Editorials
[It Came From the ‘80s] Predatory Sludge, Vengeful Chief Wood’nhead, and the Creep in ‘Creepshow 2’
The Creep, sporting a very different look from the first film, arrives in a small town in Maine to assist another boy named Billy. This Billy isn’t dealing with a mean dad, but a bunch of bullies. With a grim solution to Billy’s bullying problem, the Creep also brings three new tales of terror; “Old Chief Wood’nhead”, “The Raft”, and “The Hitchhiker”. Written by George A. Romero based on Stephen King’s stories, original Creepshow cinematographer Michael Gornick picked up the directorial duties for this sequel. While it may not reach the same heights as its predecessor, Creepshow 2 is still a pretty fun sequel full of great effects.
“Old Chief Wood’nead” kicks off the anthology with a tale of revenge. When a sweet elderly couple are slaughtered by a greedy trio who have come to steal valuable collateral on loan by a Native American tribe elder, the wooden Indian that adorns their store’s front porch comes to life to seek retribution. The makeup effects were created by Ed French (The Stuff, Blood Rage, Terminator 2: Judgment Day), who sculpted the body of Old Chief Wood’nhead. Mike Trcic (Jurassic Park, In the Mouth of Madness) sculpted the head. It was actor Dan Kamin, a mime, who brought the creature to life with stiff, wooden movements. The look and movements of this creature elevate a fairly straightforward segment.
It’s the next segment, “The Raft”, that’s most fondly recalled in this anthology, for good reason. The strange oil slick blob that inhabits a lake devours its victims in gruesome ways. But it was also the most difficult segment to shoot in terms of weather, effects, and contention behind the scenes. Initially, French had designed and created the amorphous creature, mostly with layered latex and mechanical rigs underneath to pull it through the water. It didn’t quite cooperate when it came time to film, though, and Gornick bypassed French to consult Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero, who had been pulled into production by a line producer that wanted the duo to oversee the effects. French left production during filming of this segment, leaving Berger and Nicotero to complete it.
Most of the gross-out, ooey gooey slimy aspects of the creature was black UltraSlime, a substance that, at least at the time, was extremely difficult to wash off. The first victim, Rachel (Page Hannah), first has the creature’s slime shoot up her arm. Once she’s pulled in, the slime-covered Rachel that emerges from the lake is actually stunt woman Patricia Tallman (the very one who played Barbara in 1990’s Night of the Living Dead). So, who knows what kind of trouble she endured getting the Ultra Slime off. The lack of time and budget in which the special effects team had to work with, in addition to rainy weather and freezing water, meant even more complications production had to work around for this segment.
Finally, there’s “The Hitchhiker”, which sees a rich adulteress being terrorized by the hitchhiker (Tom Wright) she killed in her rush to get home. Makeup effects creator Howard Berger (2009’s The Last House on the Left, Drag Me to Hell), designed and sculpted all six stages of the hitchhiker’s progressive body damage. As he pops up each time, uttering memorable line, “thanks for the ride lady,” he becomes more mangled the more the woman uses her car to destroy him. Nicotero (2009’s The Last House on the Left, Drag Me to Hell) crafted the dummies that would be used in the instances the woman would run the hitchhiker over. And finally, the last iteration of the hitchhiker was so mangled that a puppet was built. Berger operated the puppet, the facial features were radio controlled, and the tongue hanging from its gaping mouth was mechanical.
Originally, French was cast to play The Creep from the wraparound story, but his departure meant the role needed to be recast. Enter Tom Savini, who was also credited on the film as a makeup effects consultant. With Everett Burrell’s (1990’s Night of the Living Dead, The Dark Half) makeup designs and work, which took six hours to apply, and Savini’s theatrical performance as the Creep (voiced by Joe Silver), it’s a shame he wasn’t featured in the film more.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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