, five solid but mostly brief interviews and a really good archival piece on the special effects. The 4K transfer is strong, as is the audio, and all-in-all it’s a package that should please fans of the film.
Disc/Package