Editorials
“The Raft”: One of Horror’s Scariest Anthology Segments Turns 30
Thirty years ago, four young actors and a big black tarp terrified the world.
Those who know me know that I stay away from any body of water that’s not contained within in a pool in someone’s backyard. Like most, I blame Jaws and sharks in general for my fear of the water, but I’d be remiss to not also give a good deal of that credit (if you can call it that) to the most memorable segment from Creepshow 2 – released 30 years ago on this very day.
I’m of course talking about “The Raft.“
I’d be lying if I said that I remember the first time I saw Creepshow 2, but I damn sure do remember watching it as a kid and being absolutely horrified by “The Raft” in particular. Directed by Michael Gornick and based on Stephen King’s short story (first published in 1982 and then released as part of Skeleton Crew in 1985), the anthology sequel’s second of three segments centered on four young friends who decided to swim out to a raft in the middle of a lake to smoke pot, have fun, and just generally do the sorts of things that horror movie victims are wired to do.
Of course, there’s a monster on the loose: a floating blob-like creature that the characters initially believe to be a harmless oil sick. And it’s incredibly hungry, no matter how much it eats.
Watching “The Raft” today, as a 30 year old grown man in the year 2017, it’s of course not nearly as terrifying as it was when I was a child; at the same time, I was surprised to discover just how well the short film’s three main attack sequences hold up to this day. Sure, the monster may often look like little more than a black tarp and a pile of ’80s toy slime, but it’s undeniably horrifying to see it attack and slowly consume its victims, often melting away their flesh in the process. The most horrifying moment in the segment is also the single most iconic image in Creepshow 2 as a whole: the sentient oil slick’s first victim, a young woman, is pulled into the water and swallowed alive while her friends watch on – she desperately reaches out to them for help, to no avail.
“IT HURTS!!!” she repeatedly screams. And you feel her pain.
Shortly thereafter, a dude in a revealing yellow speedo is pulled through the cracks of the raft, his body literally folded in half. The blob monster’s third victim has her face agonizingly melted off before being pulled into the water, and it strikes one more time by essentially taking the form of a wave and proving that even those on the shore are not safe from becoming its next meal.
Looking back, I don’t at all fault my young self for being terrified of stepping foot in the water after seeing Creepshow 2. Sharks may be a realer threat, but I’d watch out for oil monsters too…
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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