Creepshow 2 (1987)

NIGHT 7

       "Thanks for the ride, lady"

Creepshow 2 (1987) is an anthology horror film sequel to Creepshow (1982). Creepshow 2 is directed by Michael Gornick who was George A. Romero's cinematographer on the original Creepshow.

Creepshow 2 contains three stories written by George A. Romero and based on Stephen King short stories. It also has a strange mostly animated framing story that follows around a boy who reads the (fictional) Creepshow comic.

The makeup and special effects in this film are definately not as good as the original, but they're not at all bad either. I think my favorite thing was the lake monster, I have no idea how they did that and it looked amazing. I also love the way they did the makeup on people when it attacked so it looked like it was eating the flesh right off of them. Really awesome stuff!

The acting is good all across the board here (which seems kind of rare for an anthology film.) Every actor in the film seemed to have a good casual acting and then then also a good 'scared' acting too, which sounds weird to say but sadly I've noticed in a lot of horror films the actors are pretty bad at pretending they're freaked out.

The worst thing about the writing in this film is the dialogue. It's clunky, people say stuff no one would really say out loud and worst of all it throws off the otherwise capable actors.

I like the fact that this film has an animated framing story, I just have no idea what the point was! The animation itself is actually quite terrible, and the story just kind of meanders and follows this boy and doesn't really have a point to it.

My favorite thing about this movie are the stories. This film only has three stories and they're definitely quality over quantity. It helps to have three stories because they get a full thirty minutes each and nothing seems rushed, and you have plenty of time to get to know the characters. They all kind of fall into the horror movie stock ending of "and everybody died!" but at least its fun along the way getting there. I think my favorite story was The Raft but they're all very enjoyable. I think this is the first time since Tales from the Crypt (1972) that a movie on this list actually seemed to capture the same feeling as reading the old EC Comics stories that a bunch of these movies are tributes to, so in that regard this film is definitely more successful than the original Creepshow.

I'm in the minority that thinks that Creepshow 2 (1987) is far better than the original. I think I like the concept of the original Creepshow, but I think it was pulled off a lot more successfully in Creepshow 2.

3.5/5 Stars.

 Happy watching!




This review is part of my 2014 run of 13 Nights of Macabre Movies! Tune in tomorrow as I review the (widely accepted) unofficial sequel to this film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie .

Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these fine links:

Creepshow (1982)

NIGHT 5

       "You can't shoot us dead, Richard... "

Creepshow (1982), is a horror anthology film written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero. The film contains five stories that are inspired by the EC Comics horror publications.

The film is connected by a brightly animated sequences and bookended by a an additional story about a young boy who is not allowed to read a horror comic called Creepshow.

Nearly the first thing you will notice about Creepshow is that it contains these flashy comic book style animated sequences and transitions. All of this stuff works, it's a bit over the top, I'm not sure these brightly color animated sequences best represent the black and white horror comics this film is trying to pay tribute to? It can just be a little over the top is all I'm saying, 'we get it.... it's a comic book.'

The stories in Creepshow aren't bad, like the rest of the film they're over-the-top and sadly they kind of fall into the problem of being very bland because they're trying to represent all-too familiar horror tropes, without adding anything new. Honestly this film would have been better if they just stuck to actual EC Comics stories either literally [much like Tales from the Crypt (1972)] or just adapted them from the seed of a comic story. What's weird is the dialogue throughout is very what I would call 'young slang,' this is far different than the tone of the original comics so I have to wonder what Mr. King was trying to do? Was he trying to attract a young audience for the film with silly dialogue? "Meteor shit!"

I like George Romero's direction in this film. It's very simple, nothing is really that complicated or unique but its all very straight forward and effective. He does one really interesting that you may not even notice on the first watch, every time he's showing something supernatural he adds an unnatural light to the characters and the scene much like what Mario Bava did on Black Sabbath (1964) over twenty years before. I'm not sure Romero was copying Bava because they both use it differently, but the end result really does help link the film together with it's brightly colored animated sequences.

The worst and most over-the-top thing about this film is the zany acting. All of the characters don't act like humans, which is not only distracting but it makes it hard to relate to them. As a viewer you end up laughing more, which I'm not sure was the original intention, but I think this is why the film is such a cult classic among horror fans.

My favorite things about the film are makeup special effects and props. I'm not sure if it's because this is the first film on my list that was created in the 80s or if its because a young Tom Savini was in charge of them? Either way its definitely a good reason to check out the film and makes me sad that they don't belong in a more 'serious' horror film, rather than the madcap film that is Creepshow.

