Judgement: More dumb than scary, more funny than dumb. But every now and then, the humour goes out of the situation and the movies take a brief sidetrip to Spooksville. You may have trouble following the plot, but it doesn’t matter. The special effects for the big blobs of Stuffare really fun. Have a ball.

Remember reading those great old horror comics? Stephen king sure did, and he even made a movie about one. Creepshowisa series of short horror stories in that same style, tied together by acomic book theme. Every classic detail is lovingly rendered, tight down to the lines around the heads of the people getting killed and the twist endings. The segments are, in no particular order:

Something To Tide You Over: Leslie Nielsen stars as the villain who buries Ted Danson in the sand up to the neck and lets the tide drown him. But Ted does not rest easy. Leslie isn’t funny here, but he plays the bad guy to the hilt and probably had fun doing it.

The Crate: There’Ssomething nasty with big sharp teeth in a crate that’s been locked under a staircase for 100 years. The second grossest story of the bunch.

Father’s Day: There’s a family reunion held on Father’s Day. Father, long dead, comes back especially for the food. In the process he kills most of the family. Very funny.

The Lonesome Death Of Jordi Verril: A bumpkin (played by Steven King) finds a meteorite in his back field. He acciden- tally breaks it open and green stuff (can you say ‘‘Meteorshit?’’) spills out. The green stuff turns out to be a fertilizer Vigoro would kill for. Really, really funny.

They’re Creeping Up On You: About a zillion roaches get revenge on acompulsive cleaner. The grossest of the bunch.

Judgement: The best of the movies here. Funny, scary, gross and

thoroughly enjoyable. It’s also rather popular, so if you haven’t ‘Seen it, do'so. Also check out Creepshow 2 while you’re at it. Same sort of idea, and almost as good.

Lastly, justto prove I don’t like everything I watch, areview of : The Howling: Part II. haven’tseen The Howling yet, and this Movie is the reason why. Lousy movie about the brother of the woman from the first film teaming up with his fiancee and an old guy who mumbles to wipe out the queen of the werewolves. They even get to go to Transylvania to do it.

Stupid. That sums it up pretty good. Awful dubbing makes the voice track almost unintelligible. Everybody mumbles so you can’t follow the plot which, by the way, is full ofholes. Acting Well below par, even for this kind of movie.

However, there are one or two interesting points. The trademark of the Howling series has always been those interesting sex Scenes where the two lovers start as humans and gradually turn

into werewolves as they near orgasm. Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase basic instinct, don’t it? That’s cool if you like that sort of thing. The plotline also has a couple of cute plot holes, like the fact that the heroes never run out of silver bullets. And the scenes in the European village are genuinely creepy (the kids laugh out loud at a puppet show where the wolf kills Little Red Riding Hood). And the best thing about this particular Howling is the fact that Reb Brown (Yor, the Hunter From The Future) in it and he still has that stupid grin on his face!

Judgement: Like] said, I didn’t like it. Too hard to follow and the voicetrack gave mea headache. Butif you like werewolves and are intrigued by the sex scene described above, you might like parts of it. As my last word on it, I’ ll leave you witha trivia question: How many times do they replay the scene where the female leader of the werewolves rips off her leather blouse? Anybody who sends me an answer to this question will be mentioned in an upcoming column.

Next week: Marvel madness when we take a look at The Punisher. Happy Hallowe’en!