Prologue

In the small town of Dexter, Maine, a delivery truck pulls up to a newsstand. Billy,^{[lower-alpha 1]} a young boy, eagerly follows the truck on his bike. The truck's back shutter opens to reveal the Creep, who drops off copies of the latest issue of Creepshow (which has the same cover as the comic in the final scene of the previous film) before vanishing. Billy picks up an issue and begins to read it.

Old Chief Wood'nhead

Ray and Martha Spruce are an elderly couple who run a small town's general store, whose décor includes a cigar store Indian named "Old Chief Wood'nhead." The Spruces are visited by Benjamin Whitemoon, the elder of a local Native American tribe, who gives them a bag of turquoise jewelry, his tribe's sacred treasures, as collateral for the debt the tribe has incurred.

Later that night, the Spruces are robbed by Benjamin's estranged ne'er-do-well nephew Sam Whitemoon, armed with a shotgun, and his two friends, Andy Cavanaugh and Vince Gribbens. In a struggle, Sam's gun goes off and fires at Martha, killing her. Sam shoots and kills Ray as well before grabbing the jewels and driving away with the others. After they leave, Old Chief Wood'nhead comes to life and goes after the thugs. He shoots Vince with multiple arrows, slaughters Andy with a tomahawk, and uses a hunting knife to scalp Sam. The next morning, Benjamin wakes up to find the turquoise jewelry on his bed. He visits the ruined store to find Old Chief Wood'nhead back on the porch, holding Sam's bloody scalp and a bloodstained knife. Now aware of what has happened to the Spruces and what Old Chief Wood'nhead had done to the killers, Benjamin wished the old warrior a peaceful afterlife and drove away.

Interlude 1

At the town post office, Billy receives a package from the clerk, Mr. Haig, that supposedly contains a product advertised in his comic: The bulb for a meat-eating Venus flytrap. Billy pays for the package and sets off for home. The Creep appears behind from the post office counter and begins the next story.

The Raft

In mid-October, four college students, Deke, Laverne, Randy, and Rachel, arrive at Cascade Beach, a desolate lake far from civilization, for some fun. While swimming to a wooden raft in the middle of the lake, Randy witnesses a duck being pulled under the water by an unseen force. Once all four students are on the raft, they discover what Randy was so nervous about: a large, black, blob-like creature resembling an oil slick floating on the surface of the water. As Rachel leans over the raft to try and touch the creature, it grabs hold of Rachel, pulls her into the lake, and digests her. The three panicking students remember that it's currently the off-season, meaning that there is no caretaker to rescue them anytime soon.

As time passes, Deke plans to swim to shore so he can bring back help. Before he can make a break for it, however, the blob seeps through the raft's cracks, grabs Deke by the foot, and pulls him through the raft, killing him. Noting that the creature is still hungry, Randy and Laverne manage to evade the creature as it tries to grab them from under the raft. When night falls, Randy and Laverne take turns watching for the creature, then eventually fall asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning, Randy awakens and begins to kiss Laverne. He lays Laverne on the raft and begins removing her shirt, neglecting the creature. Laverne then awakens, screaming in agony; the creature has seeped through the cracks and covered half of her face. As the blob pulls her off the raft and begins consuming her, a horrified Randy jumps off the raft to swim to shore. He barely makes it and shouts, defiantly, "I beat you!" However, the creature rears up from the water like a wave and engulfs Randy.

The blob returns to the lake, leaving no evidence of the students other than their discarded clothes and still-running car. Unknown to the students, there was a sign barely visible behind some thick vegetation that reads "No swimming."

Interlude 2

On his way back home from the post office, Billy is then ambushed by a gang of neighborhood bullies. The gang's leader, named Rhino, takes Billy's package, finds the Venus Flytrap bulb, and crushes it with his foot. In retaliation, Billy kicks Rhino in the groin and flees as the bullies race after him. As Billy escapes, The Creep appears from behind a tree and goes on to tell the last story.

The Hitch-hiker

Annie Lansing, an adulterous Maine businesswoman, wakes up and gets out of bed after sleeping with her gigolo lover. Annie realizes that she only has 15 minutes before her attorney husband George arrives home, so she hops into her car and races for home several miles away. A spilled ember from her cigarette causes Annie to lose control at a slippery corner, where she runs down a Dover-bound hitchhiker. Seeing that no one witnessed the incident, Annie takes off and doesn't look back. Shortly after she leaves, however, the area is crowded with a truck driver, a pair of passersby, and George, who reports the hit-and-run to the police.

Miles away, Annie thinks about what she has done and briefly considers turning herself in but ultimately concludes that no one has anything on her and thinks that everything will be fine. Before she can continue, however, the hitchhiker suddenly appears outside her window and utters "Thanks for the ride, lady!", a line he repeats throughout the story. Annie speeds off in terror, but the hitchhiker reaches through the sunroof and grabs her. She drives off the road and through the woods, where she knocks the hitchhiker off the roof with a low hanging branch. The hitchhiker appears again, opening the door to the passenger seat. Annie shoots him with a revolver multiple times but fails to kill him. She manages to kick him out of the car and run him over repeatedly. The hitchhiker then climbs onto the hood and pulls up his "DOVER" sign, which now reads "You killed me." Annie again loses control of the car and drives off the road, down a hill, and into a tree. Annie repeatedly slams the hitchhiker into the same tree, knocking herself out in the process.

A while later, Annie awakens from her accident. Not seeing the hitchhiker anywhere, Annie believes the experience was all a nightmare, so she gets back on the road and drives home, actually getting there before George. As she begins to step out of her car, the hitchhiker, gruesomely mangled and still uttering "Thanks for the ride, lady!", crawls out from under the car and attacks her. The garage door swings shut as the interior begins to fill with smoke.

Sometime later, George finally arrives home to find Annie in her still-running car, dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. The hitchhiker's bloodied "DOVER" sign sits in her lap.

Epilogue

Inside the delivery truck, the Creep prepares to drive away and bids the audience farewell, but he then spots Billy, still being chased by the bullies. Billy leads his pursuers into a vacant lot swarming with out-of-control plant growth. The bulb Rhino smashed was not the first one Billy had ordered. A quintet of Giant Venus Flytraps emerge from the surrounding weeds and devour all the thugs (though one possibly escapes offscreen).

The Creep cackles in glee and drives off to deliver the latest issue of Creepshow to another town.

In a post-credits scene, the following text appears:

Juvenile delinquency is the product of pent up frustrations, stored-up resentments and bottled-up fears. It is not the product of cartoons and captions. But the comics are a handy, obvious, uncomplicated scapegoat. If the adults who crusade against them would only get as steamed up over such basic causes of delinquency as parental ignorance, indifference, and cruelty, they might discover that comic books are no more a menace than Treasure Island or Jack the Giant Killer.^[4]