Creepshow (1982) folds under any kind of a critical eye, but it makes up for a lot of that by being a whole bunch of fun.

3/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




This review is part of my 2014 run of 13 Nights of Macabre Movies! Tune in tomorrow as I review the film version of The Twilight Zone produced by Stephen Spielberg and John Landis, Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).

Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these fine links:

Day of the Dead (1985)

NIGHT 27

     "They are us."

Day of the Dead (1985) is the second sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), following Dawn of the Dead (1978) it was the final film in the "Dead trilogy", until Land of the Dead (2005) was made years later. Like those films this one is also written and directed by George A. Romero.

Day of the Dead starts months after the zombie outbreak. The story follows a group of survivors who are having trouble living with each other inside an underground military-medical compound that is otherwise pretty safe.

I like the soundtrack in this one, it's a bit too repetitive for my tastes personally, but it still probably has the best soundtrack of any of Romero's Dead films.

Like the previous films in Romero's Dead trilogy, this film offers up a theory to why all of this has happened to them. Unfortunately it's very similar in this film to Dawn of the Dead's theory, but they do take it a little bit further and say that it's possible God was getting angry with us because we're getting too close to him. Which is actually quite fitting for the scientific nature of this film.

[Spoilers!] I like how even though this ending is essentially the same as Dawn of the Dead (our characters escaping at the end of the film via helicopter), Romero finds a more interesting and unique way to do it with the jump to them in their paradise. It's a cool way to do it, and doesn't feel repetitive even though it's really the same ending as before.

[Spoilers!] I don't love the final act of this film where everything kind of devolves and falls apart. It is fitting for the story they set up and the theme of the film though, and even though it kind of just becomes a senseless bloody gore-fest even I must admit it is quite satisfying to see Captain Rhodes and his troops get what has been coming to them the entire film. I also never really felt like the tension was high enough for the main characters as they're escaping in the madness. At no point to I feel like they're ever not going to make it out.

I love the premise and the core roots of this film. When you boil it down, this is a story about struggle, and how peoples lack of communication and inability to overcome each others differences leads to destroy a good thing they had going. Romeo once again uses the zombie fiction as a way to hold up a magnifying glass to the human race" Saying even if we were all safe together somewhere we would be the reason for our own demise. And I love how none of the characters are actually incorrect, they just are all so stuck in their ways that they can't listen to the other people at all and realize if they worked together they could be doing a lot better. "That's the trouble with the world, Sarah darlin'. People got different ideas concernin' what they want out of life."

I really love how this film starts. A novice director would never start a film dropping you in the middle of the story like this, but it works so well! The film starts with the tail-end of a failed helicopter mission, only to find the previous commander has died, and the new guy is kind of a dick. Having the characters learning to deal with the way things are going to be now is a great way to introduce the audience to the world, characters and story.

This film has great acting all around, possibly only trumped by the great characters that this film has. I love how Romero basically makes up for his failure in the previous films at writing a female character by making our central lead her one of the strongest and most badass female characters in film history. She can literally hold her own against a whole crew of asshole military guys, and yet she's not one dimensional at all either. There's plenty of times in this movie that we see how dealing with these people and living like this takes a toll on her.

Day of the Dead also does a really great thing by advancing the zombie findings and lore in a way that makes perfect sense for the way they've acted in the previous movies. I think this was completely necessary for this film series and brings so much more to rewatches of the older films too! And despite there being a bit of a jump in the advancement of what the zombies can do, nothing seems out of place here thanks to the really solid story. And one of my favorite things is the theory of amputation after a zombie bite working if it's quick enough, it's such a bittersweet thing how we never actually get to see if it actually works or not!

And lastly the zombie makeup and special effects is leaps and bounds better here than it was in the previous films. It looks really spectacular. Also the way it works out, the makeup actually seems like they've been decaying over time thanks to the way the makeup technology is advancing and the story keeps taking place further and further away from the original disaster in each film.

Day of the Dead (1985) is my favorite of Romero's Dead films, there's so much accomplished in this small little film and gives you so much to chew (mentally) that I don't think there's been a zombie film as smart as this one since its release.

5/5 Stars.

 Happy watching!




Come back tomorrow as we're going to jump a couple decades, to this film's sequel Land of the Dead (2005) on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies.

Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these links:

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

NIGHT 26

     "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth."

