Synopsis:

George A. Romero and Stephen King clasped hands again and revisited the creature feature they created in Creepshow, aptly titling the second and final entry Creepshow 2. Much like the first feature, Creepshow 2 is a collection of scary stories that get better and better as the film progresses. The three tales of terror that comprise Creepshow 2 are: Old Chief Woodenhead The Raft and The Hitchhiker! In the first feature, Old Chief Woodenhead is a wooden Indian that has stood guard over the town 5 & 10 for some forty years. George Kennedy and Dorothy Lamour are the proprietors of the establishment that has served the Native American community for almost a half century. One particular evening, some local punks intent on having a good time robbing them and tearing up their store, murder the couple and make off with a whopping few dollars in change and a bag or so in groceries. All under the watchful eye of the Chief. Intent on making them pay for the lives of his "family", Chief Woodenhead sets out to exact his revenge on the unwitting dolts in a way that only the Chief can do.

The second entry is entitled The Raft. In it, four horny teens swim out to a swimmers' raft in the middle of an extremely scenic, serene and secluded spot. In the hopes of getting into their dates' pants, the guys ply the girls with weed and set out to increase maximum body heat by lots of kissing, groping and hugging. What they didn't know was that something lurking in the lake had something of an appetite as well. One by one, they try to reach shore only to meet with less than successful results. If Jaws kept you out of the ocean, The Raft will keep you out of the lake!

The third and final entry in this cavalcade of chills is The Hitchhiker. A wealthy woman who is unsatisfied with her husband's prowess, or lack of it thereof in the bedroom, heads cross town and through the woods for her regular dalliance with the not quite "American Gigolo". The hour is late and she realizes must away in order to beat her husband home and complete the subterfuge (great word subterfuge!) Anyway, on the way home, she slams into a hitchhiker and badly wounds him. Instead of checking to see if he's ok or even dialing for help, she speeds away in the hopes of beating her husband home to ready her " I hit a deer honey" speech. In true horror fashion, the dead are never truly dead and the hitchhiker comes back to say, "Thanks for the ride lady"!

Audio/Video:

The audio is presented in a DD2.0 platform that adequately presents the aural textures of the feature. The listening space is decently engaged throughout the feature and all dialogue is clear and easily understood. There are no surround effects to speak of and the resultant audio presentation while lacking any real punch is not really that bad an experience. The video is a huge improvement over the previous Warner Brothers issued release of Creepshow. The image is a sparkling anamorphically enhanced transfer that suffers from a few knicks and scratches here and there as well as a little pixellation issue in the last chapter. However, looking at the first film's awful transfer compared to this film's look, this one is perfect! The colors are a little soft in places but on the whole they are reasonably well saturated and true.

Extras:

The sole extra on the disc is the film's very 80's trailer.

Overall:

Creepshow is a very entertaining schlocky comedic horror fest that got even better with it's second entry. The first film was so poorly prepared by WB; I held little hope for the quality of the second. Anchor Bay thoroughly surprised me (and pleasantly so) by not only providing a great transfer and meatier audio, but also including some pretty neat menu screens as well. For $15 you can't go wrong here. Recommended