Arrow Video: Creepshow 2 (1987) - 4K Reviewed

Images courtesy of Arrow Video

Back in 2016, The Movie Sleuth’s very own Chris Jordan took a comprehensive look at Arrow Video’s 2K restored limited edition blu-ray boxed set of Michael Gornick’s follow up to frequent creative collaborator George A. Romero’s 1982 anthological Stephen King horror film Creepshow.  A divisive sequel many fans of the original horror-comedy classic were underwhelmed by, made for less money and featuring only three segments instead of the original film’s five, it was a step down which nevertheless garnered its own cult following in the years since among horror fans.  As such, it still pales in comparison to the first film as you’ll will see why in Chris’ extensive article on it which I myself can’t do justice and am not about to try to beyond sharing it here.  A box which featured a comic book illustration of the unfilmed fourth segment, it also featured archival behind-the-scenes footage and an audio commentary by director Michael Gornick and up to that point seemed to be the definitive home video release version of the underrated sequel.

 
However circa 2025, Arrow Video have gone back to Creepshow 2 again this time around with a newly minted 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original camera negative, offering the film in Dolby Vision with HDR10 compatibility.  The transfer looks mostly crisp with healthy flesh tones and warm blue skies for many of the daytime sequences, but as Chris mentioned in his review of the 2K restored blu-ray, there are still some problems with blurriness on some of the animated sections.  Minor annoyance but it is there on this version too.  The three sound options are the same as before with lossless mono, stereo and 5.1 surround while retaining and porting over all of the extras from the previous blu-ray release.  But in terms of curating new extras, the boutique label have gone above and beyond the call of duty this time around, including interviews with George A. Romero, Tom Savini, Daniel Beer and Tom Wright.  While everything else extra-wise is about the same, these four new interviews fill out the loose ends left untied by the previous blu-ray edition and offers fans a new fresh perspective on the divisive Creepshow 2. 

 
For those who already own the 2K box which was initially hard to obtain and expensive, the physical contents are more or less the same but the sleeve art has newly commissioned art by Mike Saputo this time around and the digitally remastered transfer and newly filmed extras may want to make some collector’s jump to the 4K edition.  The interviews make a considerable difference in the supplemental materials compared to the previous version.  The animated segments still get kinda fuzzy at times even in 4K but the rest of it looks crisp and the uncompressed sound still was powerful.  All in all, Arrow’s new 4K box proves to be more than just a resolution bump, offering a plethora of new extras absent from the prior release and new exclusive packaging design.  Fans keen on upgrading all of their horror libraries (myself included) into the new ultra-high-definition medium should graciously indulge!

--Andrew Kotwicki