Creepshow/Review

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, George A. Romero, then the director of the cult hits Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn Of The Dead (1978), and writer Stephen King came together first when George Romero was assigned to the adaptation of King’s Salem’s Lot (1977). The Salem’s Lot film never happened and the project instead eventually emerged under Tobe Hooper as the mini-series Salem’s Lot (1979). But Romero and Stephen King formed a friendship and planned a film adaptation of King’s novel The Stand (1978). Romero and King could never crack the way of either reducing King’s mammoth 700 page work to film length or of getting the finance to mount the work as a two-part film. Evidently the idea of making the book as a tv mini-series – where its length is most suited – never occurred to them or was ruled out. The project was eventually abandoned, later to be revived by Mick Garris with a King script as the quite terrible eight-hour tv mini-series, The Stand (1994). In the interim however Romero and King came up with Creepshow as a dry-run for the Stand project.

The inspiration for Creepshow is quite obvious. It is a horror anthology split into 5 sections and it is presented in the old EC comics style, which Stephen and George were a huge fan of. In the Stephen King biopic/instructional book "On Writing" - he mentions how he got into trouble in school for reading such deviant and twisted EC comic books such as, Tales From The Crypt and The Haunt Of Fear. These comics were a huge inspiration for his style of the macabre which have captivated many of his readers. Now like most horror anthologies, this movie uses the bookend technique - meaning, the movie ends where it begins. A young boy, who is enjoying an EC comic is soon punished by his father and consequently throws all of his comics away, the boy in a fit of rage exacts his vengeance - but we don't know what it will be - just yet. And then the real fun begins.

Father's Day: Every father's day there is a family gathering at the Grantham mansion. This year is no exception. Hank Blaine (Ed Harris) has recently married into the family and he wonders why Aunt Bedelia Grantham (Viveca Lindfors) hasn't shown up yet. The rest of the family tell him the story about how Bedelia's father, Nathan Grantham, was such an evil and demanding man. He was so evil that he had Bedelia's fiancee secretly murdered and covered up so she could still take care of him. On one father's day, Nathan became so annoying in demanding his father's day cake that Bedelia murdered him by bashing him over the head with a marble ash tray. The murder was covered up. Every father's day since, Bedelia returns to the Grantham mansion and meditates at her father's grave site first before going into the house. But this year, Nathan is planning on coming back for his revenge... and his cake.

The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verrill: Jordy Verrill (Stephen King), a stereotypical redneck, discovers a meteorite which crash landed on his property. Jordy immediately thinks about selling it to a college so he can get rich. He pours cold water on it to cool it down but this causes it to crack in half. Jordy's dreams are smashed to bits, but then he thinks that he could perhaps glue it back together. He pours out the blue liquid from inside the meteorite and then he collects the two halves. He goes back into his house and then starts to realize that everything that got that blue liquid on it is slowly starting to grow vegetation, including himself. What can he do to stop the growth of these... weeds?

Something To Tide You Over: Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) is suddenly woken up one morning by someone knocking at his door. He discovers that it is Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen). Richard has recently discovered that Harry was having an affair with his wife, Becky (Gaylen Ross). Harry says that Becky just wants out of the marriage and that she doesn't even want alimony or any other divorce benefits. Richard admits that he didn't even love Becky, but he is intent on keeping what is rightfully his. He then lets on that Becky may be in danger in a hidden spot on the beach. Richard tricks Harry and burries him up to his head in sand. He shows him a TV monitor of Becky (also burried up to her head in sand) further down the beach and drowning from the incoming tide. Harry knows that the tide will soon come in and drown him too. Richard drives away laughing, but what he doesn't know is that he is the one who is in real danger.

The Crate: A janitor at a university discovers a 130 year old crate inside a crawl space underneath some stairs. He calls Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver) who immediately drives over to the university to investigate it. Stenciled on the crate is some information about an arctic expedition. The two open up the crate and are horrified to find a living monster inside, which quickly grabs the janitor and pulls him inside. In terror, Stanley finds a grad student upstairs and tells him what happened. The two go downstairs and find the crate right back in the crawl space, as if someone or something had moved it back. The grad student goes to get a close look but the monster gets him too. Stanley goes to the home of his friend Professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook). He tells him the story about the monster in the crate. Henry is very intrigued and thinks that he may have finally found a way to get rid of his alcoholic, emotionally abusive wife, Billy (Adrienne Barbeau).

They're Creeping Up On You: A cruel, rich businessman named Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) is killing cockroaches in his germ-free apartment. Pratt may be evil, but he has one weakness: bugs!!! Every now and then he notices another cockroach in his apartment, and they seem to be bigger every time. Are the roaches slowly taking over his apartment? Is this some kind of punishment for his evil ways?

Reviewed by Biohazard