Everyone likes a good horror anthology so I did not initially mind firing up Night Train to Terror. The movie’s setup and premise is an interesting one: God and Satan are on board of a train on its way to eventual destruction, having a conversation and sharing stories. Also on the board is some sort of pop band, whose dull performances we are subjected to watch throughout the movie – the first shortcoming of the movie in the long list of forthcoming faux-pas.

Instead of being a real horror anthology the movie presents us with three full length movies – some previously unreleased – cut down to short story form. Although many of the horror movies I’ve seen to date would’ve worked much better in a shorter form before turning repetitive, here the end result is just odd, with the plot becoming really hard to follow. To overcome this the director had to resort to dubbing in a narrative voice, which is always something of a panic design choice.

Out of the three segments the first one is totally unwatchable mess, second one has an interesting premise of something of a suicide club, but tries to cram in far too much content into its short running time. The final part is the least outrageous, but also seems to be the best movie of the bunch and is cut in a way that still seems to make sense.

The main effort in the cutting room has seemed to gone into including all the gory special effects – and admittedly they are the best aspect of this uneven mess of a movie.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 38%

The sequel to the 1982 original kicks off with ’Old Chief Wood’nhead’, a tale of and old wooden statue waking up to have a revenge. Concept and scares wise it’s the weakest short story of the bunch, but it’s sure good to see George Kennedy getting back to higher quality productions after his weak start to the 80s.

Following up is ’The Raft’, which is a treat. It’s exactly the kind of horror story that would’ve failed as a whole movie, but works perfectly as a short story in an anthology like this.

The last one, ’The Hitchhiker’ is what the nightmares are made of, and I have to applaud the way the whole gore puppetry thing has been taken to comedic levels towards the end. Good stuff!

Overall, Creepshow 2 bests its predecessor and as an horror anthology, it’s the very best that 80s has to offer.

80s-o-meter: 78%

Total: 86%

While he’s still a bestseller, Stephen King’s popularity really peeked in the eighties resulting in many movie adaptations of his books and short stories.

Enter Cat’s Eye, a collection of three individual horror comedy novels linked together very loosely by a cat that wanders around the city between the stories. If you are familiar with Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, there certainly is the same vibe here.

First one of the stories stars James Woods who signs up to a clinic to quit smoking, to find soon their methods to keep to clean are pretty drastic. Second story features Robert Hays who is unvoluntarily put as a centerpiece of a sadistic wager. These two stories, especially the the one with Hays work well.

Then there’s the third one with Drew Barrymore that would be kind of cool if you are an eight year old. Although featured in the poster and ending the anthology and tying the cat theme together, this is the odd one out with a pocket size goblin breaking havoc inside a little girl’s room. I was expecting a grand finale but it really falls flat in the end.

Still, the two first ones are very entertaining.

80s-o-meter: 80%

Total: 65%