In a small Maine town, young Billy waits on his bicycle for the magazine delivery truck, anxious to get the new issue of Creepshow comics. The cover of the magazine reads “Jolting Tales of Horror.” Billy begins reading the comic book as he heads home on his bike. In the story “Old Chief Wood’nhead,” a large wooden Indian sits in front of Spruce’s General Store in Dead River, a once thriving, but now dying town in Arizona. Store owner Ray Spruce refreshes the paint on the sun-bleached wooden Indian, while his wife, Martha, suggests they close the store and retire, while they still have some savings left. Ray believes that they have made their living from the people in the town and cannot abandon the residents during the hard times. Ben Whitemoon, a Native American tribe official, brings Ray an assortment of jewelry from each of the families in town who owe him money. Ray refuses to accept it, but Ben suggests a compromise. The tribesmen will pay him back in the next two years and Ray will return their jewelry. Those who cannot pay in that time will forfeit their jewels. When Ray and Martha Spruce go back inside, they find three local youth robbing the store, led by Sam Whitemoon, the nephew of Ben Whitemoon. The young men take what little money is in the cash register, and trash the store. Sam Whitemoon holds Martha at gunpoint, demanding the jewelry as well. Ray pleads that the jewels are from Sam’s own people and that he should not steal them. Sam accidently pulls the trigger and Martha is shot and killed. As Ray rushes to his wife, Sam fires at him, killing him. Sam and his two friends make plans to leave for Hollywood, California, later that night. Sam dreams of stardom and believes his waist-length hair will help him become famous. They shoot their guns around the store and also shoot the wooden Indian. After they leave, the Indian comes to life. As Fatso, one of the three thieves, packs his bags, Chief Wood’nhead comes to his house, and shoots and kills him with arrows. When Andy Cavenaugh tries to sneak out of the house without his parents noticing, he finds his car has been smashed up. As Andy examines the damage, Chief Wood’nhead smashes his skull with a tomahawk. At Sam Whitemoon’s house, Sam sees the wooden Indian coming and shoots, but does not stop the monster, which kills him. The next morning, Ben Whitemoon drives to the store and the wooden Indian is back his usual position, but holding the scalped head of Sam. In “The Raft,” four college friends drive down a winding country road to an isolated lake on a late September afternoon. They smoke marijuana and are eager to go swimming. When they arrive, they put on their bathing suits and swim to a wooden raft anchored in the middle of the small lake. Randy notices some sludge in the water that seems to be moving toward them. When they climb onto the raft, Deke dismisses Randy’s concern and they smoke some more marijuana. As the sludge gets near the wooden raft, Rachel reaches out to touch it. The sludge grabs her, pulls her into the water, and kills her. The others say the sludge “ate” Rachel. The three friends cautiously watch the sludge, which goes under the raft, reaches up between the wooden slats, and grabs Deke’s foot, pulling him into the water and killing him. Randy and Laverne nervously take turns watching the sludge, which sits in the water a few feet away from the raft. However, Laverne falls asleep while on watch and the sludge pulls her into the water and kills her. Randy jumps into the water and swims for shore. The sludge gives chase but Randy beats it back to the land. Randy screams at the sludge, “I beat you!” However, as the sludge gets to shore, it creates a giant wave that engulfs Randy, killing him. In “The Hitchhiker,” Annie Lansing wakes up in her lover’s bed. The power has gone off and she is now late. She pays the man $150 for his services and thanks him for the six orgasms he gave her. Annie rushes to her Mercedes Benz automobile and worries what her demanding husband, lawyer George Lansing, will say when she is not home by 11:30 p.m. as promised. She worries how she can possibly drive twenty miles in seven minutes. When she accidently drops a lit cigarette on the leather car seat, Annie momentarily looks away and hits a hitchhiker on the side of the road. She stops her car, wondering if she should get out to help the man, but also realizes that the area is deserted and no one saw her hit him. A moment later, she sees headlights coming around the curve and speeds away. The next driver stops to help the man, as do a truck driver and another car. They telephone 911 to report a hit and run. Several miles down the road, Annie comes to a stop sign and finds the hitchhiker she hit is following her, his face bloody from the impact with the pavement. He comes to her car window and says, “Thanks for the ride.” Annie speeds away, but the hitchhiker attempts to get in through the open sun roof. Annie closes the sun roof, but the hitchhike’s hand is stuck inside the car. Annie drives into the woods, hoping a low-hanging tree branch will knock the man off the roof. After he falls from the roof, Annie believes she is safe, but reaches into the glove compartment to get a pistol nonetheless. As she does this, the hitchhiker opens the passenger door, saying, “Thanks for the ride,” and lunges toward her. Annie shoots him and he falls to the ground. She runs over the man again and again, then drives away. However, a moment later, the man crawls onto the hood of the car. Annie drives into a tree to throw him from the hood and then hits him repeatedly with the car until his body is split in two. Annie passes out in the car and when she awakens, a light snow covers the ground. The car is wrecked, and covered in blood with many dents. The front headlight hangs by a wire, while the front bumper has fallen off. Annie drives through the dark woods until she finds the highway, then drives home, convincing herself that she can tell her husband she is late due to an accident. But when she pulls into the garage at her house, her husband’s car is not there. The hitchhiker crawls from the underside of her car and attacks. When her husband arrives home a little later, he finds the garage door closed, the engine still running, and Annie dead.