Horror Flicks: Creepshow (1982)

By Jason Haskins

George Romero is the mastermind behind such classics as Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead. Stephen King is the crazy who brought us books such as It, The Stand, and The Shining. What do these boys have in common aside from being icons in the horror genre? They banded together in 1982 to bring us a Tales from the Crypt-inspired movie of short films under the guise of Creepshow.

The movie begins with a kid being caught by his abusive father reading a horror comic. He's punished by getting smacked and having the comic being thrown away--but his father hasn't won. Fuming at how mean his father is, he sits in his room--until he hears a knock at his window by a ghoul...Creepshow begins.

The first short vignette is called Father's Day which co-stars an ultra young Ed Harris. This story is about an old man getting murdered by his daughter. Years later his family meets at his fancy, rich house to celebrate Father's Day, in which he is buried on the property. One by one they meet their maker as he comes back to exact revenge on his money-hungry relatives.

This story is probably one of the weaker films in Creepshow, which is strange because it starts the whole affair. It's not bad by any means (though there are some really corny moments of disco), but it's not wholly original or very scary. It's just a run-of-the-mill horror story we might've seen in an old EC comic book.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill is where things get fun. Stephen King himself plays a hillbilly who discovers a meteor, which landed on his property. As he investigates hoping to get some money for it, some green stuff gets on his fingers, which spreads like wildfire as these plant-like organisms overtake his body and his residence.

I'd say this is the one I remember the most as a kid and I always enjoyed it. King's acting always comes under fire, but he's quite enjoyable in that fifties B-movie sort of way. The plot is fun and while it's not scary, it's reminiscent of the reasons why these horror comics worked. It's simple and entertaining...and quite zany by many standards--King's coke days/daze from the eighties?

Something to Tide you Over stars Leslie Nielson as a wealthy man who sets up his cheating wife (and her boyfriend on the side played by Ted Danson) up for a cold, watery grave because of their transgressions against him. However, love lives eternal and he hears rapping on his door at night from the two seaweed zombies out for revenge...

As much as I like the main idea, this is another one of the weaker stories in Creepshow. The plot is pretty predicable (of course), but the whole "tide" premise is really evil and awesome. The zombies were a bit ridiculous, but not in a good way and they reused the same vocal technique from Father's Day for their voices. The acting is good and I love Leslie Nielson so it's still fun...but far from the best one on here.

Probably one of the more famous ones on Creepshow is The Crate, which stars the ever-cool Adrienne Barbeau as an abusive wife who's been duped by her college professor husband to look into a crate he's found in order to get rid of her. You see...this crate has a man-eating creature inside of it and Henry must use it for his advantage...

This one's a lot of fun and definitely has some trippy moments that remind me of the horror cinema of the 1970s. Barbeau is usually a good girl in John Carpenter's movies so it was weird seeing her as a complete jerk! The Crate is the ultimate moral story and a fun one that King actually wrote years earlier for a magazine.

The reason why you are REALLY watching Creepshow is for They're Creeping Up On You. This is definitely the short that the entire movie is famous for and it's true that they saved the best for last. It's about an old hermit who lives in a tidy, clean apartment free of the outside world, full of everyone he hates. What happens when it becomes infested by huge cockroaches?

People fearful of bugs look elsewhere--this is one of the grossest things I've ever seen. I remember watching this with my brother when I was a little kid and it scared the living daylights out of me. To this day if I see a cockroach I think about this vignette. E.G. Marshall is great in his role as he reminds me of my grandpa (only my grandpa was a nice guy). Anyway, this is really the reason to watch Creepshow.

It should be no surprise that some of these stories are quite dated. Some of the acting is pretty bad, but it comes with the territory so it should be expected. I would say it wasn't as AWESOME as it was when I was a kid, but it's still really enjoyable. It's really up in the air whether I like this one better than the sequel, but one thing's for sure: Creepshow is a good time especially if you were raised on old horror comics or are a huge fan of George Romero and Stephen King.

© Jason Haskins, 2011

3.5 out of 5 Stars