In 1982 two of the greatest minds in the horror genre came together to create a movie anthology that would forever change the way we see horror films, Stephen King and George Romero collaborated for this creepy project durring their prime. In the early 80's King wrote some of his best books and Romero had finished Dawn of the Dead years earlier and would soon be making Day of the Dead, making it the perfect time for the two to create a terrifying horror anthology like no other...Creepshow. King has admitted to being a huge fan of the classic E.C. comics from the fifties like Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear and it is pretty obvious that those comics were a huge influence on King and Romero while creating the style of this film. There are many comic book-like scenes throughout Creepshow with the use of bright neon lights and dramatic background colors in the shocking moments in each episode.
The film begins with with a prologue as Billy (played by Joe King) is being yelled at by his father Stan (played by Tom Atkins) for having a "Creepshow" comic book. After smacking Billy, Stan throws the comic into the garbage. As Billy sits on his bed in his room, he suddenly sees the "Creeper" at his window smiling at him and suddenly the scene becomes a fantastic animated sequence as we go into the main credits.
The first story in the anthology is Father's Day, a frightening tale of revenge and cake. Aunt Bedelia (Viveca Linfors) returns to her Fathers home on Fathers day to pay her respects like she does every year. The rest of her relatives wait for her arrival as Bedelia goes straight to her fathers grave and passes out drunk. Her bottle of whiskey tips and the wiskey pours into the ground down to her dead father waking him from his slumber. There is a flash back to the Fathers death and we find out Bedelia killed him with an ashtray (the ashtray used in this scene can be seen in all of the storys that follow if you watch close enough). First to be killed by the zombie of their dead father is Bedelia, and then the others one by one. The maggotts used in the zombies eyes were rice krispies mixed with real maggotts. Ed harris plays one of the victims in this episode who gets crushed by a tombstone. In the end the returned dead father finally gets his cake in an excellent end scene that is probably the best shot in the film. Fathers day is one of my favorite stories in the entire movie and the zombie looks great.
On to the second story in which Stephen King himself plays a lonesome man named Jordy Verrill who gets a nasty disease from a meteor in "The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill." As Jordy is sitting at home one night a meteor crashes into his backyard. The first mistake Jordy makes is touching the meteor which starts a moss like growth on his finger tips. Jordy pays no mind to the groth and is more concerned with the money he will recieve when he sells the meteor. Soon Jordy cannot ignor the moss like growth as it spreads to his face and even his tounge. The ghost of Jordy's dad appears in his mirror and warns Jordy of the danger of getting in the bath tub to releive the constant itching, but Jordy doesn't take the advice from his father and jumps in the water which is the worst thing he could have done since the alien growth thrives on water. In the end Jordy does not even resemble a human anymore and has to deicide his fate. The last few shots in the film show Jordy's appartment covered in the alien moss and it is even sprouting throughout his yard as we heard on a radio the weather man predicting a lot of rain for the summer. I really love this ending, It is very much a Stephen King ending letting us know this are only going to get worse. Also at the end of this segment there is a shot of a sign leading to "Castle Rock", Stephen Kings ficticious town used in many of his books. King did a great job as Jordy, a simple minded country bumpkin and brings some real comedy to the character and does an excellent job as the only character in the story which can be a hard, some of his facial expressions are unforgettable. This is probably King's best acting performance and his longest. The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill is a fun story in the anthology and is a nice lighthearted change from the terrifying first story.
The third story is my personal favorite titled "Something to tide you over". Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) is awakened by a knocking at his door while sleeping. He answers it only to find Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielson), the husband of Becky (Gaylen Ross) whom Harry is sleeping with. Richand explaines to Harry that he has Becky and if Harry wants to see her alive again he has to get in his jeep and go with him to his beach house. With no other choice Harry goes with him and finds that Richards beach house is very private. Richard takes Harry down to the beach and then pulls a gun on him and tells him to dig a hole. Once again, with not other option Harry digs the hole. Then Harry is buried up to his neck rendering him completelydefensless. Richard comes through with his promise of letting Harry see Becky once this is done by setting up a TV on the beach. Harry sees becks also buried up to her neck on the beach and the tide is rapidly coming in splashing in her face as she calls out for Harry's help. Harry at this point realizes he is screwed and is going to drown just like Becky when the tide comes in. Richard returns to his multi-million dollar beach house and begins to unwind with a drink and a shower, but soon becomes very paranoid as he begins to hear strange noises. He has cameras all over the house yet sees nothing and tries to calm himself of his own paranoia. In a really terrifying scene Richard realizes his fears are real as Harry and Becky return from their watery graves to get their revenge. The make-up done on the zombies is great, they really look rotted and waterlogged, thanks to the creative special effects artist Tom Savini who is the best zombie designer of all time, and many other effects. Even Harry and Beckys voices are creepy as hell as they sound all gargley and demonic. This scene is sure to get under anyones skin. In the end Richard is sent to the same watery grave as Harry and Becky in a perfect tale of revenge very much like a Tales from the Crypt story. Leslie Nielson does an excellent job as the jeallous millionair husband who is not working with a full deck of cards, even though he is mostly known for his comedy roles in The Naked Gun and movies like it, he proves that he is a well rounded actor who can pull off a role that is a bit more serious. Ted Danson also does a good job and is very convincing, in an interview he stated that his young daughter was on the set while he had to be done up as the zombie with all the seaweed on him and tried to avoid her as much as he could. "Something to Tide You Over" is just a fun little tale of revenge and is very creepy and achieves the comic book feel more than the others.
