So-so PG-rated comic book horror scripted by Stephen King and directed by George Romero. It looks great but otherwise really isn’t much.
CREEPSHOW (1982) was George Romero’s comeback after 1981’s disastrous KNIGHTRIDERS, and was a moderate success at the box office. Made by Romero’s production company Laurel and distributed by Warner Brothers (Romero’s first experience with a big studio), it was a sincere homage to the horror comics of the fifties that inspired Romero and King. As such it works fairly well, with five lurid, pulpy narratives involving zombies, ghouls and bugs, at least three of which were adapted by Stephen King from his own short fiction (King likewise scripted the graphic novel adaptation of the film, impressively illustrated by the great Bernie Wrightson).
CREEPSHOW (1982) was George Romero’s comeback after 1981’s disastrous KNIGHTRIDERS…
Inevitably, a sequel was made in 1987, scripted by Romero and directed by CREEPSHOW’S cinematographer Michael Gornick, which I actually find more satisfying than the original. CREEPSHOW 2 contains three segments (including an adaptation of King’s nail-biting novelette “The Raft”) as opposed to the five of part one, and so was able to devote more time to each, and furthermore had an honest-to-goodness R rating, something CREEPSHOW could have definitely used.
A young boy is caught by his father reading a horror comic called CREEPSHOW. The enraged father throws it in the garbage, but a gust of wind blows it into the street, where a Crypt Keeper-like ghoul hosts five gruesome stories from the comic.
“Father’s Day” is first. The supremely bitchy Sylvia Grantham is throwing a Father’s Day party in honor of the fact that her vile husband Nate is dead. Flashbacks reveal that he was killed years earlier by Sylvia’s daughter Bedelia, who was driven mad by her dad’s obnoxious cries of “I want my cake!” at a previous Father’s Day gathering. But this party is to be different: during a visit by Bedelia to her father’s grave, the old man’s rotting corpse bursts out of the ground and rips off her head. From there the zombie heads to the Father’s Day party with Bedelia’s head, decorated with frosting and birthday candles, on a platter, and proclaims “I have my cake!”
In “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” a meteor crashes in the backyard of Jordy Verrill, a penniless hillbilly. Jordy dreams of using the meteor to pay off his debts, but makes the mistake of pouring water on it, thus cracking it open. It disgorges “meteor shit” on the ground, facilitating the spread of a malignant growth which quickly takes over the surrounding countryside…and the body of Jordy himself.
“Something to Tide You Over” features loony TV producer Richard Vickers, who, upon learning his wife Becky is having an affair with the dashing Harry, vows to do her in. This he does by burying Becky in the sand on a nearby beach, so as the tide comes in she’s drowned. Richard then lures Harry to his beachside mansion and kills him in the same way. But just how dead are Becky and Harry?
In “The Crate”, Dexter, a janitor, is rocked by the discovery of a 150-year-old crate under the stairs of the university lab where he works. The crate houses a toothy creature with a taste for human flesh that devours several of Dexter’s fellow janitors. When Dexter tells his buddy Henry about the critter, the latter sees a perfect opportunity for getting rid of his ultra-bitchy wife.
“They’re Creeping up On You” is the last story. The loathsome Upson Pratt is a wealthy tycoon who lives in a hermetically sealed big city apartment. One night his home is invaded by cockroaches that Upson can’t seem to get rid of; there’s a blackout and Upson dies of a heart attack, but the roaches aren’t done with his body.
The film closes with the conclusion of the wrap-around tale: the kid whose CREEPSHOW comic was thrown out by his father is pissed, and looking for revenge. He gets it in the form a voodoo doll ordered from an ad in the comic—the kid repeatedly stabs the doll in the neck, causing his old man to feel corresponding pains in his neck.
If nothing else, CREEPSHOW was fairly unprecedented for its time. These days comic book inspired movies are all the rage, some of which flaunt their source material with self-conscious visual flourishes (most notably ‘03’s deadening Ang Lee-directed HULK). In this film George Romero did just that, with garishly colored lighting that in true comic book fashion changes color at opportune moments and animated transitions that explicitly mimic the act of turning a page. The result is a film that, if nothing else, is mighty fun to look at.
The result is a film that, if nothing else, is mighty fun to look at.
The cast is game for the most part, performing in deliberately histrionic, larger-than-life fashion, although Adrienne Barbeau as the victim of “The Crate” overemotes, and Stephen King as the unfortunate Jordy Verrill proves he’s no actor—although his son, the future horror scribe Joe Hill, is quite memorable playing the evil kid of the opening and closing segments. Other cast members of note include Leslie Nielson in one of his last “serious” roles, proving he can ham it up with the best of them; Ed Harris in a small part in “Father’s Day”, following his breakout role in Romero’s KNIGHTRIDERS; and Ted Danson getting buried in the sand in “Something to Tide You Over”, a role Danson these days pretends never existed.
…the future horror scribe Joe Hill, is quite memorable playing the evil kid of the opening and closing segments.
Now for the bad stuff: the film, despite its visual flamboyance, is just not very compelling dramatically. None of the five segments stand out, and all are totally predictable. This was Romero’s first Hollywood production, which may explain all the attention he devoted to surface details, with very little paid to things like plot and character development. Plus the PG rating ensures that the film is never as nasty as it should be; the horror comics it emulated were considered shocking and taboo breaking in their day, whereas CREEPSHOW, despite the best efforts of its creators, wouldn’t shock a fly.
Vital Statistics
CREEPSHOW
Laurel/Warner Bros.
Director: George A. Romero
Producer: Richard P. Rubenstein
Screenplay: Stephen King
Cinematography: Michael Gornick
Editing: Pasquale Buba, Paul Hirsch, George A. Romero, Michael Spolan
Cast: Leslie Nielson, Fritz Weaver, Hal Holbrook, E.G. Marshall, Adrienne Barbeau, Stephen King, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Carrie Nye, Viveca Lindfors, Tom Savini, Christine Romero, Tom Atkins, Joe (Hill) King, John Amplas, Gaylen Ross, David Early