Creepshow (1982) Review

Creepshow (1982) Review

Creepshow is an anthology of horror shorts—basically the film equivalent of a short story collection. It was written by Stephen King, directed by George Romero, and is a throwback to the pulp horror comics of their youth. This came out before the HBO series Tales from the Crypt, but after the Tales from the Crypt film from the 70’s. The effects were done by legendary horror makeup artist Tom Savini, and it has a lot of comic-style edits and aesthetics, like panelling around the frames, and each part fades in and fades out as a comic book illustration.

I’m not a big fan of anthology films, but Creepshow is definitely one of the best in the horror genre. It has its ups and downs, some segments are stronger than others, but overall, captures a very specific tone, striking a nice balance between campy, cheesy fun and straight-up freak-out horror. Every story has merit, and usually involves vile characters and some form of revenge or comeuppance. The only way to properly review this is to go through each segment individually.

It starts with a prologue scene, involving a kid (played by Stephen King’s son) who gets in trouble with his dad for reading a comic called Creepshow. He takes it away and throws it in the trash, but it’s okay, because a creepy skeleton ghost is outside the kid’s window! This is the thing that’s on the poster and DVD cover, its design very reminiscent of the Crypt Keeper. This intro sets the tone for the whole movie really nicely.

The first full segment is called Father’s Day. A family gets together for an annual dinner, and await the typically late Bedelia, who killed her father on Father’s Day many years ago. She stops at his grave and drunkenly talks about how she did it, denying him a Father’s Day cake that he seemed desperate for. The father comes alive as a rotting zombie corpse, kills Bedelia, and seeks out his long-awaited cake, at the expense of the remaining family.

This is a solid first story. It has an eerie atmosphere and the flashback to when Bedelia killed her father is over-the-top but fun. There’s a fair amount of exposition and build-up in the first half, but the ending is pretty shocking, and is a great lead-in to the next segment.

Part two is The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill, about a drunken farmer, played by Stephen King himself, who sees a meteor land on his farm, and thinks he can sell it for some fast cash. It breaks open, unleashing “Meteor shit!” and soon everything starts sprouting furry green alien plants, including his own body.

This segment is just goofy. King hams it up, making it impossible to take it seriously, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining. Seeing Jordy’s house become infested with plants is fun, and the story isn’t supposed to be taken too seriously anyway. That being said, I still think it’s the weakest part of the movie, but at least it’s short.

Next up is Something to Tide You Over. It stars Leslie Neilson as Richard, a wealthy, evil guy who wants to make his cheating wife Becky and her lover Harry pay. He takes Harry to a remote section of beach that he owns and, at gunpoint, makes Harry bury himself in a hole, then sets up a TV to show him he’s done the same to Becky further down the beach, and if they can hold their breath long enough, they might have a chance of escaping. But even after the tide comes in, they aren’t done with Richard.

This is my favourite segment. Seeing Leslie Neilson be such a conniving yet still darkly funny character shocked me the first time I saw it—I was used to his goofy shenanigans in The Naked Gun and Scary Moviesequels, so to see him be so cold and ruthless is really effective. It starts off suspenseful, and only becomes more so as it goes on, with an excellent build-up. The concept is simple and frightening, and the best part is, the villain here isn’t a monster or creature, he’s just a guy. The ending is the only supernatural part, but like the first segment, it’s a great ending, one that leaves you disturbed and laughing at the same time.

The Crate is the longest segment, and based on the short story of the same name by King. It’s about an old crate discovered under the stairs at a university, and a professor finds it contains a vicious monster. The professor warns his close friend/fellow colleague about it, and he uses the opportunity to try and off his nagging wife by luring her to the crate.

This one I find a little slow, and the creature effects are iffy, but the gore effects are minimal yet effective, and it’s unpredictable enough to remain interesting, despite the not-great-pacing. The acting, too, gets a bit exaggerated at times, mainly from the nagging wife, but this happens at least once in all of the segments. It’s not bad, but for me, falls in the shadow of the previous story.

The last segment is They’re Creeping Up on You, about a clean freak old man, who’s also a ruthless boss, with a bug problem. Cockroaches start appearing in his sterile apartment. At first it’s a few, then a few dozen, then more, and soon the apartment is fully infested.

This is my second favourite portion, mainly thanks to the ending, but also because of the effective build-up. The old man is despicable right from the start, and becomes even worse with every conversation he has on the phone. His untimely demise is gruesome but great. The story does share some similar elements with previous stories, but still feels original, being the only one without a monster (if you don’t count the cockroaches). 

Finally, in the epilogue, we see two garbage men pick up the comic book from the prologue out of the trash, who find a “Make your own Voodoo doll” ad has been cut out. It cuts to the father in the house, who complains about a sore neck, only to start choking to death. The son is upstairs in his room, with a voodoo doll, stabbing it with a needle. It took almost two hours to see the kid get revenge on his father, but it was worth it. Why the skeletal ghost was outside his window doesn’t get explained. You can’t ask for everything, I guess.

Creepshow definitely lives up to its title. It’s not serious horror, but it’s not really horror-comedy either, it’s just simply creepy. It creeps you out, but it’s fun. I find it a bit much to watch all in one sitting, preferring to watch the segments individually, but that’s just me. It works either way, as one full-length movie or individual episodes, like Tales from the Crypt.