In the fourth story "The Crate" we are introduced to Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook) who is married to quite possibly the meanest, bitchiest woman on the planet Wilma Northrup (Adrienne Barbeau). One day Henry and a co-worker discover a crate under the stairs and deicide to take a look. They quickly discover that opening the crate was a bad idea as Henry's friend is dragged into the crate by some beast. On the set Romero lovingly gave the nickname to the monster in the crate "Fluffy". Henry quickly locks up the crate before the beast can get loose and cleans up the blood. After a series of scenes involving Wilma yelling at Henry and just plain degrading him, Henry gets the idea that if he can just get her close enough to the crate, whats inside will take care of Wilma once and for all, and thats just what he does. "The Crate" is a fun story but not the best in the anthology. Hal Holbrook and Arienne Barbeau both are great actors and are great in this tale as a disfunctional married couple. The two characters at the faculty reception "Tabitha" and "Richard" were named after Tabitha King and Richard Bachman (King's ghostwriting name).
The last story is apropriately titled "There Creeping Up On You" starring E.G. Marshall as Upson Pratt, and rich old man living in a super sanitized apartment who is scared to death of bugs...especially cockroaches. Just like King in "The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill", Marshall has to act alone and hold the story all on his own, and he does a great job acting. The cockroaches start off as only a few here and there as Upson armed with bug killer spray takes them out one by one. His apartment is completely white making it easier to see the little bastards so there is nowhere to hide. In Kings original story Upson lived in a plush carpeted apartment but had to bechanged so the roaches would work. You really get the feeling that Upson is so paranoid of bugs it has taken over his whole life to the point where he doesen't ever leave his apartment. The cockroaches begin multiplying quickly as Upson does all he can to kill them all, grinding them up in the garbage disposal and a blender making a bug shake, but the roaches start comming in the apartment in hoards and soon there is nothing Upson can do. In the end Upson is litterally filled with roaches as the come pouring out from every orafice. This was a great story and may be a bit unsettling to anyone to hates bugs.
In the epologue to the film, Billy gets his revenge on his father for taking away his Creepshow comic with a voodoo doll.
There has been only one DVD release of Creepshow in a super bare bones edition with a cardboard cover. Hopefully someday soon this film gets the special edition it deserves.
There have been a lot of Tv and Movie anthologies within the horror genre such as Tales From The Crypt, Twilight Zone, Tales From The Darkside, Bodybags, Amazing Stories, Chillers and many, many more. Creepshow really stands out as a great example as one of the best of all the anthologies, Creepshow 2 is also a great film. Creepshow 3 made many years later from the first two and unlike those was not written and directed by King and Romero, is the weakest of the series and holds none of the charm that the first two had. The poster art for Creepshow 1+2 are both good examples of the great poster art movies use to have back in the day created by Johann Costello. Jack Kamen inked the comicbook seen in the film. Kamen is one of the original artists for E.C. comics, King asked if he would do it and Kamen accepted since the film was really based upon those comics that King and Romero both have fond memories reading in their youth. Tom Savini plays the garbage man at the end of the movie. The main theme in the film "Gaudeamus Igitur" was preformed by Christian Wilhelm Kindleben and fits the film perfectly. Most of the film was filmed in Romero's home state Pennsilvania with a few sections filmed in New Jersey.
Creepshow was budgeted at $8,000, opening weekend it made $5,870,000 and has since grossed $20,000,000.
Creepshow is a truely original movie made by real masters of the horror genre. There is a remake in disscussion right now and wether it's good or bad the original will forever remain not only my favorite anthologly of all time but possibly on of my favorite films of all time.
Rating: A
Review by Jason
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