Creepshow (1982) Warner Bros./Horror-Comedy RT: 120 minutes Rated R (graphic violence and gore, language) Director: George A. Romero Screenplay: Stephen King Music: John Harrison Cinematography: Michael Gornick Release date: November 12, 1982 (US) Cast: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King, Warner Shook, Robert Harper, Elizabeth Regan, Gaylen Ross, Jon Lormer, Don Keefer, Bingo O’Malley, John Amplas, David Early, Nann Mogg, Joe Hill, Iva Jean Saraceni, Tom Atkins, Christine Forrest, Chuck Aber, Marty Schiff, Tom Savini. Box Office: $21M (US)
Rating: ****
Anthology films are difficult. It’s always a game of hit-or-miss. You’re always going have segments that work better than others. Sometimes all it takes is one weak story to bring down the whole movie. That’s especially true in the horror genre. If one tale fails the scare the pants off viewers, it throws off the rhythm of the movie.
I’ve seen several horror anthology movies over the years and my favorite is still Creepshow. Right off the bat, it has a great…. no, awesome pedigree. It’s directed by George A. Romero who kicked off the zombie apocalypse subgenre with the B&W classic Night of the Living Dead. It’s written by best-selling horror author Stephen King (Carrie, The Shining, etc.). Tom Savini (Friday the 13th, Maniac) does the makeup effects. It has an all-star cast that includes Hal Holbrook and Adrienne Barbeau (both of 1980’s The Fog), Fritz Weaver (Demon Seed), E.G. Marshall (Two Evil Eyes), Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet) and Viveca Lindfors (The Exorcist III). You rarely see a line-up this impressive.
I went to see Creepshow at the movies in November ’82. I was 14 and had never seen a horror anthology movie before. I was blown away by it. It’s a homage to the EC horror comics- e.g. Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror- of the 50s. Romero and King create a link to them by framing the stories’ introductory shots in comic book panels. They even show pages containing ads for crappy gimmicky toys you send away for- e.g. X-ray glasses, voodoo dolls- between segments. It’s really cool. Creepshow is literally a live-action comic book.
The wraparound story has a boy named Billy (future comic book writer Joe Hill) being punished by his bullying father (an uncredited Tom Atkins) for reading a horror comic book which he promptly throws in the trash. Billy sits in bed cursing his father as a storm kicks up outside. “The Creep” (from the comic book) appears at his bedroom window and the macabre stories begin.
In the first tale “Father’s Day”, a wealthy family gathers for their annual Father’s Day dinner which also happens to be the anniversary of the day unstable Aunt Bedelia (Lindfors) smashed her dad’s head open with a marble ashtray. He was a mean SOB and had it coming. Every year, Bedelia sits by the grave and reminisces about that day before joining the rest of her clan, a greedy bunch only interested in finally getting their hands on his money. This year’s gathering will probably be the last as his rotting, maggot-ridden corpse rises from his grave and starts killing off his relatives one by one.
The second story “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” is generally considered the weakest of the five but I like it. King himself plays the titular character, a simple-minded hick who witnesses a meteorite crash-land on his property. Thinking the local college will pay big bucks for it, he goes to retrieve it. When he does, he comes into contact with a strange liquid that causes a green, moss-like fungus to grow on his body. This does not end well, trust me.
In the third tale of terror “Something to Tide You Over”, a vindictive husband (Nielsen) murders his cheating wife (Ross, Dawn of the Dead) and her lover (Danson, Cheers) by burying them up to their necks on his private beach and leaving them there to drown when the tide comes in. In a movie like Creepshow, dead people don’t necessarily stay dead.
The next segment “The Crate” is the best. In it, a mysterious crate is discovered under the stairs in the basement of a college science building. It’s been there for nearly 150 years. Professor Dexter Stanley (Weaver), figuring it probably contains old magazines or plant samples, opens it to discover that it actually contains a monster who’s still very much alive and very hungry…. for flesh. When it kills a grad student, Dexter goes to his friend Henry (Holbrook) for help. Henry is a mild-mannered English professor married to a loud drunken shrew, Billie (Barbeau), who’s constantly berating and emasculating him in front of his friends and colleagues. Henry sees a way to solve his marital problems.
The final tale “They’re Creeping Up on You” deals with a crazy old rich guy (Marshall) living in a supposedly germ-free apartment. He has a cockroach problem you have to see to believe. The film ends with a final visit to our friend Billy who’s come up with a way to deal with his dad once and for all.
The tagline on the poster reads “The Most Fun You’ll Ever Have Being Scared”. This is solid proof that truth in packaging does exist. Creepshow is a perfect blend of horror and macabre comedy. It has a nice amount of gore and violence which is balanced out by the Romero’s tongue-in-cheek approach to the material. It’s his way of letting the audience in on the joke. One of the movie’s best in-jokes is the casting of Savini and fellow Dawn of the Dead motorcycle gang member Marty Schiff as the two garbagemen who find the discarded comic book and leaf through it. Speaking of Savini, he does his usual masterful job on the gore and makeup effects.
There are plenty of decent “BOO!” moments in Creepshow. It also has a bit of a sadistic edge to it. Each story deals, to varying degrees, with revenge. Okay, maybe not “Jordy Verrill” but the others definitely. The ones on the receiving end of the revenge scenarios deserve what they get. The cast (also in on the joke) is superb. Many will find it odd seeing Nielsen play a straight role but what they don’t realize is that he didn’t start out as a comic actor. Before Airplane and Police Squad, he generally played villains in thrillers and crime dramas. Barbeau is a riot as a shrew to end all shrews. King isn’t a great actor but his exaggerated characterization of a dimwitted yokel is a nice comic touch. He’s like something out of a cartoon.
What I like most about Creepshow now is that it’s a sincere effort even if it is comedic. The makers obviously have a genuine affection for the genre and the source material. It’s not done ironically like the Scream movies. It embraces the genre’s conventions rather than making the audience aware of how aware it is of said conventions. You could even say that Creepshow is a labor of love albeit a bloody one with reanimated corpses, monsters and roaches (lots of them!). This is the kind of horror movie I love, a full tilt boogie R-rated fright fest with a comedy chaser. This movie is a fitting tribute to a genre that used to be bolder.