Dawn of the Dead (1978) (also known as Zombi) is the sequel to Night of the Living Dead (1968), this one is also written and directed by George A. Romero. This film also spawned it's own set of unofficial sequels with the "Zombi" films.

Unlike Night of the Living Dead which takes place during and immediately after the mysterious zombie outbreak, Dawn starts a couple days later. This film involves a group of survivors who decide to hold up in a large shopping mall and all the troubles that come with that.

[This review is based on the 127 minute "Directors Cut"]

Unlike Night, which had pretty hit or miss acting, the acting here is all around pretty solid. I like all of our leads here but the big stand out is Ken Foree there's a reason his career has taken off more than the rest, he's got the best performance in this film and you feel for his character more than the rest.

Despite this film being riddled with gore and violence, you could actually argue that this film is pretty clever about its use of gore. There's plenty of very creative zombie deaths and the use of amputees and similar tricks really is quite smart. Most of this credit goes to Mr. Tom Savini, whose career as a makeup/special effects guru fortunately really took off after this film.

The biggest issue with this film is there's not technically any villains. There's the zombies yes, but even they are barely vilified and are more of just a constant caution for our characters. And the biker marauders only come in in the final act. So much of this film doesn't have a over-arching threat. And while this makes for an interesting mood for much of the film it makes a lot of the movie kind of boring. Even the structure is kind of weak when you compare it to Night of the Living Dead, in Night the characters believed (and the film told you) it would be over by the morning and that they just had to survive in the farm house through the night. This film the characters don't question if anyone is coming to help them, or if there's some kind of cure they just assume it's the end of the world and they need to hide out somewhere and make the best of it. This does however tie into this film's "theory" of why the dead have come back to life, interestingly enough [see quote above]. Like I said, this creates a unique and interesting mood, but doesn't make the most interesting film to watch.

There's a huge part of this movie that seems very dated when watched today. Don't get me wrong, when I watched this when I was younger I thought this was the SMARTEST movie I had ever seen. But today I can see that time hasn't been the kindest to this film. Just all the scenes of shopping or "the latest inventions" the mall provides, and definitely the biker gang marauders kind of date the film, that and the soundtrack doesn't help either. 

I'm not a fan of the soundtrack for Dawn of the Dead. I like the Goblin tracks cause they're kind of eerie in a very 70s' way. But all of the rest of the in-between mall music is pretty atrocious. It's some kind of weird horrible cross between polka and elevator music. Fortunately for the film, when viewed today (much like the marauders) it does add some extra humor. You just may walk away from the film with one of the really annoying melodies stuck in your head.

One great thing this film does that most other zombie films can't seem to do is show the zombies in an empathetic light. The end of the first sequence with the swat guys having to kill the zombies kept in the basement of the building does this masterfully. You can tell from the looks on the characters' faces that it's not something they're happy about doing, they know that these used to be humans like themselves but they also know that they need to put them down. Even when clearing the mall, there's a huge difference between the way our heroes do it and the biker gang's killings.

Once again the direction is pretty masterful in this film. In ten years, Romero's intuitive ability at directing has become more refined and well thought out. There's lots of scenes with really suspenseful moments including Stephen getting lost in the darkness of the pipes and trying to fire at a lone zombie that followed him there, the attempt to barricade the doors of the mall amongst a mass of zombies and even the characters hiding out and using the mall as their fortress to battle the invading marauders.

One of my favorite things about this film is the really strong characters. You as the viewer mostly care about all of them and even though they don't get along perfectly the film has a great way of showing that what happens to one character really affects all of the others. I love how even though this film doesn't have a huge villain it still finds away to give all of the main characters a really strong and unique character arc.

And lastly of course I couldn't finish without mentioning this film's social commentary. Apparently unlike Night, Romero started planning this film initially with the germ of its themes. This film (obviously) is a big attack on American consumerism and materialism, which in the world today sadly has only gotten worse since the release of this film. But when you consider that when this was released the shopping mall wasn't as standardized an common place as it is today, you realize that Romero was really thinking ahead with this one. "This was an important place in their lives."

Dawn of the Dead (1978) is a bigger and much deeper film than it's predecessor but it's also longer and more drawn out. One of these days I may do the Argento cut of the film to see how it stacks up.

3.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




Tomorrow on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies we're going to finish Romero's original trilogy with Day of the Dead (1985).

Like this blog? You can support it by buying this film through these links: