Creepshow

For other uses, see Creepshow (disambiguation).

Creepshow
Original 1982 theatrical poster
Directed by	George A. Romero
Written by	Stephen King
Produced by	Salah M. Hassnein Richard P. Rubinstein
Starring	Hal Holbrook Adrienne Barbeau Leslie Nielsen Ted Danson E. G. Marshall Stephen King Joe King Viveca Lindfors Fritz Weaver Carrie Nye Ed Harris Jon Lormer Tom Atkins Don Keefer Robert Harper
Cinematography	Michael Gornick
Edited by	George A. Romero Pasquale Buba Paul Hirsch Michael Spolan
Music by	John Harrison
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (US) Laurel Entertainment (Original International) Republic Pictures (Current International Owners) Universal Studios (UK DVD)
Release dates	August 20, 1982 (limited) November 12, 1982
Running time	120 minutes (Original) 130 minutes (Workprint)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$8 million
Box office	$21,028,755

Creepshow is a 1982 American horror anthology film directed by George A. Romero (of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead fame), and written by Stephen King (Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Stand, The Shawshank Redemption).

The film's ensemble cast includes Ted Danson, Leslie Nielsen, Hal Holbrook, E.G. Marshall and Ed Harris.

It was considered a sleeper hit at the box office when released in November 1982, earning over $19.7 million domestically, and remains a popular film to this day among horror genre fans. The film was shot on location in Pittsburgh and the suburb areas. It consists of five short stories referred to as "Jolting Tales of Horror": "Father's Day", "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", "Something to Tide You Over", "The Crate" and "They're Creeping Up on You!". Two of these stories, "The Crate" and "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" (originally titled "Weeds"), were adapted from previously published Stephen King's short horror tales.

The segments are tied together with brief animated sequences. The film is bookended by scenes, featuring a young boy named Billy (played by Stephen King's own son, Joe King), who is punished by his father for reading horror comics. The film is an homage to the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear.

In later years, the international rights of the film would be acquired by Republic Pictures, which today is a subsidiary of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group, itself owned by Viacom. The film's UK DVD rights are owned by Universal Studios under license from Paramount/Republic.

Plot

Prologue

A young boy named Billy (Joe King) gets yelled at and slapped by his own father, Stan (Tom Atkins), for reading a horror comic titled Creepshow. His father tosses the comic in the garbage to teach Billy a lesson, but not before threatening to spank him should Billy ever get caught reading Creepshow comic books again. Later after he tosses the comic book away, Stan reminds his wife (Iva Jean Saraceni) that he had to be hard on Billy because he does not want their son to be reading such "crap". He closes out the discussion with the reason why God made fathers: to protect their children from harmful influences. As Billy sits upstairs hating his father, he hears a sound at the window, which turns out to be a ghostly apparition in the form of the Crypt-Keeper from the comic book, beckoning him to come closer; this segues into the opening titles.

"Father's Day"

(First story, written by King specifically for the film)

Nathan Grantham (Jon Lormer), the miserly old patriarch of a family whose fortune was made through bootlegging and fraud, is killed on Father's Day by his long-suffering spinster daughter Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors). Bedelia was already unstable as the result of a lifetime spent putting up with her father's incessant demands and emotional abuse, which culminated in his orchestrating the murder of her sweetheart. When she could no longer endure Nathan's screams for her to bring him his Father's Day cake, Bedelia picked up a heavy marble ashtray and smashed his skull with it.

The sequence begins seven years later, when the remainder of Nathan's descendants—including Nathan's granddaughter Sylvia (Carrie Nye), his great-grandchildren Richard (Warner Shook) and Cass (Elizabeth Regan), and Cass' husband Hank (Ed Harris)—get together for their annual dinner on the third Sunday in June.

Bedelia, who typically arrives later than the others, stops in the cemetery outside the family house to lay a flower at the grave site and drunkenly reminisce about how she murdered her insufferable, overbearing father. When she accidentally spills her whiskey bottle in front of the headstone, it seems to have a revivifying effect on the mortal remains interred below. All of a sudden, Nathan's putrefied, maggot-infested corpse (John Amplas) emerges from the burial plot in the form of a revenant who has come back to claim the Father's Day cake he never got. Before obtaining his long-desired pastry, the revenant avenges himself on Bedelia and the rest of his scheming, money-grubbing heirs—randomly killing them off one by one.

The final freeze-frame shows the undead Nathan in the kitchen triumphantly carrying a platter that is crowned with Sylvia's freshly severed head and covered with cake frosting. The corpse gurgles hoarsely at a terrified Richard and Cass, "It's Father's Day, and I got my cake! Happy Father's Day!"

"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill"

(Second story, originally titled "Weeds", adapted from a previously published short story written by King)

A dimwitted backwoods hick (Stephen King) thinks that a newly discovered meteorite will provide enough money from the local college to pay off his $200 bank loan. Instead, he finds himself being overcome by a rapidly spreading plant-like organism that begins growing on his body after he touches a glowing green substance within the meteorite. Jordy is eventually cautioned by the ghost of his father (Bingo O'Malley) not to take a bath. But when the itching from the growth on his skin becomes unbearable, Jordy succumbs to temptation and collapses into the bathwater. By the next morning, Jordy and his farm have been completely covered with dense layers of the hideous alien vegetation. In despair, he reaches for a shotgun and literally blows the top of his head off. A radio weather forecast announces that heavy rains are predicted and the audience is left with the dire expectation that this will accelerate the spread of the extraterrestrial plant growth to surrounding areas.

"Something to Tide You Over"

(Third story, written by King expressly for the film)

Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen), a wealthy psychopath whose spry, devil-may-care jocularity belies his cold-blooded vengefulness, stages a terrible fate for his unfaithful wife, Becky (Gaylen Ross), and her lover, Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson), by burying them up to their necks on the beach below the high tide line. He also sets up several closed-circuit TV cameras so he can watch them die from the comfort of his house. However, Richard is in for a surprise of his own when the two lovers he murdered return as a pair of waterlogged, seaweed-covered zombies intent on giving him a dose of his own deadly punishment.

"The Crate"

(Fourth story, adapted from a previously published short story)

A college professor, Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver), has received a wooden storage crate containing an extremely lethal creature resembling a Yeti, or Abominable Snowman. Stanley informs his friend and colleague at the university, the mild-mannered Professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook), of his recent acquisition. When the crate is inspected, the mysterious beast kills the caretaker Mike (Don Keefer) and Stanley's graduate student, Charlie Gereson (Robert Harper). Professor Stanley, now traumatized and hysterical, babbles to Northrup that the deadly monster must be disposed of somehow. Northrup eventually sees the creature as a way to rid himself of his perpetually drunk, obnoxious, and emotionally abusive wife, Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau), whom he often daydreams of killing. He contrives a scheme to lure her near the crate where the beast then mauls and eats her. Northrup later pushes the crate into a lake where it sinks to the bottom, and he returns to assure Professor Stanley that the creature is no more. However, it is subsequently revealed to the audience that the lake water has actually destroyed the wooden container and the crate monster is now free to cause further havoc when it reaches shore again. (The monster in the crate was nicknamed "Fluffy" by the film's director, George A. Romero.)

"They're Creeping Up on You!"

(Fifth and final story, written by King expressly for the film)

Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) is a cruel, ruthless businessman whose mysophobia has him living in a hermetically sealed apartment, but finds himself helpless when his flat becomes overrun by countless hordes of aggressive cockroaches—perhaps symbolizing the revenge of all the "little people" he has spent his life stepping on.

Epilogue

The following morning, two garbage collectors (Tom Savini and Marty Schiff) find the Creepshow comic book in the trash. They look at the ads in the book for X-ray specs and a Charles Atlas bodybuilding course. They also see an advertisment for a voodoo doll, but lament that the order form has already been redeemed. Inside the house, Stan complains of neck pain, which escalates as Billy repeatedly jabs the voodoo doll while his hated father screams in agony.

Filming locations

In keeping with Romero's tradition of filming in and around the Pittsburgh area, most of the film was shot in an empty all-girls school located outside Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The school was converted into a film studio, and the episodes "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", and "They're Creping Up on You", as well as the prologue and epilogue, were filmed in their entirety at the former school. Filming took place in Greensburg location throughout 1981.

Several additional locations were also used for filming:

• "The Crate" - Most of the interior and exterior shots for the university sequences were filmed at Carnegie-Mellon University (Romero is a Carnegie-Mellon University alumni), with Margaret Morrison Hall serving as Amberson Hall. The backyard party was filmed in Romero's own backyard at his former residence on Amberson Dr. in Shadyside, Pennsylvania.
• "Father's Day" - Was filmed on location at a mansion in the Pittsburgh suburb of Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.
• "Something to Tide You Over" - Was filmed on location at a beach-front residence in New Jersey.

Cockroaches

The large cockroaches featured in the episode "They're Creeping Up on You" were "Hissing Cockroaches" imported from Guatamala. Romero was unable to obtain an export permit for them, so they were imported on a temporary permit. This ment that each one had to be counted before and after each shot, and accurate records kept of the number of dead specimens. The cockroaches were stored in styrafoam egg cartons kept inside a large van that was filled with high levels of carbon dioxide to keep the cockroaches quiet.

Notes

The film boasts one or two ongoing gimmicks for attentive viewers. A popular example would be that the murder weapon from the first story, an ornate marble ashtray, appears in each of the subsequent stories.

Cast

Prologue

• Joe King as Billy
• Tom Atkins (uncredited) as Stan
• Iva Jean Saraceni as Billy's mother

Father's Day

• Jon Lormer as Nathan Grantham
• Viveca Lindfors as Bedelia
• Elizabeth Regan as Cass Blaine
• Warner Shook as Richard Grantham
• Ed Harris as Hank Blaine
• Carrie Nye as Sylvia Grantham
• Peter Messer as Yarbro
• John Amplas as Undead Nathan
• Nann Mogg as Mrs. Danvers

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

• Stephen King as Jordy Verrill
• Bingo O'Malley as Jordy's father
• John Colicos (uncredited) as Doctor

Something to Tide You Over

• Leslie Nielsen as Richard Vickers
• Gaylen Ross as Becky Vickers
• Ted Danson as Henry Wentworth

The Crate

• Hal Holbrook as Henry Northup
• Adrienne Barbeau as Wilma Northup
• Fritz Weaver as Dexter Stanley
• Don Keefer as Mike the Janitor
• Robert Harper as Charlie Gereson
• Chuck Aber as Richard Raymond
• Christine Forest as Tabitha Raymond
• Cletus Anderson as Host
• Katie Karlovitz as Maid
• Charles Van Eman as Bartender
• David Garrison (uncredited) as College party host
• Daryl Ferrucci (uncredited) as Fluffy

They're Creeping Up on You

• E. G. Marshall as Upson Pratt
• David Early as White
• Ann Muffly (uncredited) as Voice of Lenora Castonmeyer

Epilogue

• Joe King as Billy
• Tom Atkins (uncredited) as Stan
• Iva Jean Saraceni as Billy's mother
• Marty Schiff as Garbageman #1
• Tom Savini as Garbageman #2

Reaction

Creepshow was given a wide release on November 12, 1982. It started strongly with an $8 million box-office gross for its first five days. In its opening weekend, Creepshow grossed $5,870,889, ranking #1 in the box office, capsizing First Blood from the top spot.

Reviews

Creepshow received positive reviews from critics. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Romero and King have approached this movie with humor and affection, as well as with an appreciation of the macabre". In his review for the New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "The best things about Creepshow are its carefully simulated comic-book tackiness and the gusto with which some good actors assume silly positions. Horror film purists may object to the levity even though failed, as a lot of it is". Gary Arnold, in his review for the Washington Post, wrote, "What one confronts in Creepshow is five consistently stale, derivative horror vignettes of various lengths and defects". In his review for the Globe and Mail, Jay Scott wrote, "The Romero-King collaboration has softened both the horror and the cynicism, but not by enough to betray the sources - Creepshow is almost as funny and as horrible as the filmmakers would clearly love it to be". David Ansen, in his review for Newsweek, wrote, "For anyone over 12 there's not much pleasure to be had watching two masters of horror deliberately working beneath themselves. Creepshow is a faux naif horror film: too arch to be truly scary, too elemental to succeed as satire". In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "But the treatment manages to be both perfunctory and languid; the jolts can be predicted by any ten-year-old with a stop watch. Only the story in which Evil Plutocrat E.G. Marshall is eaten alive by cockroaches mixes giggles and grue in the right measure".

The film has become a cult horror classic.

Sequels and adaptations

Cover for the Creepshow comic book adaptation.

The film was adapted into an actual comic book of the same name soon after the film's release, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, an artist fittingly influenced by the 1950s E.C. Comics.

A sequel, Creepshow 2 was released in 1987, and was once again based on Stephen King short stories with a screenplay from Creepshow director George A. Romero. The film contained only three tales of horror, as opposed to the original's five stories.

The general concept and plot of the film was adapted for the song "Everything Went Black" by The Black Dahlia Murder. However, the segments "They're Creeping Up on You," and "Father's Day" were omitted from the video.

On November 10, 2009, it was announced that Taurus Entertainment had a 3-D remake planned.

Unofficial sequels

A further unofficial sequel, Creepshow III, featuring no involvement from Stephen King, George A. Romero, or anyone else involved in the production of the first two films, was released direct-to-video in 2007 (though it was finished in 2006) to mostly negative reviews. This film, in a fashion similar to the original Creepshow, features five short darkly comedic horror stories. The company behind the film was Taurus Entertainment, also responsible for the in-name-only Romero sequel, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, a follow-up to 1985's Day of the Dead.

Several screenshots from the film, demonstrating the way comic book imagery and effects were used extensively by director George A. Romero to recreate the feel of classic 1950's E.C. horror comics such as "Tales from the Crypt".

Creepshow make-up artist and Creepshow 2 actor, Tom Savini, has said that Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990) is the real Creepshow 3.

Television series

The moderate success of Creepshow sparked interest in a television series in the same mold. After a few changes, Laurel Productions renamed the television version Tales from the Darkside, which lasted four years (1984–88).

The series spawned a film adaptation very similar to Creepshow, entitled Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), directed by Creepshow composer John Harrison.

The TV series was followed by a virtually identical series named Monsters, which lasted another three years (1988–91).

Creepshow 4 & Creepshow: RAW

Warner Bros. is one of the companies currently involved in developing a "revival" or remake of the film, to be titled Creepshow 4.

Taurus Entertainment (rights holders of the original Creepshow) have licensed the rights to Jace Hall, of HDFILMS, a Burbank, California company, to produce Creepshow: RAW, a web series based upon the original film.

The pilot episode for Creepshow: RAW wrapped on July 30, 2008, and is currently in post-production. The pilot was directed by Wilmer Valderrama and features Michael Madsen. Still shots from the filming can be found at genre news site, Bloody-Disgusting.com.

UK 2-disc special edition

A Special Edition DVD release of Creepshow was announced in early March 2007 exclusively for the United Kingdom by Universal Studios Home Entertainment. It was released 22 October 2007. The discs feature a brand new widescreen transfer of the film sourced from the original master, a making-of documentary running 90 minutes (titled Just Desserts: The Making of Creepshow), behind-the-scenes footage, rare deleted scenes, galleries, a commentary track with director George A. Romero and make-up effects artist, Tom Savini, and more. Owner of Red Shirt Pictures, Michael Felsher is responsible for the special edition, the documentary and audio commentary in particular.

See also

• List of American films of 1982
• List of Stephen King films
• Creepshow 2
• Creepshow III
• Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, has been called "the real Creepshow 3".
• Tales from the Darkside, TV series inspired by Creepshow.

External links

• Creepshow at IMDb
• Creepshow at AllMovie
• Creepshow at Box Office Mojo
• Creepshow at Rotten Tomatoes