Creepshow features five creepy(?) short stories written by Stephen King, and directed by George A. Romero. There's also a story that ties these five shorts together and deals with a boy seeking revenge on his dad for him stopping the boy from reading the Creepshow comics. The film also pays homage to the E.C. horror comics of the 1950's, and the special effects are done by Tom Savini.
First out is a story called Father's Day which deals with a mean old man who treats his daughter like dirt. A few years back on Father's Day, the old man thought he deserved a Father's Day's cake, but instead his daughter, who was real sick of him, killed the old bastard. After that, for every year, the daughter goes back to visit her father's grave on the day that he died, but this year the old man rises from his grave to extract his revenge, and not only that, but to get his cake as well. This short tells a really simple tale about an old obnoxious and greedy man who comes back to life to get some cake. It's really short and it's over before you know it, but it still offers some entertainment value. Ed Harris gets a ten-ton statue dropped on him, but other than that, the killings ain't that cool. The old man who rises from the grave looks pretty nasty, but the film is still far from being the least bit creepy. I mean, you have a living corpse that keeps asking for cake, not flesh, but cake... It's not really funny either, but still serves as some brief entertainment.
The second story is called The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill and that has an over-the-top Stephen King playing a hillbilly named Jordy Verrill who one day discovers a meteor that falls from the sky. He touches the thing which makes him get blisters on his fingers, and things are about to get worse. Now, this man ain't the brighest fellow around, and to prove that, he sticks his burnt fingers in his mouth, and after that some green stuff that looks like moss slowly starts to grow all over him. At first he starts dreaming about wealth and fame for selling the meteor to some university, but he later breaks it by pouring water on it. Things doesn't work out too well and the lonesome death comes from having contact with the meteor. This story also felt really short but I guess it couldn't have been much longer either. The way over-the-top performance by Stephen King might be too much for some, but I actually enjoyed watching this piece.
 
Next one is called Something to Tide You Over and stars Leslie Nielsen as a scheming vengeful husband who buries his cheating wife and her boyfriend (Ted Danson) in the sand so that the high tide will eventually drown them both. Danson swear that he'll come back to get his revenge and he sure does, as a slimy kind of sea zombie. Personally I think that it's really hard to take Leslie Nielsen seriously, or that is watching him in a more serious role, it just doesn't work. You expect the man to do some funny stuff, but after a while when you realise it's not gonna happen, it all falls to pieces. The scene when Danson and his love comes back to life as what looks like zombies risen from the sea is quite cool, and the make-up sure is great. Only problem is that it felt like that scene kept going on forever and became a bore quite fast. Not scary nor funny, and actually quite boring.
The Crate is about a janitor who finds a hundred year old crate from an Arctic expedition under the stairwell at a University. He calls a professor and they both open it, only to find some kind of monster inside who devours the poor old janitor. The professor tells some student at the University what happened, and when the student goes to the crate to see what's going on, he's eaten as well. Then the professor heads over to his friends home to let him know about the situation. Now, his friend has this bossy and horrible wife that he hates being married to, so he tricks her into looking in the crate. This film was quite bloody, at least compared to the four other stories, but the monster wasn't very scary. Although, it drags the its victims into the box and skins them alive and you get to see blood dripping out and stuff like that. It worked on some levels, but was a bit too drawn out and not really that satisfying in the end.
Last but not least there's a story called They're Creeping up on You which deals with an old executive type named Upson Pratt who hates(!) bugs. What we get to see is this old man trying to deal with all the cockroaches in his apartment. Now, if you happen to have a problem with cockroaches in your place, then do not watch this film. With that being said, the film basically just deals with this nasty old man who keeps calling people to get his roach problem taken care of. In the meantime, he tries to kill as many as he can himself, but eventually, there are just too many of them. He tells people that they'll loose their jobs as well as he gets word of that he made a man kill himself, something that he's just laughing about when the dead man's wife calls him up. So you might say that the old geezer in the end got what he deserved.
To be completely honest, none of these five stories are really that great, but at least all of them has some little thing to offer. Even if they're not that good, they're still entertaining enough, and for the fact that you get five different stories in one film, you get some variation as well which is nice. This flick came out before they started doing the Tales from the Crypt series, and there's also a sequel to this one simply called Creepshow 2 which is quite good. When writing this, they're currently making a third Creepshow film.
By
Back to Horror Review Archive
|
ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1982
DIRECTOR: George A. Romero
WRITING CREDITS: Stephen King
GENRE: Horror, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Comedy
CAST: Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Stephen King
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 120 min
RATING: 6/10
Creepshow Website/IMDB Click here
Creepshow Trailer Click here
|
