Creepshow 2 4K UHD Review

Creepshow 2 (1987) is the scrappier, slimier, less star-studded sibling to George A. Romero and Stephen King’s original EC Comics homage, the fantastic Creepshow. Directed by Michael Gornick, Romero’s longtime cinematographer, it jettisons the first film’s five-story structure for three longer tales and a wraparound animated segment featuring a bulbous, cackling Creep. The results are uneven but irresistible for anyone with a taste for gooey practical effects and moralizing tales of the macabre.

“Old Chief Wood’nhead” is a slow-burn revenge story with a marvelous animatronic avenger. “The Raft” is the real crown jewel, a masterclass in contained horror that turns a blob of primordial goo on a secluded lake into an inexorable nightmare. “The Hitchhiker” runs out of gas well before its end credits, but delivers Lois Chiles in a deliriously frazzled performance and the immortal line “Thanks for the ride, lady!” The Creep himself (Tom Savini in gnarly makeup) is wonderfully repulsive, even if the animated framing device looks like it was drawn by crayon.

Read our review of Arrow’s previous Blu-ray for more on the movie.

Arrow’s 2016 Blu-ray was a significant event. Sourced from a then-new 2K scan of the interpositive, it dusted off a film that had been treated shabbily on home video and presented it with a filmlike, organic sheen that felt like a minor revelation. It sold out, as Arrow limited editions tend to do, and aftermarket prices climbed. So the announcement of a 4K UHD edition is a cause for celebration, bringing a definitive version back into print with the latest format’s bells and whistles. Arrow themselves include these notes on the new 4K transfer:

“Creepshow 2 is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono, stereo and 5.1 audio.

The film is presented in 4K resolution in HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned, restored and colour graded in 4K at R3Store Studios, London.

The original soundtrack was transferred from the 35mm magnetic master reels by Deluxe Audio Services, Los Angeles, and was conformed and restored at Pinewood Studios.

All materials sourced for this new master were made available by Lakeshore Entertainment and Underground Vaults & Storage.”

The new 4K UHD is sourced from a fresh 4K restoration of the original camera negative, a clear step up in pedigree from an interpositive. On paper, this should be a slam dunk upgrade. In practice, the improvements are incremental in nature that only the most obsessive fan will need to upgrade. That’s not a knock on the restoration work, which is clean, stable, and respectful; it’s simply an acknowledgment that Creepshow 2 has always looked like Creepshow 2.

This is a grainy, frequently soft, deliberately garish film shot on a budget, and the 2016 Blu-ray already wrung most available detail out of the elements. The new scan tightens up the grain field slightly, rendering it a touch more refined and less clumpy in the highlights, but you’ll need to park your nose against a huge OLED to appreciate the difference. Fine detail in facial textures and the Raft’s slimy membrane monster gains a fractional edge, and the optical shots of the Creep’s wraparound are handled with less of a drop-off in quality than before, but these are modest wins.

Where the UHD earns its keep is in the application of Dolby Vision and the correction of small framing errors discovered on the 2016 BD. The color palette was always one of the film’s strengths, that lurid comic-book punch of primary reds and sickly greens. The HDR grade doesn’t reinvent the wheel but subtly deepens saturation, giving blood a richer, wetter crimson and the Raft’s lake a more sinister emerald murk.

Peak brightness is used sparingly, as it should. Spectacular highlights on rippling water or the gleam of a chrome bumper in “The Hitchhiker” get a tiny nudge of extra luminance that adds dimension without betraying the film’s gritty texture. Black levels are solid, with no appreciable crush, and shadow detail in the night sequences holds up well. The new color correction may have darkened Hitchhiker a bit too far but that is a quibble more than a complaint. It’s a tasteful, competent grade.

The trouble is, the 2016 Blu-ray was already so punchy and well-resolved in SDR that the jump to HDR feels more like a gentle refinement than a transformation. The 2016 Blu-ray was already serviceable for a low-budget horror production from the 1980s. Upgrading will get you a slightly more refined grain structure and a tasteful HDR pass that makes the colors pop a little more. Whether that’s worth the price of admission depends entirely on how much you love this greasy, pulpy, gunk-drenched anthology. For most, the math won’t add up.

The HEVC compression is flawless, as we’ve come to expect from Arrow’s authoring house. The main feature run 89 minutes on a dual-layer UHD.

We get the same mono, stereo and 5.1 surround options found on Arrow Video’s earlier 2016 BD. 1.0 PCM, 2.0 PCM and 5.1 DTS-HD MA, respectively.

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack is the clear winner of the lot despite precious few discrete surround moments. The primary benefit of the more expansive 5.1 soundstage is composer Les Reed’s score and Rick Wakeman’s occasional musical contributions.

It’s a lush, more open sound with better dynamics and purer quality. The mono and stereo PCM soundtracks are crisp and lively, with Les Reed and Rick Wakeman’s synth score burbling menacingly through the soundstage. Dialogue is clear and intelligible. The squishy foley work of the Raft devouring its victims remains grotesquely satisfying.

Optional English SDH subtitles appear in a white font.

It’s a strange thing to be disappointed by a perfectly good 4K UHD disc, but Arrow Video’s limited editon Creepshow 2 4K UHD package manages that trick with admirable efficiency. Not because the disc is bad but because it exemplifies the law of diminishing returns so thoroughly that you can hear the bottom of the barrel being scraped.

If you bought Arrow’s excellent limited edition Blu-ray back in 2016, you already own everything of substance here except for a shiny new HDR sticker and a resolution bump that the source material barely needs. What we have is a rehash, a buffet of leftovers reheated on a slightly nicer plate. All special features are thankfully included on the UHD.

Now regarding the special features. Every. Single. One. is ported directly from the 2016 Blu-ray. You get the same audio commentary with director Michael Gornick, which is a dry but informative track.

You also get the animated comic book adaptation, behind-the-scenes stills, trailers, and TV spots. It’s a stacked set of supplements, and in 2016 it was a killer package. In a new 4K UHD release that is explicitly marketed as an upgrade, the complete absence of anything new feels like a missed opportunity at best, and a cynical cash-in at worst.

This is the crux of the matter. If you missed out on Arrow’s earlier Blu-ray and don’t already own Creepshow 2, this 4K UHD is an easy recommendation. It’s the definitive presentation of the film, however marginal the gains, and it comes with a terrific set of archival extras. If you already own that 2016 disc, you have a decision to make. The 4K transfer is a solid effort, but it is emphatically not a quantum leap in video quality. Arrow has served up a handsome redundancy, and that’s a compliment wrapped around a complaint.

Commentary by director Michael Gornick & Perry Martin

Screenplay for a Sequel (10:45 in HD) – George Romero interview.

Tales from the Creep (7:53 in HD) – Tom Savini interview.

Poncho’s Last Ride (14:44 in HD) – Actor Daniel Beer interview, who was in The Raft.

The Road to Dover (13:51 in HD) – Actor Tom Wright from the last tale.

Nightmares in Foam Rubber (32:03 in HD) – Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero interview discussing their effects.

My Friend Rick (02:43 in HD) – Howard Berger discussing Rick Baker.

Behind the Scenes (05:50 in HD)

Image Gallery (03:34 in HD)

Theatrical Trailer 1 (01:38 in HD)

Theatrical Trailer 2 (o1:12 in HD)

TV Spot (00:35 in HD)

Image Gallery (03:35 in HD)

Screenplay (Second Draft)

Screenplay (Final Draft)

Full disclosure: This UHD was provided by the label for review. This has not materially affected DoBlu’s editorial process. For information on how we handle all review material, please visit DoBlu’s about us page.