Thirteen Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #4 Creepshow 2 (1987)

 As previously noted, I am a sucker for anthologies, even though they are so often a mixed bag.  Such is the case with 80s classic Creepshow 2.  Trying to capitalize on the success of the first Creepshow, this second installment just isn't quite as good.  It has only three chapters, down from five in the first movie, due to budget constraints.  Based on stories by Stephen King, it was written by George Romero, and one would think that you couldn't get any more horror pedigreed than that.  But the third chapter is very thin, character- and story-wise, and the first chapter is plagued by bad wigs and off-screen gore.  The interconnecting story is on the light side too, and I didn't much care for the animation, although I get that it's got that comics connection. 

Chapter 1: Old Chief Wood'n Head.  This one at least has George Kennedy!  He's a general store owner in a dying small town.  His wife would like him to cut his losses and close the store but he knows that it's the only place around for the local indigenous population and he doesn't want to leave them stranded, even though they're all overextended on credit.  As he is meticulously repainting the wooden Indian on the front porch, one of the local tribe's elders comes to him.  They treat each other with mutual respect and the elder gives Kennedy a pouch of priceless turquoise and silver jewelry.  When Kennedy protests, the elder says that it is just until they repay their debts.  After the elder leaves, some young punks rob the store, killing the shopkeeper and his wife and taking the tribe's treasure.  The wooden Indian, who has seen all that has transpired at the shop, avenges the killings and retakes the tribe's treasure.

Chapter 2: The Raft.  This is the only one for which I vaguely remember a Stephen King short story.  Four kids go out to a lake long after summer season is over.  It's chilly, but no one is around so they strip down and swim out to the raft in the middle of the lake.  Unfortunately, the lake is home to a menacing slick of black oil/goo that has a taste for meat.  People meat, in case that wasn't clear.  The acting is impressively bad but the evil goo effects are terrifically gross.  And despite my very short plot summary (it's all you need, really), this was a really fun, sick little piece and by far the best of the three.

Chapter 3: The Hitchhiker.  A rich woman, having an affair, is late to get home and runs down a hitchhiker.  She bolts and tries to rationalize that she'll turn herself in later, after she's gotten home.  (Meanwhile, several other good Samaritans, including a truck driver played by Stephen King himself, do stop to try to help but the stricken hitchhiker dies.)  This chapter was especially dumb, I thought.  There's no plot to it at all, just this unsympathetic lady driving her Mercedes through the woods, trying to escape the murdered hitchhiker who is now haunting her.  That's it.  That's the story.  On the plus side, the practical effects of said hitchhiker get increasingly gnarly as the movie goes on, so that's good.