Creepshow 2: Critic Reviews

The episodes are marginally interesting, but each is a little too long. And each could be fully explained in a one-sentence synopsis.

Part of the problem is that King's short stories simply work better in print.

George Romero contributes the screenplay this time, basing it on some tastefully selected Stephen King morsels.

Tied together with some humdrum animated sequences, three vignettes on offer obviously were produced on the absolute cheap, and are deficient in imagination and scare quotient.

Whereas Romero's approach to this material is distinctly tongue-in-cheek, Gornick makes the mistake of giving the stories a straightforward treatment that merely heightens their inherent weakness.

The film does at least have a rich visual palette and some well drawn (if distinctly unfunny) animated sequences that play in between each segment. These factors are small compensation for everything else, however.

A satisfying follow-up that retains the same macabre yet spirited tone.

Just as you can't judge a '50s comic book by its lurid cover, so you can't judge a cheapo, three-part film by its sources.

It's filled out with a shoddy, animated wraparound sequence and it's all dropped in the hands of an inexperienced director, Michael Cornick.

If you already know and love Creepshow, the sequel's something you'll probably enjoy...in a Jaws 2 or Halloween 2 kind of way.

Ultimately, the hitchhiker's immortal catchphrase "thanks for the ride, lady" is just another way of saying "Yessuh, massuh."

One of these was more than enough.